NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 50, 1 March 1939, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

Thp Score Was Nil. There was a cricket curiosity at Eden Park (Auckland? on Saturday, when the Eden team, playing against Parnell, batted for a couple of minutes at the end of the day. The twc batsmen who went in finished eacn with nil not out, extras were nil, and the score was no wickets for nil. The Parnell bowler who went on did not have a run scored off him. Wasted Effort. “I am not going to take great pains with this,” said the Minister of Education, the Hon. P. Fraser, when lading the foundation of the new manual training block at the Rotorua Hign School. “It has generally been my experience that after the Minister of Education has finished laying a foundation stone the real workmen come along afterward and take it away until it can be properly laid.” Stole His Vest. Though a heavy sleeper, a visitor to Auckland wakened on Sunday morning with the uneasy feeling that he had heard someone in the room of his city boardinghouse some time during the night, it was not until he wa> getting dressed and found that the vest of his navy blue suit was missing that he realised that he had been visited by a sneak thief. Fortunately, he had taken the precaution to put his money in a safe place before retiring. Later he was relieved to find the vest lying in the front garden, where the thief had thrown it, after realising that he had "drawn a blank.” German Opticians. Two German opticians had applied to Dunedin firms for positions, according to a report presented to the annual conference in Wellington oi the Institute of Opticians of New Zealand. Delegates from other centres said they also had received applications from German subjects, it was decided that, considering the hign standard of the examinations in New Zealand, nothing could be done to assist refugees, although sympathy was expressed with them. Monarch Butterflies. Numbers of the gorgeously-tinted monarch butterflies have been noticed on sunny days in the native bush at iilirangi recently, the insects appearing sometimes singly and sometimes in pairs. From the frequency with which they appear they seem to be increasing in this district. The butterflies seem especially to favour the foliage of the young kauri trees as, a haunt, and they are almost invisible againvt that background. Elderly Man’s Long Swim. A long swim from the beach at Point Chevalier to the Devonport Wharf was undertaken on Sunday afternoon by Mr. J. D. Foster, of Point Chevalier, in an attempt oh the record for the same swim which he set up 11 years ago. Mr. Foster, who is aged *V4, made the crossing on February 12, 1928, in 3h 20m. He improved l»n that time on Sunday by about 25hi. Leaving the Point Chevalier beach shortly after 1 o’clock, he reached Devonport at 3.56. He was in no way distressed by his swim. Fruit-packing Record. The Teviot Orchard, Roxburgh, has established a new record for the amount of fruit p.cked and packed in one day, a total of 1032 cases, 101 tons, being harvested and dispatched. Previous to this, in 1935, the same orchard established a record by consigning 1350 cases, the output for a week-end’s harvesting. Messrs George Brothers, of Roxburgn East, dispatched 1250 cases in the same time. These tallies are far and above any consignment which had been hitherto sent away in previous years, so that the new tally certainly sets a record. Apricots leaving the district this year in such haevy quantities, practically 70 tons a day, are well coloured, clean, well matured and of excellent quality.

No Balance Sheet. I Owing to an anomaly in the legislation governing the procedure o£ the .Auckland Metropolitan Milk Council, j there was no balance-sheet available I for the consideration of members at the annual meeting. The chairman, Mr. I. J. Goldstine, said that the Act stated specifically that the annual meeting must be held in February and at the same time provided that the accounts should close on March 31. "This places us in the anomalous position of having to hold our annual meeting without a balance-sheet,” he said, and added that efforts were being made to have this, and other ■ anomalies in the Act, amended. I Work of Radio Inspectors. I One of the lesser-known but in- ■ creasingly important, services per- : formed by the post office in connecl tion with the growth in the number i of radio receiving sets is the work of 'the radio inspector. His business is to trace faulty electrical installations which are causing interference in sets, and for this purpose he is provided with a vehicle fitted with receiving equipment and a meter foi measuring interference. He also carries a number of noise reducing filters suitable for the various kinds of electrical machinery. The fact that receiving Icenses have doubled in number since March, 1935, while the total of complaints has remained steady at about 3000 each year is an indication of the decrease in radio interference to which the service contributes. : Gifts to Museum. A flaked stone axe made by the extinct Tasmanian aborigines and a set of stone adzes have been presented to the Auckland War Memorial Museum by Mr. W. Revell-Reynolds, of Auckland. Other recent gifts include a suit of Japanese armour and a Maori cape, given by Mr. W. R. Thomas; a collection of beetles found in the j Whangarei district, sent in by Mr. E. | Fairbairn; a stone adze found at Gisborne, the gift of Mr. H. Ogden; and I a Dresden china flower bowl, presented by Mr. F. C. Litchfield. Large Motor Fleet. The work involved for the Post and Telegraph Department in attending to the transport of mails and the maintenance of its telegraph and telephone lines is shown by the fact that the department owns a fleet of almost 800 vehicles. Their main use is attending to more than 12,000 miles of telegraph and telephone lines, but {some are also used for the transport of mafia, although the great bulk of this is done by privately-owned ■vehicles. For these the department spends over £150,000 a year and they not only reach the country post offices but also serve 30,000 farmers at their gates. Mad Hatter’s Party. "I don't know if you have read your 'Alice in Wonderland' recently, but this certainly does resemble the Mad Hatter’s tea-party,” said His Honour Mr. Justice Northcroft to counsel in a civil case in the Christchurch Supreme Court last week, reports the Star-Sun. “There may be some sense in it somewhere, but I fail to see it." The case concerned the dissolution of partnership between two estate agents and sharebrokers, and the point under discussion was the ownership of some gold-mining shares, which both parties said did not belong to them. “It would be cynical to say that both disclaim them because they are valueless,” added His Honour, but he was assured they were worth 5d each. Later he observed that he did not know who should consult an alienist —himself or the parties, and suggested that a disputed sum may have been spent on headache medicine.