NEWS & NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 April 1938, Page 8

NEWS & NOTES

VARIOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST. America’s Pride. The United States is determined to be second to none in the world of shipping. She now has some ten million tons of ocean-going merchant vessels, as compared with only two millions in 1914. The days are no more when months would pass in an important port without sight of the Stars and Stripes. America is already a good second to Britain. Heavy subsidies are now to be paid to secure the building of 38 new ships this year, and it is hoped to increase the number to 48. ’Plane v. Pests.

Let us hope for the day when bombing aeroplanes will be' changed into peaceful distributors of people and goods. Very useful they can be, as in fighting mosquitoes. The Russians use them for fighting all sorts of pests which inflict injury on people, animals and crops. Locusts have been exterminated in the southern warm regions of the Soviet, and other insect plagues have been tackled. Thousands of square miles of water, in which mosquitoes breed, have been sprayed with oil, which makes the breeding impossible. In no other way could the work have been done as well. Calling a Bus.

Electrical signalling devices for the benefit of bus passengers at request stops have been installed in the streets of Hyde, Cheshire. They are the first in Britain. Over the usual request stop is a sign Bus Wanted, and a passenger wanting a bus operates a press button switch. Immediately the sign lights up and the passenger is floodlit and in full view of the driver. When the switch is released the lights go out.

A Bank for Women. There is a branch of the United Banks of Rotterdam which is entirely managed by women and women cashiers. All its customers are women. It was started ten years ago and is most successful. No Waiting.

As motorists enter a private road leading to a new service station at Kingston, Surrey, their cars interrupt an invisible ray. The ray causes a bell to ring in the reception office, so that someone is ready to welcome the visitor.

Children's Camp. More than 170 children from the Waihi, Thames and Ohura districts are now at the health camp on Motuihi Island. The camp will last' for a fortnight, after which children will arrive from Taumarunui, Te Kuiti. Whangarei and Gisborne. The. quota of 50 children from Waihi came to Auckland by express, and left for Motuihi by special launch. More than 60 children from Thames and 50 from Ohura arrived on the previous day. There are also a number of Maori children from the North at the camp. Large Sheep Station. A denial that Molesworth, New Zealand’s largest sheep run, would be set aside as a reserve, closely subdivided and leased, or sold, was made by the Minister of Lands, the Hon. F. Langstone, speaking in Christchurch. It is proposed to give the run a spell to allow the Agricultural Department to undertake extensive rabbiting and to offer the property for re-leasing. Tourists and Maoris.

"No people can be really self-re-specting if they are made a show for tourists.” said Dr. I. L. G. Sutherland, of Canterbury University College. when speaking about the exploitation ol tile Maoris as a tourist attraction. Dr. Sutherland said the Maoris were expected to provide the spectacular and romantic side of tourist attractions in the country, and one had only to go to Rotorua to see what this exploitation had done to the Arawa people. The Maoris were always willing to give a welcome to prominent visitors, but they were often expected to "put on a show.” Stream Pollution.

“Th Southland Acclimatisation Society has already spent £2l on the analysis of waters in streams polluted by animal refuse and poisonous waste,” said Mr Eustace Russell during the hearing of a stream pollution ease in the Magistrate's Court in Invercargill. Within the last two weeks offenders have been fined sums totalling nearly £5O for breaches of the fisheries regulations.

Motor-car Industry. Motor-car factories throughout Britain are increasing the facilities to cope with the ever-increasing public demand. Extensions are being planned at most factories. One firm intends increasing its engine-building capacity, although the present capacity would enable 400 engines to be turned out weekly: in other - words, enough for more than 200,000 news cars a year. Tennis Novelist.

H. W. Austin, Davis Cup lawn tennis player, is working under high pressure on a novel, which is not about lawn tennis, though it has the game as a background, writes the London diarist of the "Evening Standard.” Soon he and his wife are going to the Riviera, not only to allow him to take part in the winter tournaments there, but also to give him time to finish the MS. Mr. Austin is by no means the first lawn tennis player to write novel. W. T. Tilden once turned out a rather sugary story called "Glory’s Net.” and Helen Jacobs has aspirations as a writer. Large Cruise Liner. The Empress of Britain (42,350 tons gross), which will reach Auckland on April 12 in the course of a world tour, will be the most notable arrival in the merchant shipping history of the port. She is almost twice the size of the largest vessel trading either to Australia or New Zealand. The liner reached Sydney from Bali on Saturday morning. She will remain there for two days and then visit Melbourne. before leaving for Milford Sound.