LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 October 1938, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Transport Licensing Authority. A sitting of the No 2 Transport Licensing Authority will be held at the Masterton Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon when the following applications for new goods service licences will be dealt with: W. S. Lynskey (Featherston), J. W. Thornton junr (Masterton). “Domestic Service.” The man’s hand rocks the cradle in Zanzibar Island, states the “Christian Science Monitor.” An official report on the protectorate, off the coast of Africa, says that “domestic service is performed by males, a few women being employed as nursemaids, although the service is usually performed by males. The extent to which female labour i§ employed is best conveyed in the expression that 'even the washerwomen are men’.” Crooners Condemned. “A crooner is the lowest form of life yet discovered.' said Dr James Lyon, examiner for the Trinity College of Music, London, in an address in Christchurch. Dr Lyon was speaking of the abuse of wireless in the home. “A child always demands the best, and when it hears the wireless going from dawn till dark, and a great part of the programme supplied by this type of singer, it grows up with the idea that it is the best kind of music. There is one good thing about the wireless,” he said. “One can go to it and switch it off.” Cow Killed by Train. A cow straying on the WellingtonJohnsonville railway line was struck and killed by the electric train which left Johnsonville at 6.21 p.m. yesterday, the incident happening about 350 yards north of the Awarua Street station. Only a slight shock was felt by the passengers, and the train, which threw the cow to the side of the track, did not have to be pulled up sharply. The driver’s inspection disclosed no damage whatever to th? unit. Fewer Cases of Measles. Although a number of Wellington firms whose staffs were depleted recently through measles are nearly at full strength again, the epidemic has not yet run its course in Wellington. However, it seems that fewer people are contracting measles each day, and the Wellington Free Ambulance, which is in touch with the position as its affects hotels and boarding establishments, advises that very few cases are now being handled.

Wellington College Foundation Day. Foundation Day of Wellington College was officially observed for the first time yesterday. Pupils, parents, old boys and representative citizens attended a thanksgiving service in the memorial hall, conducted by the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt Rev H. St Barbe Holland. The headmaster, Mr W. A. Armour, outlined the origin of Foundation Day, which, he said, it was hoped to observe each year in future. The Governor-General, Lord Galway, spoke on the life of Sir George Giey, who was responsible for founding the college.

Unforgeable Signatures. “Mathematically the chances of two fingerprints being alike when there are 16 points of similarity are 152,000,000,000 to one, and when there are nine points of similarity the chances are 1,900,000 to one,” said Senior-Sergeant E. W. Dinnie, fingerprint expert, Wellington, giving evidence in a burglary case heard by Mr Justice Reed in the Supreme Court, Palmerston North, yesterday. His Honour, in his address to the jury, said the fingerprints were recognised as an exact science, and all over the world were accepted as absolute proof of identification. Fingerprints had been described by one learned judge as unforgeable signatures. Metropolitan Aerodrome.

The area on the upper reaches of the Manukau Harbour, which is to be developed as the main landing ground foi aeroplane services converging on Auckland, is to be known in the future as the Metropolitan aerodrome. So far the project has been referred to as the Auckland airport, but in a letter to the Auckland City Council the Auckland Harbour Board stated that the title -of airport was likely to be misunderstood in view of the boaid s proposals with regard to the provision of accommodation for overseas flyingboats. It was felt that the term might be taken to refer to the seaplane base and not to the ground base to be undertaken by the council as a metropolitan scheme. It was requested that the term aerodrome be substituted for that of airport and the council agreed to make the change. Died After Voting.

The Minister of Education, the Hon P. Fraser, yesterday attended the funeral of a supporter of his in the Wellington Central electorate who died on Friday night in his 97th year shortly after recording a postal vote for the Minister. The man was Mr John Rice, of 10 Queen Street, and formerly of Johnsonville. After voting and shortly before his death, Mr Rice, apparently under the impression that Friday was election day, inquired who had won the election. Supporters assured him that Labour would win. Mr Rice was a member of a well-known Wellington family, and several of his sons served in the war. He was wonderfully active for his age and able to read the newspapers till the last. His vote in the election was a valid one, as postal votes are recorded as from the date of voting, and electors may vote by that means at any time between the issue of the writ for the election and polling day. Under the Wrong Ensign. Election day, despite the serious business of voting, inevitably has its humorous side. One of the many stories which is going the rounds concerns a prominent papier citizen whose enthusiasm for the Labour cause is rivalled only by his admiration and friendship for the Hon W. E. Barnard, Labour candidate for the Napier electorate. Determined to establish, at least, as far as he himselt was concerned, an atmosphere in keeping with the occasion, he decided on Saturday to wear a tie bearing a colour scheme as nearly resembling the colours of the Labour Party as possible. At last he selected one, a vivid creation in red, with white spots spread broadcast across its gaudy surface. Yes, that would do. Almost the first thing that happened to him on arriving i town was for some one to congiatulate him on his choice of neckwear and particularly on his happy his colour scheme of the racing colouis of Mr John Ormond.