Flat Roofs.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1939, Page 4

Flat Roofs.

When he visited Helsinki, formerly Helsingfors, the capital of Finland, last year, Mr H. E. Poole, London, who is visiting New Zealand, was struck by the fact that most of the buildings, houses as well as warehouses and factories, had flat roofs. He was surprised to learn that the reason was that such roofs could be used for mounting of guns in case of war —another evidence of the general unrest and international distrust in Europe. The change of the name of Helsingfors to Helsinki was in a line with the desire for watertight nationalism. Helsingfors was the name of the city when the country was under the domination of the Swedes. Free House Offered.

So that the school may retain its grading, a resident of a district in the Ashburton County has offered a house free of rent, with pasture for the grazing of one oi’ two cows, to parents of three or four children, provided that the children are sent to the school in the district. The offer is the outcome of a threat to remove,the teacher to another district because of a fall in the roll number at the school. There has been a considerable number of inquiries about the house and arrangements are almost complete for a family to take up residence there. Bluff-Picton Highway.

An assurance that an effort would be made to complete the sealing of the Bluff-Picton highway as soon as possible was given by the Main Highways Board in a letter received by the executive committee of the South Island Motor Union. The union recently forwarded to the Highways Board a resolution requesting the board to accelerate the sealing of the unsealed portion of the highway in commemoration of the centenary of the Dominion. “Your union will, of course, appreciate that it is not practicable to have the whole of this highway sealed by the’ end of the centennial year,” the letter stated, “but the board will use its best endeavours to carrying out the work as soon as possible and will, as far as funds and other circumstances permit, accelerate sealing operations.”