HERE AND THERE IN NEW ZEALAND

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 302, 5 December 1936, Page 3

HERE AND THERE IN NEW ZEALAND

GLEANINGS OF DOMINION NEWS.

Signposts for Wharves. Within the next week signposts are to be erected on the Wellington waterfront for the purpose of directing motorists to the different wharves. The signs are being erected by the Automobile Association, Wellington, and will be available for the heavy Christmas traffic. Automobile Association Members. With the election of 201 new members at a meeting of the executive of

the Automobile Association, Wellington, last week, the total membership of the association now stands at 6333. The secretary, Mr. W. A. Sutherland, said he thought there was no doubt the membership would reach 6500 before Christmas. Twenty-three resignations were received. ;

Shortage of Teamsters. .As the season progresses in South Canterbury it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill the vacancies for farm work. An official at the Temuka Unemployment Bureau said that there was a much bigger demand for farm labour during the last few days than earlier in the spring. So far the bureau, had managed to fill most of the positions, but there seemed to be a very definite shortage of c-xperi-nced teamstqrs. Shilling in an Egg. If is continues the practice an unknown Black Orpington, resident of an Avondale poultry farm, near Auckland, will soon be worth its weight in silver, if riot in gold. The other day it laid an egg with a shilling in it, and an Auckland grocer nearly ate the coin during a meal. The egg was of normal size and was from the grocer’s stock. The shilling, a muchworn Queen Victoria coin minted in 1880, lay close to the side of the egg between shell and white, and on removal left a definite impression. Shilling and egg are to be shown to the Auckland Museum authorities.

Telephone Exchange. One of the features of the new administrative buildings at .th© Palmerston North Hospital is the automatic telephone echange, capable of handling the work of 50 “subscribers” They of course are the various wards, laboratories, offices, dormitories, and a host of other departments. In such a large institution, quick telephonic communication is essential ot only internally but also with the outside world. This exchange is entirely self-contained and will be .to make for speedier operating. This is exemplified by the fact that now each ward will be able to dial the city exchange direct instead of through an operator a.t the hospital as has | been the case in the past. The exchange is of British manufacture, and all the signalling is done byi lamps instead of bells. I

Petrol-driven Shunting Engine. * A petrol-driven shunting locomotive, the first of its kind in the South Island, started work in the Lyttelton railway yard last week and caused considerable interest. It was built /in England and has a 75-horse power four-cylinder engine. The chief use of the locomotive at Lyttelton will be for light shunting, particularly a.ti night time for fish trucks and tank wagons, and on Sunday mornings. It can be put into use almost instantaneously, requiring only about two minutes in which to warm the engine, a distinct advantage over the steam locomotives. The new locomotive can be driven by the shunters without the aid of regular engine-1 drivers, and four men are now being I instructed in its use. !

Salmon in Lake Heron. Several landlocked quinnat salmon recently caught by South Canterbury anglers in Lake Heron, were the subject of an interesting comment from the ranger to the South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, Mr. F. W. Pellett, in an interview recently. Mr. Pellett said that the fish caught were undoubtedly quinnat salmon, but they I were much smaller than the usual species. These fish had been bred in ■ the tributaries to Lake Heron and had then found their way to the lake, but they had not, in the usual way of the fish, gone down the rivers to the sea. Fish of this species went to sea when they were a year old, and did not return until two or three years afterwards, when they spawned in the rivers and then died. Landlocked' quinnat salmon of this type were to be found in Lake Wanaka, said Mr. Pellett. e

Labour Placements. The .total permanent placements in New Zealand to date, is 8,294, casual 3,505, temporary' 4,344, making a grand total of 16,143. Auckland heads the list in permanent placements, with 971; Dunedin follows closely 1 with 964; and then comes Wellington 887, Christchurch 679, Gisborne 442, Wanganui 401, Palmerston N. 384, Greymouth 341, Napier 304, Invercargill 296, Taumarunui 287, New Plymouth 275, Ounaru -266, Nelscfli 266, Hamilton 255, Hastings 211, Lower Hutt 192, Petone 180, Timaru 175, Masterton 171, Whangarei 73, Gore 65, and ether places 209.

Bristol Fighters for Ground Training. Four Bristol Fighters of the Royal New Zealand Air Force which have been in service at the Wigram aerodrome since about 1927, but which are now obsolescent, are to be used for ground training. One is being made available * to the Palmerston North Technical College for use in instruction on engines and frames, and another has been handed over to the Wellington Aero Club, which will probably lend it to the Dominion School of Aeronautics at Wellington. The two others will be retained by the Air Force for instructing junior membersof the ground staff at Wigram. A condition of the gifts is that they be used only for ground training.—Press Association.

Olympic Games Films. A letter from a local firm was received by the New Zealand Ameteur Athletic council, stating that 16 mm. cine films of the Olympic Games made in Germany—l 9 in all —were now available from Germany for distribution. The films, stated the letler, varied in length from GO to 120 metres, and the cost was 3Jd. per foot. If more than one film was ordered they would be joined together) to make one! reel of No indication was given in the letter of whether the films were of a purely spectacular nature or whether they would be of help to New Zealand athletes in improving their performances. It was decided to make further inquiries about the films locally and from the association’s representative in England, Dr. A. E. Porritt.

Children and Christinas. One sometimes regrets that Christmas Day has become such an intensely socialised occasion, that its religious aspect is often overlaid. What about little children and Christmas Day? (asks a writer in the “Church Gazette,’ Auckland). They are too small to go to church (or so their parents argue) and there is no Sunday school. Christmas often means for them presents, Santa Claus, eating and holidays. It is delightful to know that at St. George’s, Kingsland, the Kindergarten Sunday school, is meeting on Christmas Day. This must be a piece of self-sacrifice on the part of the leaders (though they do not appear to think so), but surely it is well worth the sacrifice. The children will meet in the decorated church and will gain some feeling of the sacredness and wonder of the day.

Building in City. Quickly noticeable to any visitor to Wellington must be the excavation and building going on in almost every street in the central area. The skeleton of steel girders for the new Government Life building in Customhouse Quay has reared itself well above the surrounding blocks, and at its base some of the stone slabs of the walls are already in position; on one corner of Featherston Street and Johnston Street the steel rods for reinforced concrete are sprouting above the boarding fence, and on the opposite corner a large building is in scaffolding; the Bank of Australasia, at the corner of Hunter Street and Customhouse Quay, and the Union Bank of Australia, at the corner of Featherston Street and Lambton Quay, are both in “splints”; scaffolding also masks the front of the Empire Hotel in Willis Street. A four-storeyed concrete building in colours is being finished at the corner of Lambton Quay and Tokio Lane, and the rattle and drive of demolishing continues to draw

passers-by to the site of the South British Insurance Co., Ltd., in Lambton Quay, opposite Hunter Street. Work is continuing at the corner of Stout and Ballance Streets, the sire for the new Government building; there is no noise now,, and the section is screened from the road by boarding. The Hotel Waterloo, opposite the new railway station, has been concreted to the fifth storey. Alterations are being made to buildings in a number of places, and one is' never far from the tattoo of the rivet-* !JS»