LOCAL AND GENERAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 17 January 1931, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

There has been a decided drop in the temperatures over the last few days Last night was cold and to-day there has been a fresh south-westerly wind. A fairly heavy fall of snow on the No Catch ’em range at Lake Rotoiti was reported yesterday and two frosts have lieen experienced this week in the Tophouse area.

The Mayor (Mr W. J. Moffatt) has received the following telegram from the Unemployment Board: “No further subsidies on. basis £2 for £1 under No. I scheme be considered by Board, if desiring operate under No. II scheme £1 for £1 labour only. Please state particulars proposed works.’’ In spite of machinery and science there are still some trades that are practised to-day as they were centuries ago (remarks the Christchurch “Times”). Along Tuam Street passersby can see one of them. From a dark workshop comes a regular “tap, tap,” and if you look through the door you will see the cooper making barrels in exactly the same way as the long dead coopers made the casks in which Captain Cook carried some of his provisions when lie discovered New Zealand in the eighteenth century. It is true that many containers that were formerly made of wood are to-day made of steel or some other metal, but for tallow nothing has been discovered to better the white pine. The art in coopering is in fashioning the many staves so that they make perfect joins when the hoops are hammered on, and shaping the heads and bottoms with the same exactness. Butchers, bakers, icecream makers, and one or two other trades still use barrels or tubs, and churns are another article that give the cooper employment, but the tallow cask is to-day his mainstay. As he goes round the cask with hammer and driver lie reminds us that he is one of the few workmen left whose job is from first to last entirely a hand-craft.

“Keas are the most comical of . our birds,” said Mr Johannes Andersen, introducing a story told of them bv Mr Arthur Harper, during his lecture before the Teachers’ Summer School at Christchurch. A party of keas was sitting up at the Hermitage watching the unwrapping of a crate containing a turkey. When the majestic turkey stalked out, determined to show the country fellows how they v did it in town, they began to cry “Ile-ha” derisively. The turkey gobbled back at them; but so persistent were their cries that soon he could gobble no more. The keas came back day after day to tease him, until he became thoroughly submissive and accustomed to their jokes.

The following is the Nelson pass-list for the written examination held on Bth November, 1930, by the Associated Boa i'd of tho Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, London :—Licentiate examinations, musical ornaments and harmony: Thora M. Lewin (Mrs Hopkins). Local Centre examinations. Rudiments of Music : Elsie M. Allan (School of Music). Coralie Atkins (Miss M. M. Brown), Dorothy E. Ollson (The Convent), Nancy Radford (School of Music), Mary Ward (The Convent). School examinations. Grammar of Music (Division III): Gwynneth A. Gough (Miss Flatt). Additional practical results, Intermediate grade, pass: Elsie M. Allan (School of Music), (violin), Coralie Atkins (Miss M. M Brown), (piano).

.Miss P. Maunsell is suffering facial injuries as the result of an accident in Vanguard street on Thursday evening. Miss Maunsell was riding her horse and was thrown over the bonnet of a passing car driven by Mr G, Scarlett. People have become accustomed to reports of lovv r prices for sheep, but most pessimists will receive with surprise the report that 2200 back country halfbred culls from the southern part of the Waimate County have changed hands at £55, or the equivalent of 6d a head (states the Christchurch “Press”).

The new buildings erected for Wellington College are now completed, and, except for the formation of approaches and the placing of desks in the rooms, are ready for occupation. The rooms, which allow a maximum of sunlight, are large and fresh. Workshops are being laid out. The old wooden building partially obscures the new school, but when it is removed the whole college will be very imposing. The demolition has already begun. Wings have been added on each side of the Memorial Hall, and give balance to the wholo structure. The grounds of the college have been altered somewhat, the lower sports area' being lengthened and the drive to the school widened. The college is fortunate in having some of the best football grounds in Wellington (remarks “The Post”), and when the alterations to the college are finished there will be four of these grounds. It is hoped that when the pupils return in February everything will be in order, and the rooms in the new building will be brought into use.

Mr Hugh Wells haS been admitted to the Public Hospital suffering from a rifle bullet wound in the breast. He was found on tho side of the hill in Brook street Jate on Thursday night. The hospital reports satisfactory progress to-day. In a letter received recently by Mr D. Jones, M.P., from a correspondent in England, a humorous description of Mr Forbes and Sir Thomas Sidey, is quoted. “Mr Forbes looks as -if wool was a shilling a pound,” runs the quotation, “and Sir Thomas looks as if it was a penny a pound” !

“In America I saw just how they find it so easy to supply so many fruit boxes to us promptly on order, and how they do it at the price,” said Mr H. E. Napier, manager of the New Zeaand Fruitgrowers’ Federation, when addressing a meeting of growers at Loburn this week. “I visited one big mill near Seattle, and'there were 50,000,000 feet of lumber ready for cutting. With the machinery they had at the mill, and the lumber available, they could cut our order for 1,000,000 cases in from ten days to a fortnight. I would confidently send that mill a rush order for the whole of the requirements of the Dominion, especially as the concern has four other mills in the territory.”

From Melbourne to Okarito, Mr R. T. Stewart told a meeting in the Chamber of Commerce halt this week, is the shortest distance across the Tasman by aeroplane, and it was quite possible that it would be the route chosen by aviators in the future. ; Just half a mile north of the township is an abandoned racecourse in the centre of a level piece of country three-quarters of a mile wide and four miles long, which would make an excellent landing place. Mr Guv Menzies, the Tasman flyer, when lie was oft' Okarito could not see this area because it is overgrown with gorse, nine or'ten feet high. Okarito is especially favourably situated as a landing place for aeroplanes, in Mr Stewart’s opinion, because of the landmarks visible from a distance, a notable one being Mount Cook.

According to official figures, the value of the estates of which probate and letters of administration were granted in New South Wales in the year 1930, was more than £20,000,000 for more than 7,000 grants. In 1929 5,530 applications granted represented estates valued at £20,089,382.

Although just over £1,000,000 was spent on buildings in the Auckland metropolitan area last year, the total was less than half that recorded in 1929, when the value of the permits issued by the City Council alone was over £1,500,000.

A year ago it seemed to be probable that ’ New South Wales would rival Keno as a place where the divorce mills work almost' ceaselessly (writes a Sydney correspondent). “The rot has been stopped," said one associated with ,divorce suits. “It is perhaps a good thing for the community.” lie added, “but what about the lawyers? Lawyers must live, you know.” It is undeniable that there is a falling off in the number of people who are consulting lawyers and supplying details of divorce suits. Legal men, like those in other professions, are suffering from the prevailing conditions. Doctors are particularly poorly off. People either have no time to be ill or no money to pay for treatment. The carry-over of divorce suits from last year was nearly 500, but fewer than 200 remain to be heard this year. The employment of three judges to deal with divorce cases, and the fact that the registrar in that jurisdiction was required to deal with some actions, accounts to some extent for the improvement. Quicker methods resulting from experience were also a factor, but the conspicuous fact is that fewer petitions are being filed. It may be that people are improving morally. Cynics suggest that a shortage of money is the more likely explanation.

The Supreme Court at Wellington has granted to the Public Trustee probate of the wills of Richard Algernon George Filleul. late of Collingwood, sheepfarmer; William Whybourne Cowin, late of Thorpe, farmer, and John Albert Lomas (commonly known as John Lomas), late of Rockville, carpenter; and has constituted him administrator of the estates of Elsie Margaret Frost, late of Wakefield, spinster, and Mary Ann Garrett, late of Nelson, widow.

Beautiful clear complexion, bright eyes, rosy cheeks are not made by artifice or make-up. Women have discovered real beauty result from "internal cleanliness.” The all-important regularity of the bowels is naturally promoted by taking Dr. Don’s Granules—small, safe ,and active. 1/6 box. —R. W. Martin, Chemist. Ask for Free Samples.* Alluring perfume of thousands of dewdrenched Forget-me-nots-—the new Petite Fleur Bleue Perfume produced by Godot of Paris. Get a bottle to-day from W. McKay and Sons, Ltd.* Lubrolax is Nature’s remedy for Chronic Constipation. It is made from Japanese Seaweed and Pure Paraffin Oil; is a lubricant, not a purgative.—Noes, Chemist, Hardy street.*

Surprise was expressed by a Wellington visitor to Rotorua at the Christmas season that, with the exception of a small paragraph indicating that no damage was done, no reference was made in the Dominion Press to twenty-two slight shocks which occurred between 4 and 8 a.m., a day or two before Christmas, and which caused some alarm in Rotorua. The shocks were accompanied by a noise as of barrels being rolled round a cellar. As none of the hanging lamps moved, it appeared as though the shocks were vertical. The shocks were sufficient to cause people to go out of their houses, and many people did not re-enter thenhouses for some hours. Inquiry at the Government Meteorological Office showed that no notification of these shocks had been received save the newspaper paragraph mentioned. Individual repercussions of earth tremors vary, but “The Post’s” informant’s alarm was obviously shared by others. An inquiry at the Tourist Department elicited that no report of the shocks had reached it.

One of the drawbacks to travelling down the West Coast of the South Island to see the incomparable scenery is that one has to return on one’s tracks, and go over the same ground again (says the Christchurch “Times”). But determined efforts are being made to continue the road from the Fox Glacier and over the Haast Pass to link up with the roads on the east side of the dividing range. When that is done the South Island will have one of the finest round trips in the world. The traveller would then visit the Mount Cook district, do the cold Lakes, Milford, and other gems of that part, cross the Haast, see the Fox, the Franz Josef, and make that fascinating drive through miles of forest, go through the Buller, and so make the circuit of the South Island wonders without having to waste time by going twice over the same track. When the Haast Pass Road is made the South Island will have no need to complain that tourists are advised to spend most of their time in the north, because it is most convenient —the South Island will have a round trip that will attract people from all over the world.

“Mummy” wheat is a variety ol wheat much grown in Egypt, explained Dr. F. W.. Hilgendorf to a party of teachers, who visited the Wheat Research Institute’s breeding station at Lincoln this week. The Egyptian fellah often profited by the tourist’s ingenuousness by selling him wheat of this type, purporting to have been taken from the tomb of an Egyptian mummy. There was laughter when he informed his hearers that the natives’ profitable custom had been the cause of one tourist seriously advancing the theory that there had been no improvement in wheat-growing in 3000 years.

The brightness once characteristic of life in Vienna has departed and to those who knew the city in its carefree days it is but a shadow of its former self. Dr. E. Robertson, of Auckland, who has been on an extended tour abroad, returned by the Port Dunedin this week and one of the impressions he brought back was the sad conditions of the once gay city of Vienna (states the “Herald”). Although Vienna had faded as a social and musical centre, Dr. Robertson found that the people of South Germany and Austria were working hard and appeared to be far happier than the inhabitants of other parts of Europe. They took life much easier, for instance, than the British people. Dr. Robertson said many years ago he knew Vienna very, well and was able to note the vast change that had taken place. Vienna, for one thing, had a socialistic municipality, which had embarked on the erection of tremendous blocks of flats for the accommodation of workers. These flats were let at absurdly low rentals, with: the result that the venture was losing heavily, and to make up the losses property owners were being taxed to such an extent that salaried and retired citizens were on the verge of poverty, many being compelled to live in back rooms. While conditions in England were fat from reassuring, Dr. Robertson thought the people were better dressed and the children better clothed than they were 30 years ago. One unfortunate development he notod in the provinces was the tendency of old families to sell their lands. The new owners took little or no interest in the people of the villages and towns, and there was a feeling of apprehension as to the future of countless families of rural workers who had depended on the landed families.

“There are three things which are worrying the farmers—interest, county rates, and the storekeeper’s bill,” said Mr F. Waite, M.P., at a meeting of dairy factory delegates which was held in Dunedin this week under the auspices of the Otago Provincial Council of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union (reports the “Star”). Mr Waite added that most of the farmers had made long-dis-tance commitments which involved interest, and they had made honourable agreements with their mortgagees. Sorno were still able and willing to pay interest ; others could not do so. As far as he could see there was no short cut. It would not meet the situation if, say, a ( 20 per cent, cut were made. He felt, that it was a matter for each farmer to discuss with his mortgagee. Every effort should be made to get down county rates. The country storekeepers were havinn- a bad time. Some storekeepers had accounts owing by farmers as high as £3O0 —£100 was not uncommon—but lie knew that some were in a position that they could not keep going for very much longer unless their customers paid their bills. They heard a lot aboutpeople walking oft their farms —the difficulty was to know where to walk to!

The new connexional offices of the Methodist Church, in Epworth Chambers, at the corner of Hereford and Manchester streets in Christchurch, were opened this week in the presence of a large attendance by the Rev. A. N. Scotter, president of the Conference (states “The Press”). There are 42 additional rooms in the two storeys that have been added to the building, and the Methodist connexional offices consist of four rooms on the top floor, together with a very commodious board room. One room is to be used by visiting ministers for writing and interviewing purposes. Mr Scotter said that the occasion was one of the perquisitics of the presidential year. In all parts of the world there was a deep loyalty to the Church. There wore 12,309,000 Church members which represented a vast army throughout the world, borne people were apt to criticise the principle of the Church owning properly and making profits thereby, but, in his opinion, lie said, the move was a wise one. All the ministers present were shareholders and it was considered wisdoin to invest their money in the building. There were two great centres of Methodism in New Zealand —Christchurch and Auckland and in both the spirit of loyalty was very deep. Referring to the work of the office, Mr Pratt said that the output in mails was 1000 letters per month. The supernumerary fund stood at £IBO.000, and war, a grave responsibility. The fire insurance department had grown tremendously and a record was established last year when the business exceeded £102,000. The total insurance on churches and church buildings held in the office was £663.000. The office was the nervo centre for the whole of the Methodists in the Dominion. Torpid Liver? Take Dr. Don’s Granules.—Hodgson’s Stores, Wakefield, Motupiko and Murchison.*