Canterbury Druids.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1938, Page 6

Canterbury Druids.

‘‘Our membership for Canterbury last year totalled 4500, and we had Grand Lodge funds amounting to £82,000,” said the Canterbury Grand President of the Druids’ Lodge (Bro. R. J. Roberts) at the jubilee banquet of the Ivy of Linwood Lodge. It had been agreed, he said, to increase the funeral allowance and the contributions paid to the old-aged members from surpluses. These members would receive the contribution at 60 instead of at 65, as at present. What Is Milk? Condensed milk is not milk when it is sold on Sundays. This is the interpretation placed by Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., on a sub-section of the act when he delivered judgment in the Magistrate’s Court at Dunedin in a case which was heard in which a man was charged with illegal trading. The defence was that the article sold was a tin of condensed milk, which, it was contended, was covered by the exemption of milk from the application of the act. The Magistrate said that the purpose of the exemption referred to was to allow the sale of certain perishable goods. Milk in this instance, therefore, referred to fresh milk, and condensed milk could not reasonably be regarded as being included in the exemption. A penalty of 10s and costs (10s) was imposed. Citrus Fruits Ripen Early. “Auckland growers are at present picking as many lemons as can be used in the Dominion,” said Mr J. A. Lambden. of Kumeu, president of the Auckland Citrus Growers’ Association. "The period of peak production for the season does not usually begin until August, but the long, warm autumn and a copious rainfall have advanced the picking season by several weeks this year.” The orange crop is also stated to be two or three weeks ahead of time, and owing to warmer temperatures the skins of the fruit are likely to be thinner this year. But the opinion has been expressed that marketing of the fruit for dessert should not be permitted until it has developed a correct sugar content by normal ripening conditions.

Air Mail Charge. The statement that all first-class air mail for Great Britain would be carried for ltd a half-ounce was made by the Postmaster-General, the Hon F. Jones, in an interview last evening, when commenting on a discussion on air mails at Tuesday night’s meeting of the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. While awaiting the commencement of the trans-Tasman service, Mr Jones said, New Zealand mail would be carried by steamer to Sydney to connect with the air mail service running from Australia to Britain. The new Empire air mail flyingboat service is to be inaugurated with an experimental flight on July 2, when a Qantas-Empire Airways flying-boat will leave Singapore for Sydney. It will arrive in Sydney on July 5. The full three-day-a-week service is expected to begin some time in August.

“Travellers’ Tales.” “In New Zealand aviators have to share their airports with herds of sheep, because in that country, where live stock raising is the principal occupation of the country, every available bit of grazing land is utilised. The aviator must wait in the air until the sheep are herded away before landing. In case of a forced landing there might be plenty of butchered mutton available.” So stated Mr Walter Deisher, sales manager of the Fleet Aircraft plant, speaking to a Port Erie, Ontario, service club. The sheep problem, however, while somewhat puzzling to the new aviator, as it was to Mr Deisher, when he attempted to make his first landing at a field 140 miles from Wellington, is not as formidable as it may seem,” he added. "At the approach of an aeroplane a sheep dog rushes out of a hangar and herds the sheep into a corner of the field in less time than it takes to tell.” These dogs, explains Mr Deisher, are very intelligent, and they do their job without any urging at the approach of an aeroplane, or as one is turning to leave an airport.

Eighty gold coins of the 15th and 16th centuries were discovered by a girl at Sassenholz, Germany, while she was levelling mole-hills in a field.