NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 62, 4 November 1931, Page 2

NEAR AND FAR

Unemployment Decrease. v , The opening of sawmills in the Mamaku district has had an immediate effect upon the unemployment position in that township, and will result in corresponding relief so far as Rotorua is concerned. Before the mills reopened approximately £20 of the Rotorua relief allocation each weeb was paid out in Mamaku, but with the increased work offering there are now only two men on the unemployment list in the sawmill _ township. This is a decrease of over' 30 in the figures previously listed there. Destitute Man's Meal. * William Ewar Rasblidge, a 21-year-old painter from Pontypridd, was charged at Marylebone Police Court with incurring a debt of lOd at a teashop in Edgeware Road without having the means to meet it. It was stated that in his search for work he had walked from Yeovil to London, and that while on his way North he collapsed at Watford from exhausttion and had to be taken to hospital. "I think it is a case of genuine distress," said the missionary (Mr. Bdswell). Rasblidge was diseharged. Sacred Bell Returned. The people of Japan, thrcugh Mr. S. Yoshisaka, their representative at the International Labour Ofiice, recently expressed their deep gratitude to Geneva, for the return of a sacred Japanese bell which, decades ago, found its way to the property which is now Ariana Park (says the Christian Science Monitor). The hell was sent back to Japan when the Gehevese authorities, which had come into possession of the park, learned how dear it was to the devout Japanese. The return of the bell, said Mr, Yoshisaka, which the faithful in Shinagawa be* lieved to be lost for ever, aroused a deep religious emotion in the entire company. In demonstration of gratitude the Mayor of Shinagawa sent to Geneva a ceremonial kimono of thanks, as well as a film showing the reception ceremonies when the bell was received in solemn state in Yokohama and was transported to Tokio. Timing Land Speed Records. • The apparatus f or: timing the, attempts on the world's land speed record at the Ninety-mile Beach in December is the first set entirely of British make. It was made In London for the Auckland Automobile Association, and is valued at £500. Just how sensitive* is this apparatus is shown by the fact that the starting and finishing lines are marked by beams of light. As the car breaks this light ray the ehronometer notes the time, and there is none of the danger that results from having a wire stretched aeross the course. At Daytona Beach the late Sir Henry Segrave had wires bedded in rubber, and pegged into the sand. * Timing sets are rare. There is one at the. Brooklyn track, one at a speedway near Berlin, in Germany, and one at Mont Thierry, near Paris, besides that at Daytona. Mr. H. Bntcher, who is In charge of the timing for the Auckland Automobile Association, will demonstrate the principle at the association's annual meeting. Milkman's "Speed" Wobble. There is at least one milkman in suburban Auckland who hurries on his morning round (says the Star) . He owns a very old and antiquated motorcar, which groans and rattles its way round Mount Eden streets. On a recent morning he hurried, and the van, travelling at least 20 miles an hour, developed a "speed" wobble from which the car would not recover, despite frantic efforts by the driver. The van bounded along and down the slope, and, when 20 yards had been covered, piled itself up against a telegraph post. There was a clatter of milk cans and the tinkle of broken glass. The milkman got out, bleeding. He was "patehed up" at hospital, returned to his van, and continue dhis round, the old car moving even slower than before. Breakfast was late in several Mount Eden homes that morning.

Dead Spots for Wireless. That there are many dead areas insofar as wireless reception is concerned was demonstrated hy a journey in a motor car with a portable wireless set. Station 2YA was broadcasting and although reception was all right at most plaees, there were many spots where distortion was common. At the rubhish dump in New Plymouth the reception faded completely, while the broadcast was futile on a hill at Okato. It seems clear that counter magnetic attractions intercept or divert the broadcast. It is well known that there are hundreds of small hilloeks or knolls in Taranaki, particularly along the coast between Opunake and New Plymouth where reception is affeeted. There are alarming variations of the compass from the vicinity of these hills due to the influenee of magnetic deposits in the knolls which, geological opinion says, were at one time small volcanoes. An area nearer Rotorua where dead spots are encountered is on the Kaimai Ranges, to the west of Tauranga, where in places reception is impossible, no matter what receiving set is used. Widows of Brunnerton Disaster. Twelve old ladies, widowed hy the Brunnetton mining disaster of 36 years ago, are living to-day, and they will be left without the pensionS which were provided for them at the time of the calamity. Some 7 0 widows and 130 children were left to be provided for by the. disaster in the Brunner mine, which resulted in heavy casnalties in- 1896. Public funds were subscribed to relieve their distress, and the funds eventually passed into the hctnds of the Puplic Trustee. For three decades the widows of the men killed in the . disaster received Small pensions. Now the funds are exhausted, and the 12 widows who still survive, some of them very old, are left without support, 3ave for their old age pensions and svhat they may obtain from* other