Feds urge interest in politics

At the annual conference of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, which opened in Wellington yesterday, the president (Mr W.J. Polson) said he was convinced there could be no great progress unless they took a more active interest in political affairs.

"We are out for an immigration policy that will settle the vacant lands of New Zealand. We want to see closer settlement so that every acre of this country will be made as highly reproductive as is consistent with our geographical situation. We are anxious to see taxation reduced, partly through sound and economical administration, and partly through an increase in population that will mean more shoulders to carry it. We are determined to see this country developed as it should be developed, and to set our faces against its being plunged annually further into debt because easy money is available. The Farmers’ Union has fought consistently for the development of the country on sound business lines, because we have realised that we dare not stand still, but we have not made the headway we should have made. We must see to it that the handicaps of taxation, vexatious social legislation, shortage of labour and loss of population through failure to insist on higher production do not rob us of the benefits of these great reforms, and possibly turn them against us."

League eyes Forbury for games

The first meeting of the recently formed Board of Control of the Otago Rugby Football League was held last evening.  The Chairman said they had found the ground at Forbury in rough order, and it would require a good deal of fixing up. The stands were available, and he understood the jockeys’ rooms would be available. It was a great win to got Forbury Park at a cost of £50. The public were largely with them, and if it was a fine day they would have a great crowd. The outside track, which they intended to use, would accommodate some 5000 people. If they got the League established they could not do better than have Forbury Park. It was better than Carisbrook. This was the greatest moral victory the League had ever had, and the greatest loss of prestige the Rugby Union had ever had.

Immense inwardness

A million atoms in a row would not form a line as long as the thickness of a cigarette paper; yet each of these atoms is a solar system, having an infinitesimal "sun" as nucleus, and with countless planetary electrons whirling around it. In radio-activity the atoms break up, and power immeasurable is evolved from the changes in the infinitely small. That is the theory, in unscientific terms, of the mighty atom, the "Rutherford atom".

Power of print media

The solidity of the newspaper press of Dunedin was perhaps never better exemplified than when the mail van attached to the 5.10am goods train from Dunedin to Balclutha on July 15 was partially derailed. The mishap occurred a little while after the train left Allanton, but the train kept on its way until it reached Henley, where it was found that the van had practically left the rails and had caused some damage to the sleepers. An investigation showed that the trouble had arisen through a bundle of newspapers which had been thrown out at Allanton, and which, instead of falling on the platform, had struck the rail, eventually lifting the wheel off the rail. The bundle contained a large number of copies of the Otago Daily Times.

— ODT, 23.7.1924  (Compiled by Peter Dowden)