THE OPOTIKI NEWS Monday, June 12, 1939. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 193, 12 June 1939, Page 2

THE OPOTIKI NEWS Monday, June 12, 1939. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Shipping. The m.s. Otiniai will load at Auckland to-mcjTow and is expected to arrive at- Opotiki on Thursday. Temperatures. North Island temperatures at 9^a. in. on Al’ondlay were: Auckland and Opotiki 55 degrees, Tauranga 53, East Cape and Gisborne 51, Napier 52, and "Wellington 49. Catholic social. ' A Catholic social will be held in the Lyric Hall on Wednesday next, June 14. A good time is promised and the music is being supplied by AlcDougall’s Hot Scots. Measles Epidemic. An epidemic of measles has broken cut again iu the Opotiki district, but so far the number affected is not serious. As was the case last year, those who have had the disease previously are contracting it again. Schoel-rcDm Shortage. As a result of the acute lack of accommodation at the Opotiki DistrictHigh School, ~ pupils are now beingaccommodated in two 'buildings apart from the school-grounds. The Sundayschool room at the* Methodist Church has been in use for some time and today scholars were accommodated in the Masonic Hall. Heavy Rein. A heavy rain .set in shortly before midnight on Friday and over one inch of rain was recorded for the 12 hours ending at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning. Main has now been recorded on six consecutive days, the total being 2.58' inches. The total rainfall for the whole .of the previous month was only 2.6 l inches. School Milk Supply.. Owing to a shortage of milk there was a temporary suspension in the supply to the Opotiki School but after only about a week the supply was resumed. Opotiki has been more fortunate that some ether districts, where the supply to schools has had to he suspended for a fairly lengthy period. Truck Over Bank. A truck containing a load of furniture, failed to take a bend in the Waimana Gorge on Saturday evening, while travelling towards Opotiki, and plunged into the Waimana river. Difficulty was experienced in getting the occupants of the truck out of the water, one man’s coat having to be cut before he could be released. The driver received] a broken shoulder and was conveyed to the Whakatane hospital. Furniture and cutlery were thrown into the water and the damage was considerable. Planting seeds by the Moon. The effect of the moon on newlyplanted seeds was referred to by Mr. J‘. A. McPherson, , director of the vhristchurch Botanic Gardens, in an address to the Summer Beautifying Association. “Lt is nolb all moonshine tO' plant seeds according to the phases of the moon,” he said. From experiments conducted in the city it appeared that seeds sown just before ■ full meon gave 33 1-3 per cent, better strike. A German, scientist- had been experimenting for 10 years on these lines with marvellous results. Dumbed th2 Policeman. An amusing .story of a very good farmer who supplied milk to Gisborne in the early ‘seventies but who “got on the spree” every now and then was told to members of the Gisborne Rotary Club at their weekly luncheon on Monday by Mr. \Y. D. Lysnar, who gave a talk on “Early Gisborne.” The milk,man was in cue of his hilarious bouts outside the Masonic Hotel in Lowe stieet when a constable told him to* go home. The- milkman refused to be frightened off, and eventually was arrested. The boisterous one agreed to go to- the lock-up, but- no ‘further. Accordingly he- went along, but outside the police- quarters he stopped, and said: “I have come to tho lock-up, but I am going no further.” Without ceremony, he picked up the policeman and carried him bedily back to Lowe Street, dumping him down on the ground tef the amusement of the bystanders'. So far as Air. Lysnar knew, the milkman was never taken to the lock-up.

World’s Best Rifle Shots, AATio are the best rifle shots in the world ? Last- year in the world wide team international match, out of 250 entries, Russians occupied the first six places. In Russia the bull’s eye is smaller than a halfpenny. Almostevery citizen, man and woman, belongs tc. one- of the' many rifle clubs. Moscow Club -lias many thousands of members. Woman at the ’Phone. Speaking to a, meeting of Pohangina telephone subscribers on the necessity for courtesy and brevity, on party lines, an officer of the Rost and Telegraph Department said that-, in general, women were the worst offenders. In one district a public meeting had been called to discuss this aspect and a resolution “That women be asked to retrain from using the telephone between tho hours of 7 and 9 ;..in.,“ was carried. Accuracy in Bombing. Accurate- bombing could not be guaranteed from any height because of the human element said AY mg Commander G. S. Hodgson, officer commanding- the AVigram Air Training School, speaking to members of the Christchurch branch of the New. Zealand Returned! Sodiers’ Association. lt had been found, though, that bombing from 16,000 to 20,000 feet was sufficiently accurate to cause extensive damage, although there could he no. certainty at suck ' a height of 1 lifting a particular object. He added, in reply to a question about the efficiency of the balloon, barrage in London, that he understood the balloons rose to a height of about 20,000 ft. Colour Line in Java. The manner in which the Dutch maintain the colour line between themselves and the Jnyanese was remarked on by Dr. AY. R. B. Oliver, in an add'ress to the Wellington biancli of the League of Nations Union. The Javanese were not allowed to speak to the Dutch in Dutch, he said. Javanese waiters received ordrs through a system in which the uiner wrote down numbers indicating the dishes he desired. In a country the size of the South Island of New Zealand, 50,000,000 lived. The farmers used the most primitive methods, and he undlerstoocl it was the policy to maintain that state, so that the Javanese would all have someliing to do. At Sourabaya. ho had seen a Javanese workman, held to blame for a quarrel on the wharf, punished there and then, by being punched and kicked by a Dutchman, and the Javanese did non protest.