NEWS OF THE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26617, 13 November 1947, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

Fortunate Escape Solicitude for his cigar nearly cost a motorist his life yesterday afternoon. As-Jte was rounding a turn leading on to a down grade a few miles north Of Palmerston his cigar fell out of his mouth and as he bent forward to recapture it he lost control of the car. The vehicle careered off the right-hand side of the road, coming to rest against some tree stumps with the front mudguard shorn away. The motorist escaped without serious injury—and was still in possession of his cigar. Dockside Record No time is lost in unloading meat from New Zealand when it arrives at British ports. The Liverpool Echo of September 13 tells of dockers at Liverpool claiming a record for the discharge of meat and general cargo from the Shaw Savill vessel Pakeha during one day. In one hatch a gang of eight, working from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., unloaded 214 tons of lamb from New Zealand. This works out at just under 21] tons an hour. Judge’s Correction

Counsel defending a man in the Supreme Court in Auckland on Tuesday on a charge of receiving stolen material had occasion to refer to a bedspread that came into the case. “It was the sort of thing,” he suggested, “that you put on the bed in the day-time and throw away at night.” “ I don’t think you have got that quite right,” said Mr Justice Callan. “It is the sort of thing your wife puts on the bed in the morning ana you throw it away at night.”

Onekaka Iron Ore The Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast League of Local Bodies has decided to suggest to the Government that British experts who are shortly to inspect Australian iron ore deposits be brought to New Zealand to report on the possibility of re-esablishing and Onekaka iron works. Mr E. R. Neale. M.P., said he understood that consideration was being given by the Government to the possibility of working the Taranaki ironsands in conjunction with the Onekaka deposits. The field at Onekaka was not as extensive as at first thought, but even now it was believed that there were 15.000.000 tons of ore in the area.

Importation of British Goods “ Why not let the importers bring in any British goods which are available to them? ” asked the president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Mr Gordon Stewart, when the lack of information about the class of goods Britain wished to export to New Zealand was being discussed at a recent meeting. Britain was limited in the volume of goods she could export to New Zealand, but if the Government here removed control merchants would have a chance of getting what was available, said Mr Stewart. Wj’ bureaucratic control working at both ends, it did not seem possible to get any correct information. Recreative Leisure o

“So many people leave school with their desire for information numbed,” said Miss S. A. Roscoe, tutor of the Adult Education Department, Canterbury College, in an address given to the Christchurch United Youth Council. This may be the fault of a too narrow scheme of education and an out-of-date method of attack. Whatever the cause we cannot be excused from accepting too easily a type of entertainment and a use of leisure time that is unworthy of a democratic state. We ask for more leisure and should have it since the machine can deal with the drudgery of work, but we will not be any happier or wiser unless we learn to enjoy our leisure in a recreative way.” Dollar Crisis

“It is pleasing to be able to state that in the opinion of the Bulletin Committee, the sterling dollar crisis, though serious, is in some respects less so than it appeared at first,” said Mr A Henderson at a meeting of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, “ The shortage is in dollars and in dollars alone. In transactions with other currencies the sterling position is probably stronger than it was a year ago, and it is hoped that time will provide a cure which will be found simply because it must be. Should our export to the United States improve, say by a heavier demand for our wool, our position should be considerably improved, and the gap, slight as it is at the moment, might be filled.’’ Air Travel from Dunedin In reply to a query from the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce regarding the number of seats available to passengers from Dunedin on the northbound planes, the National Airways Corporation has advised that approximately 70 per cent, of the seats in the aircraft are controlled by the Dunedin office. For the DunedinChristchurch service 15 seats are available, of which 13 are controlled by Dunedin, and for the DunedinWellington run Dunedin controls 20 of the 30 seats available. In addition, Dunedin holds an allotment of seven seats from Wellington to Auckland each day, besides having allotments in Wellington and Auckland for the purposes of return reservations. Poor Response to Appeal Public apathy was evident in the response to meetings called by the Mayor of Port Chalmers, Mr H. S. Watson, last night for the purpose of discussing aid for Britain and war memorial proposals. Only five people, including three representatives of the R.S.A., attended. The Mayor stated that he had received a donation of £5 towards the Aid for Britain appeal, and he had certain suggestions concerning the shipment of fat which he would place before the public in the near future. The war memorial question was also discussed, and it was decided to recommend that the incoming Mayor convene a meeting in approximately six months. Disease More Aggressive A “most serious” change in the character of pulmonary tuberculosis in England in the last 12 months is noted by Dr Morriston Davies, one of the leading authorities on tuberculosis, both on the medical and surgical side, in a letter to Dr I. C. Macintyre, medical superintendent of the tuberculosis institutions in Christchurch. Dr Davies says that pulmonary tuberculosis has become a much more aggressive disease, unfortunately more resistant and unresponsible to treatment, and, therefore, much more alarming and discouraging to treat. Dr Davies adds that the disease is also much more acute in older people. This, he thinks, is due to lack of proteins and fats and the general fatigue of the nation. Sanctuary for Weka The weka, one of the Dominion’s fast disappearing native birds, has found almost its last sanctuary in the Gisborne and East Coast district. A large population of wekas in the district was recently discovered by officers of the wild life division of the Internal Affairs Department, which has aroused considerable interest among naturalists in view of earlier reports that the weka was almost extinct in the North Island mainland. Mr A. I. Harper, assistant under-secretary of the department, pointing out that the district is the last remaining area in which wekas are plentiful, appealed to property owners to overlook any slight damage they did, and adopt methods of control other than illegal killing of the birds. /