Cattle Breeders’ Gift.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 162, 8 June 1940, Page 6

Cattle Breeders’ Gift.

A recommendation that the Council of the New Zealand Jersey Cattle Breeders’ Association should donate £SOO to the New Zealand lied Cioss Society was unanimously carried • at the annual meeting of the association in Hamilton. Berlin Broadcast. A Berlin broadcast in English, picked up in New Zealand on Tuesday night, contained the statement that Britain was facing starvation. The announcer added that food supplies were being rushed away from New Zealand, where waterside workers loading them were being paid at the rate of seven shillings and fourpence an hour. Coastal Defence. “Though not on naval service it is not inappropriate to mention the coast watching stations, more than 60, later reduced to under 40, which were established at the beginning of the war, states Commodore W. E. Parry m a

report tabled in the. House of Representatives. “They are manned by ieturned soldiers, men of tlie lighthouse service and harbour board employees. Postal Officers’ Merger. After acting independently for 10 years, tlie New. Zealand Post and le*egrapli' Employees’ Association and the Post -and Telegraph Officers’ .Guild have amalgamated to form the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Employees’ Association and Officers Guild. The merger took place on June 1, the fiftieth anniversary of the Employees’ Association. Million Pounds a Day. That the turnover of the Post and Telegraph Department, which amounts to £286,000,000 a year, represented

I about £1,000,000 a working day was mentioned by the Divisional Director (Mr C. O. Coad) at a social gathering of the department last evening. When expressed in this manner, he said,, the amount of the department’s business could be realised very vividly. A Mean Theft. . . A particularly mean type theft was committed. at a home in Featherston Street one evening this week, when a pupil of the Girls’ High School had her bicycle stolen. She had reached home a short time previously, leaving tlie machine close to the back door, but at dusk it was quickly and quietly appropriated by the sneak thief who apparently was watching an opportunity to take it without detection. Greater Service Urged.

The Post umee was no longer cue Cinderella of'the State services, said Mr O. C. Coad, Divisional Director, when speaking at a gathering of the Manawatu . section of the Post and Telegraph Employees Association and Officers’ Guild. As a return for the improvements been brought about in the conditions of officers, he urged them to give an even better return of ■'service in every way possible, and in every branch. Post Office Promotions. That there had been 5000 promotions in the Post and Telegraph Department, excluding regradings, sihee 1935, was mentioned by the Divisional Direetor (Mr C. O. 'Coad) in replying to the toast of the department at the centennial dinner of the Manawatu section of the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Association and Officers’ Guild : The Promotions Board did its utmost to fill each vacant position with tlie man best fitted to the job, he said, and if any officer missed a promotion lie would know that it was just not possible fob - him to “make the grade.”

A Hindu’s Gift; A few days ago a Hindu fruiterer of "Wellington called on the Allen Street markets, saying he wished to help the war fund for sick, wounded, and distressed soldiers and sailors. He offered a quantity of fruit to sell on behalf of the fund. It realised £lO 12s 6d. Substitute Fails. Twine used for baling hay as a substitute for wire, which is unprocurable, is not proving a success. Now that hay baled last summer is coming into general use in Hawke’s Bay and in the Wairarapa, where it has been railed, it is stated that the substitute is not successful,, particularly where ■rats have been busy. Example of Patriotism. The following letter from a Palmerston North City-Council employee is an example, amongst many others coming under the notice of the Red Cross Committee, of practical self-denial: —“I wish to donate my day’s pay on June 3, 1940, for the benefit of the Sick and AVounded Fund, which I think is the least one can do on behalf of , the boys who are defending the country for us.” . > Plain Alternative.

“The enemies of this country ’ are trying to break things,” said Mr Abernethv, ,S.M., in the -Magistrate’s Court, at Invercargill, when convicting a youth who escaped from the Invercargill Borstal Institution. “Those things are what your father, your father’s father, and his father, worked for for centuries so that you and I might live' quietly, peacefully and well. We have got to be either builders or breakers.” Naval Precautions.

Commodore AV. E. Parry reveals in liis report of naval operations that since the war began 23 merchant ships have been defensively equipped at the dockyard at Auckland. Additional highangle armament has been fitted in 10 merchant ships which have been defensively equipped av ports outside New Zealand. Depth charges and chutes have been supplied to seven merchant ships. Huge Wine Cask. A huge wine cask seen in Germany was described to members of the Citizens’ Lunch Club, yesterday, by Mrs M. Will, of Rongotea, when 6he was relating some’ experiences of a party of Associated Country Women of the AA’orld in a visit to Europe last year. The cask held 25;000 gallons, she said, and was so large that all the 55 members of the touring party were able to dance on top of it. Housing Requirements. The magnitude ”of the housing problem in New Zealand was strikingly demonstrated by Mr C. Firth, of the State Housing Department, Wellington, in an address to the Manawatu branch of the Royal Society. At present 18,000 houses were required to he erected, 37,000 to be repaired, and 11,000 to be demolished. Last year 8000 houses were built—the minimum requirement was 6500 a year. Post Office Overtime. * > The sum of £112,000 annually was now being spent in overtime by the Post Office, said the Divisional Director (Mr C. O. Goad) when speaking at the centennial dinner, last evening, of the Manawatu section of the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Association and Officers’ Guild. He said that the Direc-

tor-General (Mr J. -G. Young) considered that this sum was too much and would like to see it reduced by the work being done in ordinary hours. Time by Cannon Fire. ,r In mentioning advances made by the. Post and Telegraph Department in New Zealand, the'Mayor (Mr A. E. Hansford) who proposed the toast of the department at a gathering of the Manawatu branch of the Post and Telegraph Employees Association and Officers’ Guild, said that in AA T ellington in 1870 midday was denoted by the firing of a cannon from Mount AGctoria. at a cost of 6s 8d a time. Now New Zealanders could turn on their wireless sets and hear the clocks chiming the hour Messines Anniversary.

The twenty-third anniversary of the Battle of Messiiies fell yesterday. Preparations for the battle could riot be kept from the enemy and tlve only surprise that could be obtained was by the actual day and the l hour. The Germans thought the attack would be made in celebration of King George V’s birthday on June 3, but zero hour was fixed for 3 a.m. on June 7. The New Zealand Division, storming the village of Messines caught the German regiments In the middle of a relief. As, a set battle, Messines was the most complete arranged up to that date in the war. "The Coming of the King.” Older parishioners of All Saints’ will remember the period when Rev. H. G. Blackburne, M.A., was vicar of Palmerston North, and .it will be a source of interest to them to learn that Mr .Blackburne has recently published an excellent book of verse. “The Coming of the King” is an anthology of unusual merit,, containing a wealth of poetic fragments in addition to those dealing particularly with the Sacraments and the Churclrs seasons, which receive treatment in becoming manner. The. warmth and earnestness of many of the author’s efforts are quite apparent. In a fine poem on the Dominion he recalls mentories of. friends he “made in Maori whares, and on farms of'sturdy settlers in the bush,” owning a link that shall alway be maintained. Not a few of the verses could with profit be sung as hymns, and others strike equally., devout chords. Mr Blackburne is now vicar of Sandgate and lie forwards with his good wishes this excellent little book, which he has dedicated to his wife. “Lines on the baptism of Margaret Runnicles” is the sub-head-i.ng given to the poem, "Holy tism.” ■.