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Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 180, 1 July 1937, Page 8

An offer to give £IOOO to the fund for building an assembly hall at the Christchurch Boys’ High School has been received by the school authorities from Mr J. It. McKenzie, of Christchurch.

Six hundred men are employed on public works in the Itotorua district, the majority being engaged on highway construction and maintenance. One of the' biggest jobs is the widening of the Rotorua-Waikaremoana highway. When proposing the toast of the Awaliuri School .at the diamond jubilee celebrations yesterday, Mr M. H. Oram said the school was unique in so far as four generations of the Hughes family had attended it. The fourth generation was still at the school and he thought that such a record would be exceedingly hard to better. Many owners of parrots in Christchurch have been concerned in the last fortnight at the death of their pets. In the last 10 days six specimens of the one species—Blue Mountain lorikeets -have been sent to the Canterbury Museum with a dual request—that they might be mounted for exhibition and that an investigation be made into the cause of their death. Hawks in the Rotorua district have in recent years greatly increased in number, and their depredations among native and game birds are very apparent. At the instance of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. W. E. Parry, instructions were given to the officers of the department ranging the Rotorua acclimatisation district to declare war on hawks last month, 63 of the birds were shot.

Bogus articles revealed by X-rays were mentioned by Sir Carrick Robertson, president of the Auckland Institute and . Museum, following an address under the auspices of the institute. He said that while visiting Egypt he unwillingly purchased what was claimed to be the hand of one of Egypt’s queens, taken from a mummycase. On board a liner on which lie was travelling later, however, was an inquisitive radiologist, who subjected the specimen to an X-ray examination, and showed it to be nothing more than a mouse, carefully prepared to trap the unwary..

The provision of swimming baths of an inexpensive standard design in schools and the inclusion of swimming as a compulsory subject in primary schools training are recommended to the Minister ol Internal Affairs (Hon. W. E. Parry) in a report of the conference of delegates of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association, the New Zealand branch of the Royal Life-Saving Society, and the New Zealand Surf Life-Saving Association, held recently in Christchurch. The report suggests also that the Education Department should take over the printing and control of the issue of swimming awards. For some reason, motorists dislike to hear the sound of a traffic inspector’s siren behind them, but there is one motorist (says the Southland News) who will remember with thanks the -trident note calling upon him to stop. This motorist was proceeding along the linnt-lnvercargill highway when the .Lain Highways Board inspector sounded his siren, and the motorist, perhaps with visions of trouble in store, obediently stopped his car. The inspector politely told him that his car was on fire, and, indeed, clouds of sinoke issuing from the under-part of the car immediately confirmed his story. The inspector, however, efficiently produced a fire-fighting appliance and extinguished the outbreak, when it was discovered that the motorist had left Ills handbrake on. With the fire out and the band-brake off. he was subsequently able to proceed on his journey after expressing his thanks to the inspector.

In honour of the diamond jubilee of the Awahuri School, which was celebrated yesterday, the children were given a holiday to-day. William Streeter, the fifteen-year-old son of Mr It.’"'Streeter, of Glengarry, near Dannevirke, lost the top of the second finger of ,'liis left hand when a shotgun which his father had been using exploded in his hand yesterday afternoon.

The rapid growth of air mails in New Zealand was referred to by the Postmaster-General (Hon. F. Jones) yesterday, in Wellington. Last year, said Mr Jones, the aeroplanes carried about 10,0U0 letters a week; to-uay they were carrying about 28,000. “It is growing, but it is not enough yet, said Mr Jones. That this conference views with grave concern the in'ereasing heavy cost of government due to tlie recent additions to the Civil Service and due to the appointment of numerous boards or committees with a paid personnel,” is the text of an Otago remit to bo submitted to the annual conference of the Partners’ Union this month.

In view of the fact that the Awahuri School is to be closed shortly and the pupils transported to Foilding under comsolidation measure, the children at the school were each presented with a gift at the diamond jubilee celebrations yesterday, the action being very much appreciated, not only by the children themselves but also by the residents of .the district.

A pupil of the Hamilton Technical High School, C. It. W. Taylor, aged 16, of Frankton, received advice tne other day that he had been successful in the Royal Air Force Apprenticeship examination for which he recently sat. He has now left by the Port Pine .for England, and on arrival will enter the Royal Air Force training school at Hniton. He is the fifth pupil of the Hamilton Technical High School to enter the Itoyal Air Force.

An Otago remit to be- discussed at the annual conference of the Farmers’ Union asks “that the Government be urged to take every possible step to debar ships of a foreign country from carrying passengers or goods between British ports so long as British 6hips are debarred from trading between the ports of such foreign country.”

Labour costs to-day were double what they were three or four years ago, said a sheep farmer when giving evidence in the Hunter estate case in the supreme Court, Wellington, yesterday. “It would be correct to say that costs have increased by at least a third?” asked counsel. “You can call it a third if you like,” witness replied, “but when ycu want the men to work they want a bit more than a third. That is our experience in the Manawatu.” Sentiments of friendship toward Britain are expressed in a letter received by a Dunedin resident from a prominent business man in Japan. “May I take advantage of this great occasion in English history to offer you my heartiest congratulations on the Coronation of Their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth,” ue wrote at the time of the Coronation. “We in Japan appreciate specially the auspicious significance which Their Majesties’ Coronation has to British people throughout the Empire, and, indeed; throughout the world.”

General taxation will be discussed by the annual conference of the Farmers’ Union this month arising out of two remits. One from Otago urges that all taxes on capital such as land tax be abolished and that, except direct taxes on gifts and deceased estates, all direct taxation be in the form of income tax. The combined conference at Dannevirke has a remit stating that, as almost all taxation is borne by the primary industi’es, the prospect of any addition to the already too heavy burden of taxation is viewed with great disapproval by primary producers. When the opening section of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Awahuri School took place at the school building yesterday there were 75 cars on the sides of the main highway outside the school grounds. With numbers of people moving about the roadway, and though traffic passing in both directions, the presence of the Main Highways Board traffic inspector (Mr J. W. Coddington) was very much appreciated by all parties. At a later stage, at the Awahuri Hall, his directions for the parking of the cars, the number then being augmented, assisted all concerned to a considerable extent.

Nursing as a profession for girls is not so popular as it was, reports a southern exchange. For the first time in some years the Christchurch Hospital is now finding that the number of applicants for positions as trainee nurses is falling far below expectations'. During the last few years the number of applicants for positions as trainees has been so large that the North Canterbury Hospital Board, which controls the hospital, has had to maintain a waiting list. The list has been so long that new applicants have found that they have had up to two years to wait for admission. Now conditions are different. It is considered that the changed times, with better opportunities for employment offering in other directions, are largely responsible. “I have seen Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany, and Communism in Russia, and it appears to me that the New Zealand Government is working more along Fascist lines,” said Mr D. Garsden Fowler, a representative of an English firm who is travelling in New Zealand, to a Christchurch reporter on Monday. He said that people applied the terms Socialist and Communist to the Government, but it appeared to him that it had rather the characteristics of Fascism. “For one thing, the Government is intensely loyal, as no Communist Government could be,” he said. “It is thoroughly nationalistic in its policy, and wishes to exploit all private enterprise for the State. I challenge any member of the Government to tell me what is the difference between Fascism and the Labour Party—except that there is no dictator; New Zealanders would no stand for that.”