‘Ill-advised’ to bag ref

There is no doubt the Pirates Club was very ill-advised and also unfair in sending in its letter to the committee of the Otago Rugby Union and baldly stating that it had no confidence in Mr G. McKenzie, referee, and asking that he be not appointed in future for any matches in which the club was engaged. The Pirates Club said too much or too little. If it had any real complaint it should have stated it, otherwise it should have said nothing. Anyway, if the Pirates Club did not desire to play under Mr McKenzie it had an easy remedy. If two clubs can decide on a referee for a match his appointment is always approved by the Appointment Board. The sooner we hear the last of this regrettable incident the better for football generally. In the meantime Mr McKenzie has the satisfaction of knowing that he has the confidence of his fellow referees. — by ‘Full Back’

Orderly change

The City Police Court orderly was seen in a new role yesterday, when he acted the part of a nurse in the corridor of the Law Courts building. A woman who held a baby in her arms was called as a witness in a case, and as she could not take the child into court the orderly took it. While the woman was giving evidence he walked up and down the corridor nursing the baby in excellent style, and the smiling child seemed to approve of her masculine nurse. 

Watch this space

At the meeting of the executive of the Dunedin Manufacturers’ Association on Tuesday night it was decided to ask the Railway Department if it could see its way to put a face on the station clock on the side facing the reclaimed ground. It was pointed out that there were a number of people employed in various industries on the Harbour Board sections, and that the granting of the request would be of great convenience to them, especially as many of them had to catch trains.

Round the world by air

Plans now being developed by Imperial Airways, the new £1,000,000 organisation, to enable experts to sketch time schedules for complete round-the-world journeys by aeroplane express and airship liner. Leaving London in the morning, and rushing at 105 miles an hour to Paris, world-travellers may expect to reach Constantinople the following morning and Cairo by midday. Then, in a long-distance air-liner, they will speed to Australia, arriving on the ninth day after leaving London. The Pacific, to San Francisco, will be crossed in another "clipper of the clouds." The next link, already established, is by aeroplane express, New York being reached on the fifteenth day. The Atlantic crossing to Europe will be made by the great airship liner about to be delivered to the United States by the Zeppelin company, and world travellers will accomplish in 17 days the feat which took Jules Verne’s imaginary hero 80 days to perform.

The height of perfection

The rails of the new Opoho tramline are in some parts as much as 2 feet 6 inches above the level of the road. Cr Begg drew attention to this fact at the meeting of the City Council last night, and asked Cr Douglas, as chairman of the Tramways Committee, if he was aware of this. The Mayor (Mr H.L. Tapley) said he had visited the line and had been astonished to find the height of the rails above the road. Unless this was rectified it would mean that the road was left very narrow. Cr Douglas said that the levels for the rails had been given the Tramways Department by the Works Department. It was a matter for the Works Department to bring the road up to the level of the rails. There was no doubt the rails were at the right level. — ODT, 3.7.1924

Compiled by Peter Dowden