Posthumous Award.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1938, Page 6

Posthumous Award.

On the recommendation of the Hector Award Committee, the Royal Society of New Zealand, at its annual meeting at Victoria University College yesterday, unanimously made a posthumous award of the Hector Medal for ethnology to the late Bishop of Waiapu, Rt Rev H. W. Williams. Napier Colonnade. At a cost of £7BO, the Napier Thirty Thousand Club will undertake the extension of the colonnade fronting the Sound Shell on Marine Parade by the erection of another arch. A tender for the work submitted by W. M. Angus, Limited, has been accepted, and the work will be completed before next summer. Rival Systems.

Although the popularity of long distance telephoning in New Zealand has made inroads into the telegraphic business of the Post Office, both systems have their own particular advantages, and the telegraph is not by any means a disappearing factor. Ten years ago the number of telegrams sent every year in New Zealand exceeded six millions, but a heavy decline was experienced from which the system is now recovering, although its annual total is still about a million messages short of the peak point of activity. During the last three years the improvement has been substantial, amounting to a total increase of 1,317,902 messages, representing a rise of over 26 per cent in the three years. Government and Exchange Rate. The reason why the Government has not lowered the rate of exchange after having, when in Opposition, opposed the raising of it, was referred to by the Minister of Labour, Hon H. T. Armstrong, in his address at Northland, Wellington, last night. “Critics now say that we ought to put the rate back where it was before,” Mr Armstrong said. “We opposed the raising of it because it was going to bankrupt hundreds of good people in New Zealand to help another section of the people. If we attempted to put it back again suddenly we would bankrupt another lot of people, and we are not a bankrupting Government. (Applause.) There has been less bankruptcy this year than in any other year in the history of New Zealand, according to proportion of the population,” he said. New Rail Cars.

Six new rail-cars of a standard type are at present under construction in the Hutt Railway Workshops. They are being built with all-steel bodies, and besides being considerably larger than the Mahaanui and similar rail-cars now operating on the Wellington-Palmerston North, via Wairarapa service, will contain many improvements. The first of the new cars is nearing completion. It is 66 feet in length, will be powered by two 140 brake horse-power Leyland Diesel engines, one at each end, and will have seating accommodation for 52 passengers. Its exterior is painted in aluminium with a broad band of green from end to end, the interior walls being finished off in green and the ceiling in silver rexine. Much heavier than the type of rail-car now in service, the new standard vehicle is mounted on two low bogies with four wheels to each bogie.

Making Roads Safe. When reviewing work done to make New Zealand roads safer, at the quarterly meeting of the Road Safety Council, held in Wellington yesterday, the Minister of Transport, Hon R. Semple, said that in spite of New Zealand being the second most motorised country in the world, on a population basis, its death-rate from road accidents was the lowest. In 12 months the petrol consumed had increased by 30 per cent, but the death-rate had remained the same. The Dominion, said the Minister. was the only country in the world that could claim such a record. In no other country had the death rate remained stationary while petrol com sumption increased. The additional mileage travelled in New Zealand during the past 12 months was terrific, and on”the law of averages 100 more people would have been killed had it not been for the activities of the Road Safety Council and the Transport Department.