NEWS AND NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1938, Page 9

NEWS AND NOTES

VARIOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST Dr Buck Honoured. High honour has been bestowed upon Dr Peter H. Buck, the New Zealandborn director of the famed Bishop Museum, Honolulu. The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland has given him a diploma of honorary fellowship in the institute, of which already he was a member. It is thought this is the first time a New Zealander has been so honoured by the institute. Incidentally, the secretary of the institute is another New Zealander, Dr Raymond Firth, anthropologist.

Automatic Telephones. It is expected that tenders will be called within the next month or two for the instillation of an automatic telephone exchange in Gisborne. This information was conveyed to the mayor, Mr W. D. Coleman, M.P., in a letter he received recently from the PostmasterGeneral, the Hon F. Jones. Working plans are now being prepared, and Mr Jones has undertaken to inform the Mayor when the contract has been arranged.

Butterfish for Goitre. That the fish which were most valuable, because of their iodine content, for the control of goitre, were mistakenly rejected as food by New Zealanders was claimed by Mr David Graham, F.R.M.S., F.Z.S., in an address to the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Where marine foods were widely used there was little goitre, he said. Greenbone, butterfish,. kelpfish or kelp salmon had been proved by the researches of Professor C. E. Hercus to contain 25 times as much iodine as oysters. Yet because the fish had green bones and a blackish appearance people would not eat it, and sufferers from goitre would rather endure the complaint than be bothered cooking it. The prejudice against it was unfounded, because it was very tasty.

Car “Stolen” by Owner. A motorist was surprised, on reporting the removal of his motor-car from a Christchurch street one evening recently to be told by the' police that they had taken charge of the car because it had been reported stolen earlier in the evening. The owner, a visitor to the city, had given the use of the car to his sister, and she had left it outside her home. When he went to get the car there were no light in the house, so he did not disturb his sister but drove the car away. She heard the car being started and immediately advised the police, who found it parked in another street soon after and took charge of it. After he had established his right to the car, the owner was not slow to commend the police for the speed with which they had found it after receiving instructions from his sister.

Motor Laws in Norway. “How is the law in New Zealand regarding leaving the key in a motorcar?” Captain Mathisen, master of the Norgewian tanker Noravind, asked the presiding Magistrate at the Lyttelton Magistrates’ Court. Captain Mathisen was acting as interpreter for four members of his crew who were charged with converting a motor-car to their own use, and obtained leave to ask the question. He was informed that there was no law on the subject. “In my country,” he informed the Court, “if I leave the key in my car I would be fined about £lO in your money, or else they would put me in.” “You seem to have some very sensible laws in Norway,” commented the Magistrate, Mr F. F. Reid, S.M.

Trees Along Highway. Trees, each bearing the name of an early settler, will flank the proposed Centennial highway to Akaroa if present plans are carried out. Rbporting to the executive of the Canterbury Progress League, the secretary (Mr P. R. Climie) said that this was one of several proposals for the new highway. The paving of the whole road and elimination of many deviations had received enthusiastic support from local bodies, and it was proposed by the Akaroa people to ask the Minister for Public Works (the Hon R. Semple), the Minister for Employment (the Hon H. T. Armstrong), and the Minister for Railways (the Hon D. G. Sullivan) to visit Akaroa and discuss the proposal. Mr Climie was reporting on a conference of local body representatives held in Christchurch.