NEWS FROM CANADA

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20275, 18 August 1937, Page 9

NEWS FROM CANADA

A VITAL LINK

WORLD AIR ROUTES. ACTIVITY IN CANADA. OTTAWA, July 5. Dreams of years that Canada may become the hub of a gigantic intercolonial air transport wheel seem nearer realisation, appreciably nearer, than ever before. It probably will not be long before giant flying boats are plying between Southampton and Montreal, and tentative plans have been made for an air service between Australia and New Zealand with the intention of linking it eventually to Vancouver. Trial flights will be made this summer between the Quebec metropolis and the great British naval seaport. Planes will fly by way of Foynes, Irish Free State, and Botwood, Newfoundland. By next year, it is likely, a commercial service will be moving passengers and mail In record time across the Atlantic. Bafety and Comfort. Operations will bo carried out by Imperial Airways in co-operation with Pan-American Airways of the United States whose planes already ore spanning the Paciflo. Pan-American will operate out of New York, using Montreal or Shedlac, N. 8., as Intermediate air harbours. Safety and comfort will be the keynote When the commercial service starts and speed will be the third consideration. In wanter, if fog and ice render flying the northern route impractical, planes will go via Bermuda and the Azores through an international arrangement. Already, after trials lasting only a few weeks, Imperial Airways and Pan-American are flying commercially between Bermuda and Port Washington, Just outside New' York.

Between Montreal and Vancouver, the jumping-off point for any future Pacific service in which Canada would have a part, lies the not-fully-devel-oped trans-Canadian airway. By the end of this summer at the latest the western half of the airline, from Winnipeg to Vancouver, should be In operation. By next summer, It is expected, planes will be flying commercial from Halifax to Vancouver. To New Zealand. That service completed, the next step is between Vanoouver and the Antipodes. Already plans have been placed before Governments of the United Kingdom and the dominions for a projected service from Australia to New Zealand and later across the Pacific to the British Columbia city. ller> again an international arrangement will be necessary to permit planes flying under the British flag to land at United States possessions, a concession that does not appear Impossible In view of the amicable arrangements already made for the Atlantic air route. Pan-American Airways have ports of call at Honolulu, capital of the Hawaiian Islands, Midway Island, western outpost of that group! Wake, in mid-Paciflo, Guam in the Marianas group, and at Manila, Philippine capital. British Ships’ Routs. British ships might not need more than one resting place on United States territory, Honolulu. From there they could drop sharply south about 1000 miles to Fanning Island, a British possession, over to the Phoenix group, less than 1000 miles more, into tlie Samoan Islands, 700 miles farther south, and then once more long Jump of about 1200 miles to New Zealand. The hardest over-w’ater leg would bo the 2800 miles between Vaucouver and Honolulu, but that could be shortened 300 miles by obtaining use of San Francisco air harbour.

CANCER CAMPAIGN.

V STUDY AND CONTROL. WHAT CANADA IS DOING. OTTAWA. July 5. The council of the Canadian Medical Association has launched a movement to initiate a national society for study and control of cancer in Canada. The move against cancer developed after the association tendered Its Sood ofllces to trustees of the King George V Silver Jubilee Cancer Fund and offered to approach leading citizens of Canada in bringing about formation of the national society, it jvas explained. To help the association effect Ibis ievelopment, a spokesman said, the requisite funds have been made available from the King George Cancer bund. The statement v.f the spokesman, Or. Harvey Agnew of Toronto, said ;hat “in order to utilise these trust funds to the utmost advantage the association will set up a department of rancor control. In addition to taking the initiative in setting up Mils nation *1 society, the department, of <’amvr rontrol will undertake an intensive campaign of both lay and medical education. Eduoating tho Public. “Medical education will he vigorously conducted as it is most vital not only that the public be educate.l conhe kept in close touch with newest decerning cancer but that the doctors vtdoprnent in diamm.-ds and treatment lr-uos in tlie niedie.il lileraJune. their duties will he to undertake the liV."-ery "organised hospital of 100 beds or upwards,, unless !:ove b-- a graduate demonstrations and lectures will be contributed through co-opera-tion of leading medical authorities. “The national society also will undertake the task of raising additional funds to alignment the sum now V ;n thr hands of the King George Fund trustees.”

HAPPENINGS IN THE DOMINION

CBpeclal to Waikato Times.)

PRETTY AUSTRALIAN GIRL

WELCOMED IN CANADA. STORY OF THE PRINCESSES. TORONTO, July 5. Miss Sheila Martin, of Wagga Wagga, Australia, who says her pet dislike Is being called “Miss Australia” as though she were a beauty-show i queen, has been making a leisurely progress through Canada on her way home from tho Coronation, which she attended as the guest of a Sydney newspaper. Miss Martin further departed from the orthodox when she said she had no ambitions towards the films and had declined offers from British and American -producers. She said she had “the greatest fun” of her tour when she called on the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose to present to them two big Australian opossum rugs, sent them as a gift by the people of Wagga Wagga. “The Princesses came into the room,” she said, “absolutely unspoiled children, and when they saw the rugs the two of them wrapped themselves up in them. You couldn’t see even tho head of Princess Margaret Rose. And then she cried to the Queen, ‘Look Mummy, look at me! I’m a dog.”

SUNSPOT ACTIVITY

LEBSONB FROM A TREE. AN UNCHANGED CYCLE, VICTORIA, July 5. A glacier-bound spruce tree found in northern British Columbia has shown scientists that the present eleven and a-quarter-year cycle of sunspot activity has 'been unchanged for perhaps six hundred centuries, it was stated here by Dr. W. E. Harper, director of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Dr. Harper said trees were studied because their rings clearly record most vigorous growth In years when there Is must ultra-violet light—that is, in years of greatest sunspot activity. lie said scientists first cut down living trees, then went further back by examining the timber of old Indian dwellings. Earlier still were the 4000-year-old sequoias of California. But the oldest record of all came from the British Columbia spruce trunk. It dated back between 00,000 and 100,000 years, and its rings told the same stOry of an 11-year cycle. Referring to various “sunspot theories"—that wars, epidemics, crops, and even the number of rabbit skins on tho market, were directly connected with the cycle, he said: i “ One ought to bo conservative until more Information is on hand ... It Is easy to prove almost any relationship by picking the right data.”

NEWS IN BRIEF.

IMPORTS AND EXPORTB. DEGREASE IN BIRTH RATE. •Ottawa.—Canada’s Imports In the first four months of this year had a total of 228.4ii.000 dollars, and exports of 310,876,000 dollars. Ottawa.—Live births in Canada for the last quarter of 1936 numbered 30,261, equivalent to an annual rate of 18.1 per thousand of population, a decrease of .7 per cent, from the final quarter of 1935. Quebec. —Legislation passed at the recent session of the Quebec Legislature provided for munlclpalisation of electrical services, for a Government 'body to control private electrical industries, and for establishment of a system of State-owned electrical power plants In competition with private interests. Edmonton.—Canada’s reindeer herd, Imported from Alaska and settled in Canada’s Arctic In the thought that eventually It will solve the problem of feeding the Eskimo population, wintered satisfactorily and the fawning season added more than 1000 animals to its count. Oldest Man In Canada. Toronto.—John Birch, a veteran of the Crimean War. died recently near North Bay, Ontario. He was 114 years old and the oldest man in Canada. Vancouver.—The city of Kamloops. British Columbia, this summer celebrates tlie 1251*11. anniversary of Its founding as a fur-trade post called Shuswnp Fort, after an Indian tribe. Later Kamloops figured in a couple nf gold rushes, but now lias setllcd down to calm and secure middle age as a railroad centre and an industrial community.

of the ordinance being amended to n;ir--1 row the scope of its application, Mr Paterson said that, such was not the present, intention of the <iovernmcnl. Any allocation was a matter for the At torney tlenernl. He also intimated that ho would not areept tile invitation of the r.anherra branch of the A.W.f. to attend a public protest meeting to be held in Canberra next Thursday night, although lie I will be in Canberra for a Cabinet meet- !