NEWS OF THE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24407, 19 September 1940, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

A SCHOOL of dolphins was seen off the St.' Clair Beach just before mid-day yesterday, though whether it was , the school which visited Otago Harbour at the week-end cannot be stated with any definiteness. After disporting themselves close to the beach for some time the dolphins set off southwards at great speed. Fishermen say that it is seldom the dolphin is seen as far north as Dunedin. The animals are plentiful round Stewart Island, where they are usually called cowfish.

National Patriotic Fund Board •» The National Patriotic Fund Board announces that the donations received to September 16, in response to the appeal of the Governor-General (Viscount Galway), totalled £157,477 14s. At the previous date of acknowledgment, September 2, the total stood at £156,293 9s sd. Fire in Mail Box

Shortly before 10 p.m. on Tuesday one of the mail boxes at the Te Aro Post Office, Wellington, was found to be alight and a quantity of mail was destroyed before the flames were smothered. The police and fire officials are inquiring into the cause of the fire. Greater Use of Rimu

Import difficulties and much higher landed costs have severely restricted the use of Japanese oak, which formerly was extensively used in the production of furniture in Auckland. Since the war the price of Japanese oak has doubled. Rimu has largely taken, the place of oak, and, with artistic staining, has gained new distinction. The trend of design is towards simplicity, possibly due partly to rising costs. The furniture trade is described as exceptionally busy, the usual falling off in the winter months not having been noticed this year. A Brilliant Meteor

Yet another meteor—a particularly bright one—is reported as having flashed across the New Zealand sky. The latest of these celestial visitors, and they have been exceptionally numerous lately, appeared on Friday evening, and it seems to have been seen at its best in Napier and the surrounding district, where it was observed to disintegrate with sounds of an explosion after brilliantly illuminating the sky. The phenomenon is also reported to have been seen from The Chateau, Paraparaurnu and other places, all observers being agreed as to its exceptional brilliance.

“ That Sort of Claptrap ” “ Now there's been a lot of talk, especially just after the war began, about a ‘ capitalistic war ’ and all that sort of claptrap, but as far as I am concerned, and as far as all right-think-ing people are concerned, everyone realises the meaning of unity now," said the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr R. M. Macfarlane, M.P.), at a social gathering at the Canterbury Bowling Club’s pavilion. “As for the present situation, we know the magnitude of what confronts us, but, in spite of that magnitude, we all realise we must stand together here in just the same way as (he people of London are standing together at this moment.”

Dog-poisoner at Work Periodically an epidemic of dogpoisoning breaks out in the city and only last week it was reported that several animals in South Dunedin had fallen victims of the criminal actions of some callous person. Whether or not two poisoners are at work or whether one person operates widely, is not known, but while a number of dogs and cats have been poisoned this week in the St. Clair district no fewer than 11 dogs have died from eating poisoned meat in the suburb of Roslyn during the last few days. Some of them were valuable animals. A dogpoisoner is a difficult person to detect and residents on the hill have formed the opinion that in this case he is using a car or motor cycle and throwing poisoned food over fences as he passes.

Foreign Americans “On the railway station at Chicago I sat at dinner next to a woman with the most work-hardened hands, rough, blackened and with worn and broken nails,” said Miss K. Turner in an address to the New Zealand Education Fellowship, Christchurch. “ She spoke with a foreign accent, but I forbore to ask her what country she came from—a question one never asks in the States. Soon she told me that she was born in Georgia, Russia, and that she had come to America in 1911. She and her sister had bought a little land, and on it they had worked ever since. She was an ardent American, seeming to believe, as so many of her fellow foreigners do, that her adopted country is the best on earth, and that all the good things that have ever been done have been done by Roosevelt.” Transient Ministers

A reproach by the Mayor, Mr A. H. Allen, about the apparent reluctance of Ministers of the Crown to spend much time in Dunedin was neatly answered by the Minister of Education, Mr H. G. R. Mason, at the opening of the Macandrew Intermediate School last night. Mr Allen said the usual practice of Ministers, on the rare occasions when they did visit Dunedin, was to arrive at night and leave again first thing in the morning, but it had to be admitted that Mr Mason was making an unusually long stay on the present occasion as he had arrived at 4 p.m. yesterday and was staying until about noon to-day. On the previous occasions when he had passed through Dunedin, Mr Mason replied, he had come as Minister of Justice, in which capacity he was mainly concerned with court houses and prisons. As Dunedin was fairly well set up for court houses and there did not seem to be any particular demand for a prison there was really not much need for him to pay prolonged visits.

Ngauruhoe Active Activity at Ngauruhoe last week is reported by an Auckland resident who returned at the week-end from a visit to The Chateau. He said' signs of an eruption had been noticed by several people who visited the mountain on Friday morning. A smoke cloud was hanging over the crater late on Thursday night and it was still visible, although considerably smaller, on the following morning. He and several members of the Hutt Valley and Tararua Tramping Clubs decided to make a trip to the mountain. They made their climb from The Chateau side and during the ascent they noticed the snow was blackened with dust particles and the air was laden with dust. On the north-west side there was very little snow, but there were distinct traces of black mud. The ground was steaming in this locality. The party proceeded to the ridge between the two craters and found clouds of steam being ejected at intervals of about 20 minutes. Apart from this and subterranean rumbling, the only other signs of recent activity were the deposits of black mud. Most of that had been carried to the northern side of the mountain by the prevailing southerly wind. .Children from Glasgow

Five children from Scotland—two boys and three girls—accompanied by their mother, arrived at Gore at the week-end to live in the south for the duration of the war. The children are nephews and nieces of Mr and Mrs A. R. Mackay, Ardwick street, Gore, and are at present living with them. The children, whose ages range from eight to thirteen years, had their first experience of education in New Zealand when they attended school on Tuesday. The two youngest attended the Gore Public School, and the other three started at the Gore High School. Although their new surroundings are still a little strange to the children, they have treated the experience as a big holiday. Three or four times they experienced air raids in their native city, Glasgow, but the war does not appear to have any terrors for them, and they have taken it all more or less as a matter of course. While in London before embarking for New Zealand the children also experienced air raids. The children’s mother, Mrs Donald Mackay, in an interview at Gore, said that the voyage to New Zealand had been a wonderful experience for them, and they had enjoyed every minute of it. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred during the voyage,

Railways in War-time Reference to the splendid work being done by the railwaymen in Britain during wartime was made by Mr J. Sawers, assistant general manager of railways, at the annual reunion of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Railway Officers’ Institute. “Noble work'.was done by the British railway systems during the evacuation from Dunkirk,” Mr Sawers said. It was not yet possible lo tell the whole story, but departmental officers, in New Zealand had information which evoked the warmest admiration and sympathy for their kinspeople at Home. The importance of railways in wartime was revealed in the persistent bombing attacks by the Royal Air Force on the German railway junction at Hamm. It was equipped lo handle over 6000 waggons a shift with automatic gear. Railwaymen would readily appreciate that it did not require a great deal of interference to put such gear out of commission. The part being played by the Dominion railways in New Zealand's war effort was also emphasised by Mr Sawers. Some 2000 railwaymen had joined the various services, and this threw an additional call on those remaining. The management was confident that the men would respond to every call and in return was endeavouring to give the staff a fair deal.