Snow on Ranges.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 128, 30 April 1940, Page 6

Snow on Ranges.

A fairly heavy fall of snow occurred on the Tararua Range at the week-end, reports tlie “Evening Standard’s” Otaki correspondent. British Car Registrations. Motor-vehicles registered throughout Britain last month were 14,590, compared with 56 821 for March last year, states a London cablegram. Cars fell from 39.264 to 6611. Prehistory Antlers. The giant antlers of an extinct Irish elk of prehistoric times have been presented to the Dominion Museum by Mr G. J. W. Cooper, Wellington. The antlers, with the skull to which they arc attached, were found in a bog in Ireland. Poppy Day Funds. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Palmerston North branch oi tlie Returned Soldiers’ Association, tlie president (Mr B. J. Jacobs) said that the expenses for the administration ot the Poppy Day funds in Palmerston North in the past year had been £1 13s 4d. Not one penny has been spent on salaries for the administration. Assistance For Soldiers. A suggestion that the organisation already in existence for the financial assistance of men who served in the forces during the Great War should bo used if similar assistance is required by soldiers of the present day has been niade by the executive committee of the War Relief Association of Wellington. It was indicated that it was not intended that the National Patriotic Fund Board should interfere with the administration of funds subscribed for men of the Great War. Motor Mechanics in Air Force. The petrol restrictions have had one good effect from the point of view of the Air Force, said SquadronLeader A. G. Gerrand in an address to the Palmerston North Rotary Club yesterday. Many mechanics in the motor trade, because of the effect ot the restrictions on their business, turned their attention elsewhere and a very large number thought that the Air Force would give them scope for their trade. Thus a large number ot mechanics had been enlisted with goqd basic experience. In Daily Fear. The state of tension existing in Holland and the fear of invasion are illustrated in a letter from a. Dutch acquaintance received recently by Mr R. E. Cliamptaloup, of Auckland. Writing from a district in Holland close to the frontier, the Dutch correspondent says: “For you the European war is far away, hut nobody knows wliat is going to happen soon. At the time you" will find a German stamp on my next letter you will _ know we too will be part of Germany.' We want to be neutral and to stick to that. If you don’t hear from me any more just write to the International Red Ross at Geneva. Switzerland, to inform you if I am still alive or not.”

Loans For Orchardists. Hawke’s Bay orchardists who suffered loss of fruit in a hailstorm earlier in the season are to receive assistance by way of a loan as a result of representations made to the Government. Ruapehu Erupts. Mount Ruapehu erupted last week for the first time since May, 1930. No noises were noted during the night, but the following morning dark grey streaks were seen on the glacier and also on Para-te-tai-tonga. Dangerous Practice. The practice of men employed on public works taking home explosives not used was commented on in the Magistrate’s Court at Wanganui, when a fine of £1 was imposed on a workman for keeping explosives in an unregistered place. It was stated that 2IJ- plugs ol gelignite and seven detonators had been left in a house for two years. New Air Force Station. , The establishment of a new station of the Royal New Zealand Air Force at the new Harewood aerodrome, Christchurch, for the training of pilots, has been announced by the Minister of Defence (Hon. F. Jones). Approval has been given to the appointment of Air-Marshal Sir Robert Clark-Hall to the command of the Harewood station. “New" Returned Soldiers. At the annual meeting of the Palmerston North branch of the R.S.A. a decision was made to change the constitution to allow of the membership of men who return after having been on active service in the present war. The president (Mr B. J. Jacobs) said he had no doubt that at the annual conference of the New Zealand association, to he held this week, a similar change would be made. Migration of Godwits. “Only tile weak godwits now remain in New Zealand," said the president of the Wanganui Acclimatisation Society (Mr IT. J. Duigan) yesterday. The main llights from Spirits flay in the north on the great annual migration to Siberia were now over. Vear alter year tiie birds commenced these great flights about the second week in April and within two or three weeks an enormous number liad left these shores.

Cost of Flying. It sometimes cost from £2O to £3O an hour to operate some types of aeroplanes, said Squadron-Leader A. G. Gerrand in an address to the Palmerston North Rotary Club yesterday. Consequently, ho said, the value ot carrying out as much training work on the ground as possible would bo appreciated. Modern apparatus enabled this to bo done by realistically reproducing the conditions that would be experienced in the air.

Support For War Effort. An appeal for everyone to assist the Government as much as possible in its war effort made by the president (Mr E. H. Smith) at the annual meeting of the Takaro Progressive Association last evening. The association was prepared to do all it could and would bo represented on the Palmerston North Recruiting Committee, while the women residents of Takaro would have charge of the patriotic gift shop for a few days.

Supreme Court Sitting. Only one criminal case has been set down, to date, for the sitting of the Supreme Court at Palmerston North, commencing next Monday. The session is expected to last a 'fortnight. There are three civil cases requiring the attention of the Judge and a jury of 12, four to l>c heard before the Judge alone. One divorce case is to be heard before the Judge and a jury of 12, and one before the Judge alone, while there arc 13 undefended petitions for divorce. i

Pacifists and Politics. This war would never have occurred had not Britain been led at one stage by pacifist politicians; lie would not say statesmen, because statesmen had vision, said Cr Green, at a l’etoiie Borough Council meeting in larewelling the Mayor (Mr G. London), who is going into camp. As an old soldier lie regretted that the sons of those who fought before—the cream of the country—were going forth to fight, not where the men of the Great War had left off, but where they had started. In Search of Kiwis. An American tourist who arrived at Auckland this week startled a wharf official bv asking where he could buy a kiwi. “I’<l give fifty dollars for one of those birds,” he added enthusiastically. The official firmly but kindly told him that there was nothing doing, that he himself had never seen a kiwi; in fact, that only about of 1 per cent, of New Zealanders had seen their national emblem in the flesh. The American obviously. thought that his leg was being pulled, and, although he was told that lie had more chance of taking a Great- Auk back to the United States, he departed cheerfully to buy a kiwi. Comedy of Cats. After the men on coastal defence duties at Auckland had made their appeal for cats to keep down the mice in their quarters almost every Army officer with his name in the telephone hook received offers of kittens. One old lady, it is stated, said that she had a cat which she really treasured, but which, because she had been unable to assist in the country’s war effort, .she would like to give the Army, provided that it continued to be called by the name to which it was accustomed. In the meantime the Navy, which suffered a surfeit of kittens as a result of the appeal, is solving the problem hv distributing them among the homes of sailors and officers. Rainbow Over Maoris. ]n connection with the paragraph which appeared in the “Evening Standard” yesterday referring to, the rambow which appeared over the Maori Battalion at the Showgrounds on Sunday, a reader sends the following clipping taken from a newspaper some years ago: “One of the most brilliant rainbows seen in the Taupiri and AVaahi districts appeared in the sky the other day after the funeral of the Maori Queen To Marae of the House of Maliuta. The double ring of purple, pink, yellow and green developed with remarkable suddenness, and seemed to stretch well over the area from the Boyal Ra at AVaahi, across the sacred Mountain of Taupiri, where the body of tlie relict of King Maliuta had been buried an hour previously alongside the resting-place of Te AA’awhaio and other great rangatiras. The Maori people have a firm belief that either heicre or just after outstanding events, such as the death of some imposing personality, this phenomenon is a natural expression of the gods. It betokens either tribute, wrath, or even a reminder to people of the importance of change. In the case of Queen Maras the sign was taken to he favourable and not in any degree a mere coincidence. The strangest point about the development of the rainbow at this almost psychological juncture in the grief of the Natives is the fact that the pa flag, which had flown at halfmast since Sunday week, was blue with a group of stars symbolising the Southern Cross, an oval containing a representation of the Tainui canoe and a striking central feature consisting of a rainbow. ‘lt. shows that our beloved Queen has joined her great ancestors who came to New Zealand by the Tainui canoe,’ said a prominent chief, as lie beheld the illuminating portent.”