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Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 206, 31 July 1937, Page 8

Advice that the four dissatisfied settlers who wished to leave Raoul Island (Sunday Island) had been evacuated from the island by the Maui Pomare on "Wednesday has been received by the Postmaster-General, Hon. F. Jones, in a radio message from Mr J. E. Anderson, engineer-in-chief of the survey party now on the island.

An emu at the Auckland Zoo is at present sitting on a" batch of eight eggs. Contrary to the recognised procedure in such matters, however, it is not the hen bird that is performing this task, but the male. This is a peculiarity of emus. Authorities state that the male emu is the. outstanding example among birds of paternal care and devotion. “If the profits the Government is making from the sale of bulk electricity continue to accumulate as at present, the Minister should be able to consider reducing charges to power boards by next winter,” said the chairman, Mr J. Dean, at a meeting of the Franklin Power Board. Mr Dean inferred that a reduction by tile Government would enable the boards to reduce their charges to consumers. The board decided to bring tho matter forward at the forthcoming supply authorities’ conference.

Two petitions in bankruptcy were filed in the Palmerston-North district in July as against four in the corresponding period of last year. Some feeling is evident in the Stanway district concerning the proposed change of boundaries of the Or on a electorate, reports the “Standard’s” correspondent. Old residents are not keen on having this area absorbed in the Rangitikei electorate.

An outbreak of sheep worrying on the Port Hills, Christchurch, is'causing concern among farmers of the district. Within two weeks one farmer has lost 20 ewes, which were chased and badly injured by dogs making raids by night and in the early mornings. Six new life members were announced at the. luncheon of the Palmerston North Citizens’ Lunch Club, yesterday. They are Messrs A. M. Lascelles, L. G. ,H. Sinclair, W. H. Brown, R. W. Ramsay. G. Jardine and W. H. Wilson. The club now has 35 life members. Application is being made to the Department of Internal Affairs by the greyhound racing authorities at Napier for permission to install a 5s totalisator on their course at League Park. If the application is granted the totalisator will be the first to be introduced to any greyhound track fn New Zealand.

During July only six calls were received by the Palmerston North Fire Brigade, as against 14 for the corresponding period of 1936 and five for the same month of 1935. The calls received last month were made up of one call to a motor-car, two chimney fires, one fire, one rubbish fire and one fire beyond the city boundary. Following the completion of the case heard yesterday, the Supreme Court at Palmerston North was adjourned until Tuesday. His Honour the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, who is presiding, will be occupied in the Court of Appeal at Wellington on Monday. Fixtures for the Supreme Court at Palmerston North have been made up to August 11. A live detonator was found by an Auckland householder the other night in a shovelful of coal which was about to be placed on the fire. . Luckily it was discovered and removed before it could be exploded, but its presence among coal bought in the city for household use caused much concern, especially as its discovery was quite by chance. Sir Clutlia Mackenzie has brought back to New Zealand with him a fine set of the best British silver band instruments for the use of the Jubilee Blind Institute Band. They were purchased, he said, from the profits of the band’s last tour of New Zealand, and he hoped that they would improve further the standard already attained by the institute’s talented musical combination.

The Otago Retail Fruiterers’ Association, after discussing the Fruit Marketing Committee’s report, passed a resolution that the compulsory limitation of profits on the sale of fruit is unnecessary and impracticable, and that the cost of an attempt to enforce the regulations would add a further burden to the industry. It was also decided that the executive take all necessary steps to oppose such legislation.—Press Association. Cabinet has decided to pay one shilling per head for all wild pigs destroyed in certain parts of the North Island during August, September, October and November, in accordance with a scheme formulated to relieve settlers in outlying districts from the ravages of these animals. The areas concerned are the counties of Kawhia, Otorolianga, Taumarunui, Ohura, Whangamomona, Stratford, Patea, Waitotara, Wanganui, Kaitieko and Waimarino. —Press Association. A tilt at the Nationalists was made by the Minister of Health (lion. P. iVaser) when speaking at the Labour Party’s reception to the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) on Thursday. He was supported by the Prime Minieter, who said he did not mind a little bit of criticism, but that the other fellow would have to take his gruel. “And I think he is going to get it,” declared Mr Savage, adding that lie proposed to make a tour of the main centres of New Zealand, commencing probably at Auckland on August 14. A certain amount of opposition to the suggestion that the charges for transport should be fixed was raised when the schedule of prices submitted by the Wanganui and District branch of the New Zealand Road Transport Alliance was considered at a conference in Wanganui on Thursday 'between transport operators and representatives of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. Mr P. M. Skoglund, chairman of No. 2 District Licensing Authority, was also present, but after a long discussion no decision was reached. “To keep blind men and women in full employment is the first essential to their happiness,” said Sir Clutlia Mackenzie, Director of the Jubilee Institute for the Blind, in the course of an interview on his return from a trip overseas. British workshops for the blind, he added, were finding great difficulty in marketing their output of basketware, brushware, doormats and like goods, in the face of keen competition both from machine-made goods and “sweated” goods from the Continent and ho hoped the New Zea.land public would see to it that such a problem did not confront the New Zealand Institute.

A Bluff man who reads the English Reynolds News has come across a curious piece of information in the issue for May 2, 1937. Someone in New Zealand (says the Southland News) has either a wonderful turn of imagination, or else is an adept practical joker. Here it is:—“An alarm clock is being successfully used by a farmer near Invercargill, New Zealand, to -wake his dog and give himself more time in bed in the morning. He used to get up in the morning and send his dog out to the fields to bring the cows in for milking. Then he put an alarm clock in the dog’s kennel, making sure that it went off at the moment that he shouted to the animal to. go and fetch the cows in. Now the do" accepts the alarm clock alone as a signal to fetch the cows home. The farmer stays in bed, and when he gets up the cows are already in the yard.”

The winner of the Otaki Shield, which carries with it a month’s holiday in New Zealand, a Scottish schoolboy, J. D. Anderson arrived by the Rarigitata on Thursday and has already lieen assured by tlift Minister of Education that everything possible will be done to make his holiday enjoyable. The Otaki Shield commemorates the historic fight between the New Zealand Shipping Company’s armeel merchantman Otaki, commanded by Captain A. Bisset Smith, V.C., and the German raider Moewe, on March 10, 1917. The Otaki was sunk after a gallant fight, and Captain Bisset Smith lost his life. His relatives presented the shield to be awarded annually to the most outstanding boy in scholarship, athletics, leadership and general qualification at the captain’s old school at Aberdeen. J. D. Anderson is the first to have been awarded the prize. The New Zealand Shipping Company supplemented the award with a free trip to Nqw Zealand.