NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3939, 7 May 1929, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

A woman in a Dunedin auction room recently bought 73 ounces of silver spoons, etc., by a hid of 3s 6d an ounce, thus incurring a debt of £l2 15s Gd, whereas she thought she purchased the lot for the price she was paying for one ounce. Tlie spoons were not taken delivery of by the) purchaser, but after being gently reminded of her obligation she gave instructions to the auctioneers to re-sell them on her account, which was done, with the result that they found a -new owner at 2s lid an ounce. The first purchaser thus lost £2 2s 7d, plus commission on the sale, ns the result of not paying attention to the auctioneer when selling the articles. That 72 per cent, of the petrol imported into New Zealand v/as used in the North Island and only 28 per cent, in the South Island was a statement which caused, surprise at a meeting of the executive of the South Island Motor Union. It was stated by members that the reasons were probably that the North Island had many more milking machines, -and that the large number of motor-boats, particularly on the Wlaitemata Harbour, also had a bearing on the consumption. The executive, which had received the record of percentages from the Main Highways Board, decided to ask the board -to state the taxable value of the petrol used in each island.

A genuine antique in motor-cars attracted quite a crowd of people in Courtenay Place, Wellington, last week. It was a [bonnetless highhung two-seater Bevin steam car, with lever steering gear, chain drive, with a double brake on the back axle, the product of E. Hampton, ILS.A., and registered (on a brass plate) “February 9th, 1897.” The boiler of the Bevin, heated by a kerosene jet was situated beneath the back seat, whilst the steam exhaust was a double horizontal chimney affair, which was disposed flatly on the exhaust chamber, immediately at the rear of the 'back seat. The car is said to have been one of the first of its kind imported into New Zealand — by Whom the present owner could not say. The sun’s effect on the health of workers is to be tested in novel fashion at large' new commercial offices, which have been built alongside the main entrance at Fort 'Dunlop, near Birmingham. All the windows on the first floor have been glazed with vita-glass to admit the sun’s ultra- violet rays, which are cut off by ordinary glass. lOareful records are to be kept of the health of the workers on this boor and compared with similar statistics taken of the workers on the other three floors. A similar experiment carried out in Lancashire showed that there was much less absenteeism amongst those employed in a shop reached by the health-giving rays than amongst other groups woiiking behind ordinary windows in the saline factory. Should the sun workers at Fort Dunlop show any such gains, eveiry window in the great new building is to bo glazed to admit the ultra-violet rays. -

“The Japanese Government and the Japanese universities can teach our own Few Zealand Government and university many lessons,” declared Professor Condliffe at Wellington. “The Japanese people knoiw that the life of a people lies in its leaders, and the Japanese people are prepared to pay for training their leaders to the highest point of efficiency. They are prepared to pay, not only for primary education, as we are, but, as ; \ve in Few Zealand are not prepared to pay, for the highest reaches of .university specialisation. Instead of a university half starved like our university here, the Japanese people put ample equipment into university education, with the result that after two or three decades only their universities are producing scientists who can stand alongside

’any in the world. A Japanese scientist died recently searching in South America for the germ of yellow fever. In my department, in pure physics and chemistry, and particularly in metallurgy, they are abreast with the rest of the world, and when a nation is prepared to do that kind of thing it is a nation to be reckoned with.”