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Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Science
- Otago Daily Times
Ova achievement at hatchery
The Otago Acclimatisation Society's Clinton hatchery (clockwise from top left): Water flows through boxes containing 748,000 trout ova (eggs); views of the ponds; "eyed" ova in hatching boxes. Otago Witness, 13.10.1925 At the monthly meeting of the council of the Otago Acclimatisation Society last evening, the President laid before the meeting comparative figures showing the quantities of ova and fry distributed and the ova sold during the years 1921 and 1925. Tuatara's tūpuna He pointed out the success the society had achieved this year in collecting ova should result in a considerable reduction in the cost per 1000. Appreciation was expressed by members of the council at the trouble the president had gone to in the matter, and it was resolved that instructions be given to the curator to provide an accurate stocktaking of what was in the ponds at Clinton. The Angling Committee recommended that a filter-bed at the Clinton Hatchery to purify the water going into the hatchery be put in. The tuatara, one of the most interesting creatures in the world, zoologically, is still attracting the attention of investigators at Home. The problem of the origin of lizards depends largely on whether the superficial resemblance between them and the tuatara shows real affinity. Professor Huxley and Professor Parker, in their studies 40 years ago, regarded the tuatara as merely a primitive lizard. Later zoologists remove the tuatara a fair distance from the lizards and regard it as a link between them and the crocodiles, the turtles, and an extinct group of reptiles, mostly aquatic, with lizard-like bodies, very long necks, small heads, short tails and limbs modified to form swimming paddles. This extinct group dates to the Permian Period, which closed the long Palaeozoic Era. The tuatara's closest known relative left its bones in Jurassic rock in Wyoming, United States, but the tuatara was represented away back in the Permian Period by reptiles which, although they differ from it in some respects, are sufficiently near it to be classed in the same order. Crown sums up in flour case This was the seventh day of the hearing of the flourmillers' case. Mr Fair, replying to respondents, said that on certain undisputed matters the court should allow the appeal. It would decide against the combine irrespective of results, and base its decision on (a) the nature of the flourmilling operations; (b) the fact that flour was a staple product of food; (c) the nature of the agreement with flourmillers; and (d) the monopolistic operations of the combine. "The doctrine of economists was that if 75 percent of an industry were in the hands of one individual, then that exercised an effective control." Mr Justice Alpers: "Surely political economy is an exploded science." Mr Fair: "Then again, there is an arbitrary and autocratic power conferred by the agreement. The company must sell each mill's proportionate part whether good or bad. The court could not assume that under unrestricted competition the flourmilling industry would fall into chaos." The court reserved its decision. Education's arithmetic growth The annual report of the Minister of Education shows an expenditure of £3,723,000 on education during the past financial year — an increase of £373,000 for the year. Ten years ago, for the year 1915-16, the total cost of education was £1,704,000. In the past decade, therefore, the expenditure has been more than doubled. The Minister is evidently pleased with the results achieved so far in establishing junior high schools, but it would be of interest to know exactly what this experiment is costing the country. Increased expenditure upon education does not necessarily spell increased educational efficiency. The interests of economy cannot be served if there is a tendency to dissipate departmental energy as regards education along too many channels, — some of them probably quite unprofitable from any practical point of view. — editorial — ODT, 28.7.1925 (Compiled by Peter Dowden)
Al-Ahram Weekly
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Maghreb books in Paris - Culture - Al-Ahram Weekly
This year's Maghreb des Livres Book Fair, the 31st, organised by the French association Coup de soleil, saw people from across the French capital and further afield make a bee line for the Paris City Hall for the two days of the event on 28 and 29 June. This was despite the high temperatures that reigned across France like much of the rest of Europe during the last week of June and the first week of July, causing visitors to the Fair to resort to impromptu cooling methods that included fanning themselves with newspapers or magazines or, for those who had come better prepared, using the handheld electric fans that have spread like a rash across the French capital, almost displacing other devices like otherwise ubiquitous mobile phones. Some of the speakers on the panels attended by the Weekly seemed to be visibly wilting in the heat, though they valiantly roused themselves when it was their turn to speak. Elsewhere at the Fair and in addition to the panels there was the usual mix of author talks and interviews, book signings, and discussions, many of them related to Algeria, the guest of honour at this year's event. Perhaps attendance was slightly down on what it had been in previous years but given the high temperatures and the lack of ventilation in the Paris City Hall, a creaking 19th-century building that seemed to be suffering in the heat, Coup de soleil is to be congratulated on another memorable edition of this event, now running since 1994. One of main aims of the Maghreb des Livres is to give visitors the opportunity to purchase books on the Arab Maghreb countries of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia that they might not otherwise have come across. Unlike some larger book fairs aimed predominantly at a professional audience, the Maghreb des Livres is aimed at the general public, and all the books on show are for sale. Another main aim of the Fair and one of its main selling points is that in addition to books authors are also very much in evidence, with this year's sample including some 125 authors of books on or from the Maghreb countries signing copies of their works and in some cases also giving interviews about them. Judging by the visitor profile on the day the Weekly visited, there was a wide range of different age groups. The Paris bookstore Tiers-mythe had brought together a large selection of books in French on the Maghreb, either by French authors or by francophone Maghreb ones, for the pop-up bookstore occupying the main hall of the Paris City Hall. Trade seemed to be brisk, no doubt helped by the end of the need to handle cash – almost everyone in France now seems to pay by mobile phone – and there was a mix of older and newer titles. Among the older titles on display were works by the first generation of Algerian writers, discounting the earlier French writers who also lived in and wrote about Algeria, which included the now canonical figures of Mohamed Dib, Mouloud Feraoun, Kateb Yacine, Assia Djebar, and many others who typically wrote about their country during the years leading up to and during the Algerian War of Independence in the 1950s. All of these writers wrote in French, still a major literary language in Algeria today but one now sharing the limelight with Arabic, and, to an increasing extent, also Algerian Berber. Today, their classic works are available in inexpensive paperback editions such as those offered to readers at the Maghreb des Livres Fair. The works of members of this foundational generation or generations, often thematising aspects of Algerian history and identity as these struck writers who were themselves making important contributions to the independence struggle against France, have come in for renewed scrutiny by subsequent generations of readers in recent years. They are eager to know more about how things felt at the time these works were written and to compare their perceptions, and predictions, to later developments. The works of the Franco-Algerian novelist Albert Camus, a member of the European community in Algeria before the country's independence, have been re-examined both in France and in Algeria, for example, not so much for what they have to say about Camus's much-vaunted philosophical views, explained in essays such as Le Mythe de Sisyphe and in some of his novels, but about his Algerian background. Camus played a significant role in the early years of the Algerian Independence War, later falling silent as opinions polarised and his favoured solution of peaceful co-existence between Algeria's then Arab and Berber and European communities seemed less and less likely to be achieved. He wrote a great deal about Algeria, some of it collected in readily available essay collections, as well as Le Premier Homme, a semi-autobiographical novel about childhood in Algiers, for some readers perhaps his best. Much the same thing could be said of the Martinican psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, whose works on Algeria and the Algerian independence struggle, written while, but mostly after, his appointment at the Blida Psychiatric Hospital in what was at the time French Algeria, have found a new lease of life in universities across the United States, where they have been incorporated into the academic discipline of Post-Colonial Studies. As anyone who has read Fanon's Algerian books will know, they consist of essays on various themes including the Algerian national struggle, colonial rule and psychiatric disorders, the formation of Algerian national identity in the post-independence period, and Algerian women and the Islamic headscarf or veil. In the last years of his life, Fanon became a kind of staff-writer on El Moudjahid, the French-language newspaper produced in Tunis by the Front de Libération nationale (FLN), the Algerian independence movement, where his role was to explain the actions of the FLN to an international audience. His books, put together in a hurry by his editors, or consisting of material for which he may not have always wished to be remembered, have at last been receiving proper editorial attention in recent years, though there is still a long way to go. A major new set of previously unpublished materials by Fanon was published in France in 2018 under the title of Ecrits sur l'aliénation et la liberté. This was used by his US biographer Adam Shatz in his well-received 2024 biography of Fanon, adding additional perspectives to the standard work by David Macey. The French translation of Shatz's book was on display at this year's Maghreb des Livres, along with a selection of other recent books in French on Fanon bearing witness to the growing interest in this important Martinican and by adoption Algerian author. Books on display: Browsing through the books on display at this year's Fair, there were several intriguing new or new-ish publications on Fanon and other members of the foundational generations that caught the eye, Shatz's new biography, for example, widely reviewed in English and now also in French translation, along with Alice Cherki's Frantz Fanon, Portrait, now available in an inexpensive paperback edition. Cherki, an Algerian psychoanalyst still practicing in Paris, worked with Fanon during his time at the Blida Psychiatric Hospital and has since published various memoirs. The respected review Algérie Littérature Action (Marsa Editions), renamed A Littérature Action since its relocation to Paris from Algiers, was presenting its latest number focused on re-readings of the work of Camus, while another review, Awal, a journal of Berber studies founded by the Algerian Berber writer Mouloud Mammeri, was presenting its latest number dedicated to Mouloud Feraoun. One of the most important of the Algerian Berber writers of the older generation, and perhaps best known for Le Fils du pauvre, a memoir of childhood in the Kabyle region of Algeria, and his journal for the years 1955 to 1962, Feraoun was assassinated by French paramilitaries in Algeria in 1962. Other books that caught the Weekly's eye included new books in French on Palestine and the war on Gaza by well-known French writers on the Middle East. Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), was represented by Un Historien à Gaza, a first-hand account of life in Gaza under Israeli bombardment, while journalists Alain Gresh and Edwy Plenel, appearing later in the day on a panel on developments in the Middle East, had contributed books entitled Palestine, un people qui ne veut pas mourir and Palestine, notre blessure, respectively. More focused on France and French relations with the Maghreb were recent works by historian Benjamin Stora, born in Algeria but coming to France as a child, on Algerian history (L'Algérie en guerre, 1954-1962), francophone Algerian writer Kamel Daoud's latest novel Houris, which refers to events in Algeria in the civil-war decade of the 1990s (the so-called 'Black Decade') and won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2024, and, by a writer originally from neighbouring Tunisia, professor of literature and journalist Abdelwahab Meddeb's posthumously published Vers l'Orient, travel notes on destinations as different as Tangiers, Cairo, and Kyoto. Meddeb came to international attention for his book La Maladie de l'Islam, translated into English as Islam and its Discontents in 2004, but he was probably best known to French audiences for his weekly programme Cultures d'Islam on the radio station France Culture that attracted a large audience. Other books that the Weekly made a mental note of included French anthropologist Fabien Truong's Grands ensemble: Violence, solidarité et ressentiment dans les quartiers populaires, an investigation of one of the suburbs surrounding French cities that are home to many people of North African or African heritage and can be seen as suffering from more than their fair share of social problems, Franco-Tunisian researcher Hajer Ben Boubaker's prize-winning Barbès Blues: Une histoire populaire de l'immigration maghrébine, a look at North African communities in the Barbes area of Paris, and Elias Sanbar's essay-length La dernière guerre? Palestine, 7 octobre 2023-2 avril 2024. Sanbar co-founded the Revue d'études palestiniennes (Journal of Palestine Studies) in 1981 and was the journal's editor-in-chief for 25 years. He is the former Palestinian ambassador to the UN cultural agency UNESCO. As is often the case at Paris events of this kind, while this year's Maghreb des Livres will have given visitors a valuable overview of books appearing in French on the Maghreb countries and to a lesser extent on aspects of the wider Middle East, there was little from the region. While some provision had been made for various titles to be brought in from Algiers, with the Algiers publishers Casbah Editions and Samar Editions contributing books, as well as El Amir Editions (based in the French port city of Marseilles), it was hard to feel that what was available represented more than a small fraction of production. There was little or nothing in Arabic. Before leaving this year's Maghreb Book Fair, the Weekly attended a panel discussion featuring Alain Gresh and Edwy Plenel, as well as French academic Agnes Levallois and journalist Beatrice Ores, on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. A second discussion on L'Algérie en resistance, d'Abdel-Kader à Fanon featuring a range of speakers including Alice Cherki had to be abandoned after a power cut caused by the heat led to the clearing of the building. Maghreb des Livres, 28-29 June, Paris. * A version of this article appears in print in the 24 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Global News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Global News
CNE launches contest for couples to say ‘I Do' on the Midway
As the end of summer approaches, the Canadian National Exhibition is gearing up to open its gates, and this year, it's inviting one lucky couple to tie the knot in the middle of the Midway. The CNE has launched a new contest called 'Marriage on the Midway,' offering a symbolic wedding celebration under the Fair's iconic SuperWheel. The event, scheduled for Aug. 23, will give one couple a chance to exchange vows surrounded by carnival rides, cotton candy, and reserved seating to watch 98 Degrees in concert. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy According to organizers, they are looking for couples who are Ontario residents aged 18 and up who share a special connection to the CNE, whether it's a first date, a long-time tradition, or love for the fair. Submissions are open until Aug. 8 at 11:59 p.m. ET, with the winning pair set to be announced by Aug. 15. Story continues below advertisement The prize package will include a custom wedding cake designed by a local bakery, unlimited ride passes for up to 20 guests, $500 in food vouchers, and VIP seating at the CNE Bandshell to watch 98 Degrees perform their wedding ballad 'I Do (Cherish You)' live. Although the wedding ceremony won't be legally binding, the event is a symbolic moment meant for couples 'to celebrate their commitment to each other in an unforgettable way,' according to the CNE website. The upcoming 2025 CNE season will run from Aug. 15 to Sept. 1. Wedding or not, expect all the usual summer spectacle, from the iconic air show, pickle-flavored food and amusement-style rides.
Otago Daily Times
22-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Flour cartel case in appeal
Wellington, July 22: Both divisions of the Appeal Court were further engaged to-day hearing the appeal in the flourmilling case heard in Dunedin, in which penalties were sought for alleged breaches of "The Commercial Trusts Act 1910" (relating to monopolies) from the Crown Milling Co, Dunedin; Fleming and Co, of Invercargill; Atlas Roller Flour and Oatmeal Mills, Timaru; Wood Bros, Christchurch and Distributors Ltd, of Christchurch, flourmillers' agents, which companies are respondents in the present proceedings. Mr Justice Reed asked: "How is the quality of flour affected?'' Mr Fair: "My point is that the bakers say that if they all get the same quality of flour and there is competition, prices will be less.'' Mr Skerrett: "The evidence is that under free competition the cutting of bread prices by bakers would result in leaving out of the bread an improver such as milk, malt extracts, and syrups, giving the public a loaf of flour and water.'' Mr Fair: "We may say that under free competition the quality of the bread would be improved. The bakers would be out to make better bread than their competitors in business. It is suggested that the combine was beneficial to wheat-growers. There is nothing in the documents to show this. The monopoly was prepared to pay £1500 per annum to keep a mill closed. This was a mill belonging to Wilkie and Co, of Mosgiel, who refused to join the combine unless given an output considerably in excess of their three years' previous average trade.'' Ordeal for seafarers Heavy gales and high seas were encountered by the tramp steamer Hollinside on her recent voyage from Bunbury to Dunedin. The vessel arrived on Tuesday with 2,000,000 feet of hardwood. The Hollinside cleared the West Australian port at 8pm on July 6. The first day at sea was marked by moderate weather, but squally conditions on the following day indicated that the steamer would have a rough time across the South Australian Bight. By midnight on July 3 the ship was battling a strong gale. Heavy seas flooded her decks, but no damage was done. The gale continued until the evening of July 9, after which the conditions became more favourable. For 10 days the Hollinside steamed at her usual speed, but on the evening of July 19 she ran into a north-west gale, accompanied by heavy seas. The vessel's decks were again flooded almost continually. The gale abated early on July 20, and the remainder of the voyage was marked by moderate winds and seas. When the Hollinside was steaming up the coast on Monday afternoon the boatswain, J. McGreevy, fell down the starboard bunker, a distance of 18ft, and sustained severe body bruises. He was working in the 'tween decks at the time. He was attended by Captain Brown, who did all that was possible for the sufferer. When the steamer anchored in the lower harbour at mid-day on Tuesday the injured man was examined by the port health officer, who found that while he was badly shaken and bruised, no bones were broken. Yesterday afternoon McGreevy complained of his injuries, and received medical attention. Wood, concrete poles apart Concrete telegraph poles have been in use in some parts of New Zealand for 15 years, and a good deal of interest in this type of structure has been manifested by various electric power boards. However, in spite of an inclination on the part of some boards to adopt this type of pole, the opinion of most engineers is decidedly against it. Although concrete is able to withstand extraordinary compression, its brittleness does not render it nearly as suitable for poles where the pull of the wires induces a lateral tension. Not only is the concrete pole at present more costly than jarrah, but the costs connected with the carriage and placing it into position are considerably greater. Initial costs are increased by a substantial percentage of breakages. Concrete poles are more expensive than those of wood and are more costly to erect. — ODT , 23.7.1925 Compiled by Peter Dowden
Irish Examiner
22-07-2025
- Irish Examiner
Puck Fair's late-night drinking tradition survives garda objections
Puck Fair, one of Ireland's oldest festivals, where a goat is crowned king for three days and three nights, will see its late-night drinking tradition survive for 2025 after an appeal by publicans in Killorglin succeeded in the Circuit Court in Killarney on Tuesday. On July 10 at the District Court of Killorglin, sitting in Caherciveen, 14 publicans applied under Section 10 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1962 for the annual special exemption to 3am over the three principal nights of the August Fair, Gathering, Fair and Scattering, on August 10, 11 and 12. However, gardaí objected on the grounds of straitened resources. District court Judge David Waters set the opening at 2am, in line with the Garda submission, saying the fair was not all about drinking. On Tuesday in the circuit court in Killarney, Judge Terence O'Sullivan said he saw no grounds to shorten Puck Fair's traditional drinking time to 2am. Puck Fair dated to 1603, the last year of the reign of King James I of England, Judge O'Sullivan noted. Since the 1970s, the pub closing time at Puck was 3am. 'Bigger than Christmas' 'Prior to that, there was a 24-hour opening of the pubs in Killorglin,' barrister Katie O'Connell, instructed by John O'Dwyer solicitor, had told the court. All day and family activities took place and afterwards people would go for a drink. Street entertainment ended at midnight and then the fair volunteers would like to go for a drink to relax and enjoy themselves, Ms O'Connell said. Puck Fair was 'bigger than Christmas" for people from region, the barrister said. 'Chipping away' at the status of the festival was taking place. The statue of the Puck Goat sat at the entrance to the town and economically the festival was important to Killorglin, with people put through college and school on the strength of the fair.. Only the gardaí, not the locals, had objected, Ms O'Connell also said. Garda objections Garda Supt John Ryan of Killarney was called to give evidence by State solicitor Diane Reidy. The garda objections were twofold, Supt Ryan said. Pubs were given an exemption to open to 2am the night preceding Puck Fair and the garda felt that four nights to 2am would be sufficient given the street entertainment finished at midnight. Having pubs open to 3am needed additional police resources. It was reasonable to reduce it by the hour, he felt. Cross-examined by Ms O'Connell, Supt Ryan agreed the fair was "the lifeblood of Killorglin". Ms O'Connell also told Judge O'Sullivan that the organisers of the festival - who are all volunteers - did not want everyone spilling out from the pubs at 2am and the extra hour would mean there was safer dispersal and organisation of buses and taxis. 'It's always been 3am. Nothing warrants the reduction,' she said. While she appreciated the extra garda resources was paid for through taxes, the Killorglin community were also tax payers. The festival organisers contributed €3,000 to the resources of the gardaí, she said. 'Judge Waters thought the front line (policing) should trump anything else,' she said. State solicitor Diane Reidy said the issue was one of resources, not public order and Puck Fair was the only festival in Kerry seeking to open to 3am. 'It's the proper allocation of resources and the additional strain on Garda resources to police it,' Ms Reidy said. Judge's decision In his decision, delivered after a recess to look at the legislation, Judge O'Sullivan said the traditional opening had been to 3am, there was no evidence of anyone in the locality objecting on noise or nuisance grounds. 'In reality the objection is about the pressure on police resources without any particular incident,' the judge said. Judge O'Sullivan said he appreciated the District Court Judge had "more connection" with the locality than himself, but he did not see any grounds to depart from the tradition, he said, granting the exemptions to 3am over three nights.
