In the News

Southland Times, Issue 24836, 31 August 1942, Page 4

In the News

“Unsuitable” Book One of the unsuitable books received at the Y.M.C.A. institution in response to an appeal for reading matter for the soldiers was a savings bank deposit book. The inclusion of the book in a bundle of other volumes was obviously due to a mistake. There was a small balance to the credit of the depositor, the young men’s Bible class of a city church. Steps are being taken to have the book returned to the proper quarter. Record Maintained _ With the assistance of one contribution of £lOOO Invercargill again reached its national savings quota last week for the forty-first week in succession. The position did not look bright on Friday afternoon when there was only £7OO in hand leaving £1343 to be collected to reach the weekly quota of £2043. However, the large contribution mentioned and a number of smaller ones on Saturday morning brought the total to the required amount. Price Control Breaches Prosecutions for profiteering and breaches of the price regulations in the past two years totalled 210, said the Minister of Supply (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan), when speaking of the work of the Price Tribunal. There had been 184 convictions, six cases had been withdrawn, eight had been dismissed, and 12 cases were at present in the hands of Crown solicitors. In addition, a number of cases was at present under investigation. The highest fine against any one defendant was £75 in the case of a herbalist for profiteering, and eight oyster companies at Bluff were fined £lO each for selling oysters at a price higher than authorized. Most of the fines, however, amounted to £5 or less, and in some cases, where the courts considered that extenuating circumstances were shown, a conviction without penalty was recorded. Mr Sullivan said all cases reported by the inspectors or by the public were investigated. Lucky Soldier A soldier on leave from camp went into a telephone box in Wellington to ‘advise relatives of his arrival. Before dialling the number he wanted, he placed his purse, containing more than £6, on the top of the telephone stand, and forgot about it He hurried back to the telephone box a few minutes later to find the purse had gone, so he borrowed some money and came to Christchurch. His relations in the hope that I an honest person might have picked up the purse, put an advertisement in a newspaper, and within half an hour of its publication, received a telephone call from a woman, saying that she had found the purse in the telephone-box and was on her way to hand it over. Reflection on Soldiers “I consider your submission is a reflection on the many soldiers who have been discharged from the forces,” said Mr Stilwell, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Wellington; when counsel for an accused in a theft charge submitted that his client’s lapse had been due to unrest caused by military service, from which he had been discharged because of physical disability. Military service, the magistrate said, did a man good instead of unsettling him, and most of those discharged from service resumed their place in civil life as the honest men they had been before entering the army. Counsel said he had only submitted that in this case unrest caused by military service had unsettled his client “I can understand that,” said Mr Stihvell, “but unrest does not justify thieving.”

Eyesight and Accidents Striking evidence on the relation of defective eyesight to accidents comes from America, where a big organization had the eyesight of 1150 of its motor drivers tested. The examination revealed that 85 per cent, of the men possessed some defect of which they were not aware. Eight were quite blind in one eye, 26 per cent, needed glasses for driving, 11.5 per cent, were colour blind, 67 per cent were unable to judge distances properly, 18.6 per cent, could not estimate accurately the speed of approaching vehicles, 35.4 per cent, were slow in recovering from the effects of dazzle by approaching headlights, and 37.4 per cent, had defective side vision—i.e., blind spots of six degrees or more. It is stated that a comparison of the accident-record cards of the motor drivers who underwent the examination revealed an amazing relationship between the type of accident in which the driver had been involved and the eyesight deficiency indicated. Fire-fighting Trains

A fire-fighting train is at present under construction for the railway E.P.S. in Christchurch and when completed will be available for use at any place in Canterbury served by the railway. The train will consist of three 5000-gallon tanks waggons, a trailer pump and hose. It will be so arranged that the whole unit will be complete and ready for instant use. After its first trial run it will be kept on a convenient siding. When the alarm goes the first shunting engine available will be hooked on, and, with a trained crew in charge, it will proceed immediately to wherever it is required. Another of these trains is being constructed in Dunedin, and two or three are also under construction in the North Island. A Guaranteed Best-seller “No one can say why a best-seller takes the public’s fancy or what it is that makes it better than the other thousands of titles published in a year, Mr E. J. Bell, Librarian of the Public Library, said in an address to members of the Christchurch Business Mens Club. “But someone has suggested that as lives of Abraham Lincoln, books about doctors or by doctors, and books about dogs, are the most generally popular of all books published, the man who can write a book about Lincoln s doctor’s dog should produce a guaranteed best seller.”

Change-over to Fowls Included in the work at the State game farm, Ngongotaha, Rotorua, is the production of fowl and duck eggs for the market. The Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) said recently that the farm had for some time been yielding fowl eggs as a profitable sideline. The management had greatly increased its production since the shortage of eggs and had reduced activity in pheasant rearing. This policy had also been adopted at the Paraparaumu game farm of the Wellington Acclimatization Society. Cardboard Box Control

The cardboard box and carton control notice, which has been gazetted, prevents boxmakers from launching out into the manufacture of new designs and confines the types of cartons or boxes to certain specified sizes and shapes. In an explanatory statement the Hon. D. G. Sullivan said the demand for cardboard was severely taxing the available supplies and the effect of the notice would be to conserve material and simplify production by the elemination of ornate or fancy designs. The notice also restricts the number of colours that may be used in printing or overprinting cardboard boxes.—P.A.