100 YEARS AGO
PM opens A and P show
Special interest centred on the official opening ceremony of the show by reason of the fact that this function was performed by the Prime Minister (the Right Hon W.F. Massey), who paid a special visit to Dunedin for the purpose.
Mr Massey, who was received with hearty applause, thanked the society for the honour it had done him in asking him to be present to declare the show open. As the president had remarked, there were four Cabinet ministers present, but as a matter of fact the whole Cabinet wanted to
come. (Laughter.) However, as there was an election at the end of the year, it would not have looked well if all the ministers had come to Dunedin at the same time. (Laughter.) He congratulated the people on the fine weather in this part of the dominion. He had been in Central Otago on a number of occasions, and he had never yet met bad weather there. (Applause.) He had had a look round the show, and he wished to congratulate the society heartily on the number and excellence of the exhibits. Eight or nine years ago he opened a Winter Show in Dunedin. That was a very admirable show, but the present one was a tremendous advance upon it.
Observatory opening soon
It is hoped, on Saturday next, to open formally the new astronomical observatory which has been erected near the junction of the DunedinMaori Hill trams. The building is to be fitted with a 12inch equatorial
telescope, adapted on one axis to follow the movements of a heavenly body and its apparent daily motion around the earth, and also a transit instrument designed to move around the meridian circle. The telescope is covered by a 12foot diameter revolving dome, and the building itself is 12ft by 16ft. The telescope is a gift from Mr John C. Begg, of Dunedin, and Mr J.T. Ward, the maker and the director of the Wanganui Observatory will mount it, and has promised to give a lantern lecture the following Tuesday on stellar astronomy. The observatory has been erected and equipped partly by public contribution.
Clutha ferries in jeopardy
Members of the Clutha River Board at a meeting on Friday in Balclutha took a gloomy view of the affairs of the board. With an overdraft of £6000, an unpaid account of over £2000, on which they are paying interest, and a revenue insufficient to meet running costs and repairs to steamers, it was stated the board would either have to get assistance from the Government or shut down. The steamer service, it was further stated, was of great benefit to the settlers along the river, and on heavy goods the motor lorries could not compete with it. Ultimately, a deputation was appointed to wait on the Prime Minister in Dunedin this week, to lay the position before him.
Preferred husbands listed
Clergyman were the most desirable husbands, judged by marriage statistics, said the Rev W. Major Scott, of Ward Chapel, Dundee, Scotland, in an address on the subject of marriage. Businessmen and men on the Stock Exchange were regarded as less satisfactory.
After clergymen came army and navy officers, professors, and teachers. Authors and journalists were regarded as unsatisfactory, while artists were quite hopeless.
— ODT, 31.5.1922