NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2795, 9 October 1924, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

Between 8000 aiid 10,000 ships, of which nearly 0000 are British it is estimated, are lying on the ocean lied. These ships account for about .1,553,780 gross tons, and their estimated value is £220,806,780 —at pre-war shipbuilding rates. With their cargoes, the ships below Ihe sea are worth a fabulous amount. Experts pul the figures at £ 1,204,302.880, roughly. in making the tiny gramophone in the Queen’s Dolls’ House at Wembley, 70 people were engaged—several draughtsmen, a cabinet-maker, a stainer. a polisher, a cabinet-fit - for. eight tool makers, a metal polisher, a gold-plating expert, their various assistants, two record experts. an orchestra, and a number of vocalists. The gramophone stands 4in. high, atul the records are 15-1 Oin.

“If is only a matter of time when the Continentals will learn the rudiments of sportsmanship." remarked .MV. Steadman, one of tin- Australian Olympic team, at a smoke contort after the swimming carnival a' Wellington, in the course of remarks on some ot the ineidjenl* uf the Olympic (fames "Britain taught them to take part in sports, and now we have to teach them the spirit in which those sports should he carried out.”

The carelessness of some business people in New Plymouth was si,own in the annual report of the night watchman presented to n

meeting of the Employers’ Federation. A summary of his report lor il.c year gave the following particulars: Doors left open, 38; lights 101 l oil, 3d; keys found. 10; fires discovered, 10; articles left outside 7; showcases left open, 7; window s found broken, 2. These t mures show an improvement over those of last year.

‘■Eighty per cent, of the houses being "erected in Wellington a t present never see an architect. this was the declaration of a well-known Wellington architect when the subject of house-building was broached. •'Wes,” he went on, “'some people have’declared that 05 per cent, of the houses now going up are designed locally, but I say SO per eenr. as a conservative estimate. People get Californian bungalow plans which are suitable to our conditions, and they leave the whole thing to the buiider, which in the long run costs them more than an architect’s fee.” “Bungalows!” he said. “Nowadays anything is a bungalow. A casement window, a roughcast chimney, or a huge roughcast, concrete block on the veranda, constitute a bungalow. A two-storeyed house is also ‘a desirable bungalow residence.’ The reason of the trouble is, of course, that the State Advances Office gives money to workers to build homes on flic Government valuation of the place. This does not allow for an architect's fee of fii per cent, if everythin#? is included and the bungalow books do the rest.” A correspondent at Auckland sends the following to the Taranaki Herald: “On Monday last a voung clerk in the employ of a city firm secured leave of absence from hi> employers to go to New Plymouth to attend the wedding of. his sister. Next day one of the partners received the following wire: ‘Wedding postponed Friday; can 1 stay; The employer reflected that the post ponment of weddings was somewhat unusual, and especially a postponement to Friday, an “unlucky day; also being a keen footballer, he remembered that on Saturday Mount Albert Grammar and New Plymouth High Schools were to play off for the Moasear C’up. Therefore, he wired his clerk tins reply: ‘You may stay: hope Grammar wins.’ One can imagine the feelings of the youngster when tie went to the telegraph office and thus acknowledged his attempted deception. ‘Sorry tried to bluff you; i/alise you are too much of a sport to lie fooled. Thanks for permission; will barrack hard for Grammar.”