LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 65, 28 December 1935, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The condition of Mr A. Sim, of wuiric qnrl Mr R. Clueas, ot Allenton, who were admitted to the Ashburton Public Hospital yesterday. . joining with dangerous, injuries received in a motor-collision at Windermere » ported to be unchanged. Mi U" was showing slight improvement at 3.45 to-day.

Fishing in the Opihi River near Pleasant Point Mr W. Crawford,^ local resident, landed a fine trout, weighing 121 b 4oz, about halt a mile below the Opihi bridge. ine trout, which was hooked on a U Coachman” fly, put up a stubboin fight for two hours.

A rare Christmas present from Eng land has been received bv a Pena (Matamata) farmer m the shape of a £5 gold piece. The coin is in an excellent state of preservation, and was minted in 1887 on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the late Queen V - toria. 'it is slightly less in size than a 5s silver piece, and, of. couise, at the present price of gold is worth a rrreat deal more than iace value, ine gold coin was forwarded in a quaint little purse, which was the property of the recipient’s great-great-grand-mother.

In her annual report at the breaking-up ceremony of the Keith Street School the head mistress, Miss Sampson (says the “Wanganui Chronicle”) said that although the present education system in this country was being criticised she considered that tViGrc was nothing wrong with it. However, there was one change that was long overdue —the need for smallei classes. Conditions, she said, were different to-day and no class should contain more than 35 pupils. Yet three of the classes at the'school each had well over 50 pupils. In her opinion it was too difficult a task to control, train and educate so large a number of children .

“On an average I doubt if these trippers on the big liners that come here during the summer spend £1 a head in New Zealand,” said a Wellington business man whose activities keep him in fairly close touch with overseas arrivals. “These people are really only out to enjoy the cruise. Where they go does not matter very much. They are free from care for more than a week, and many of them, I am told, do not leave the ship at all, even when she is in port. Anyhow, there is only the one day in Auckland and one in Wellington. The ship does not want to stay any longer, as the harbour dues on such Targe steamers are rather heavy. Napier is one of the prettiest seaport towns in Australia, and New Zealand, and is one, moreover, with a unique history, Luf those steamers pass it by, as any form of stoppage, even for a lew hours, would mean harbour dues. The only advantage, perhaps, about these trips is that having caught a passing glimpse of the glorious and diverse scenery, may be tempted to return and make a stay here some time in the future.”

The Rakaia and ltangitata rivers are reported to be very dirty and prospects for week-end fishing in them are not good. The Ashburton river is the only one fishable.

How would two starfish get into a high bank at Mercer? <asks the Auckland “Star”). During the work ot transforming the Mercer tunnel into a cutting, which lias been going on for some Aveeks, the workmen found two fossilised starfish embedded in the rock. Some extraordinary remains are found in rocks. Here is Mercer, <sn the banks of a river, yet about 40 miles from the sea, and they find fish as fossilised remains.

Translating a Maori proverb, Bishop Bennett, speaking at the Hastings High School prize-giving recently, advised the girls not to marry men who singe their tails. The meaning or the expression, said the bishop, was that girls should beware of marrying men who were always standing wjth thenback to the fire and lazily allowing the women to do all the work. Needless to say, the illustration caused much laughter.

There has been considerably more passenger traffic from Ashburton for the Christmas period than for the same time last year. Bookings from December 15 to December 26, totalled 1318 with 1268 for the same period in 1834 and 1252 in 1933. The heaviest day was 280 last LSunday, while on December 16 the total was 176. One hundred and thirty-eight people lett, Ashburton on Christmas Eve, and 126 on Christmas Day.

One Whangarei . man has decided never to swim again in a pool on n property. The other night Mr W. A. Mitchell, of Vinegar Hill, on the upper reaches of the Hatea River, caught an eel of mast repulsive appearance anti size. The eel was 5 feet 4 inches long, weighed 311 b, and had a 01 inches. The locality in which the fish was caught is supposed to be free fiom such specimens, and Mr Mitchell sajs that only one other has been caught m about 20 years. This eel weighed only about 71b. Tne great girth of the eel caught recently made its appearance all the more unpleasant.

•A proposal to 'conduct a series of lectures to motor owner-drivers next winter at Auckland University College (states the “New Zealand Herald ) was outlined by Professor S E. Lamb, professor of engineering a.t the college in a letter received by the council ot the Automobile Association (Auckland) recently. A request for a subsidy to assist the School of Engineering was also sought. It wt.s proposed to charge £1 a week for a series of 23 one-hour lectures on various parts, of the cai. Both matters were left in the tanas of the president and the secretary, with power to act. They were authorised to circularise 1000 members to ascertain what response there would be to the lectures.

Two. journalists accompanying Santa Claus on his rounds to the Sunshine ward of the AVaikato Hospital, and the children’s home of the Salvation Army in Melville found themselves forced into a pleasant but altogether new role the otner afternoon (states the “Waikato Times”). Finding a child struggling to blow up a balloon at “The Nest,” one of the pressmen volunteered his assistance, hut no sooner was the balloon inflated than he, with his associate, was besieged by a host of youngsters in search of the same treatment. Willingly the pair set to work, delayed Santa Claus’s departure for a full 10 minutes, and emerged to the car sadly in need of a deep breath of fresh air.

En route to Australia to explore the game-fishing possibilities in Australian coastal waters, and to make moving pictures, Mr Zane Grey, the famous novelist and sportsman, passed through Auckland by the Mariposa yesterday. The launch Avalon, used by Mr Grey in New Zealand, is waiting at Sydney, and will be used by him while fishing for three months olf the south coast and three months along the Great Barrier Reef, where swordfish and sharks identical with the New Zealand mako have been reported in large numbers. Mr Grey said he doubted whether the sharks reported from Australia as mako were really the same great fighting fish that frequented New Zealand waters. A similar claim was made for a species of shark caught off the Atlantic coast of America, but the fish showed little of the pugnacity of the true mako. The only place outside New Zealand where Mr Grey had caught a. true mako was Tahiti, and even there the fish showed considerable variation from the New Zealand type.

“I think both New Zealand and Australia are in danger of developing u harsh nasal intonation that is very trying to listen to,” commented Mrs T. R. Barrel-, of Mastevton, on hexreturn to New Zealand on the Maunganui. “After the mellow, pleasant voices of the cultured English—l cio not refer to an affected intonation such as the so-called ‘ Oxford accent,’ which is really a dialect—it was noticeable on the boat, where passengers were almost all New Zealanders or Australians, what a number of hard voices there were. Though such voices are not general, it is a tendency of which we have often been warned, and our educationists should give it their attention. A letter appeared in “The Times,’ stating that, ‘ listening to New Zealanders in London, one would say they had all been born within sound of Bow Bells.’ In the correspondence that ensued, Lord Bledisloe took up the cudgels on behalf of New Zealanders. The average education there was high, lie said, and the only people heard to drop the letter ‘ li ’ were the immigrants. In spite of such kindly support I do think we should watch our accent.”

Flow he and his wife came to New Zealand a number of years ago for six months’ trout fishing and were so cha*med with the country that they remained lor 11 years was related in Wellington by Mr P. E. Suttie, a retired jute merchant, who arrived with Mrs Suttie in the Rangitane. Mr Suttie has been absent from New Zealand lor four years, and has now settled in Jersey. He and Mrs Suttie found that New Zealand was a very long Way from their family, so reluctantly left the home they had established at Papatoetoe. Now they have returned to fish for trout again. Mr Suttie mentioned that he had become so enamouerd with Papatoetoe as a residential district that he had written an article for the journal published by the Overseas League, with headquarters in London, extolling the virtues of the suburb as a locality suited to people desiring to retire and offering to furnish further information. He now regretted his enthusiasm, for lie had been Hooded with inquiries and had to submit to an enormous correspondence with people in many parts of the Old Country’ and beyond.

.An Ashburton member of the Canterbury Automobile Association; travelling to Christchurch on Boxing Day, states that lie met 421 cars between Racecourse. Hoad, which lie left at 11 a.m., and the Rakaia Bridge, and passed 47 more cars on the bridge. A total of 587 ears had been passed on reaching Hornby. The careless, driving of motorists on the bridge in not allowing sufficient room for other cars to pass was particularly noticeable, he said, and he ha<j expressed his opinion of the driving to some of those whom he 'passed.

At a sports meeting at Winton on a recent evening a race for boys over 440 yards had been arranged, and the handicapper had great difficulty in handicapping the large field. He did not hesitate, however, to give the smallest competitor a good start, but was surprised when the lad. remarked: “Hey, Mister, I don’t want a big start ; I can run a Eit.” The handicapper accepted the boy’s statement and brought him back another 10 yards. The small boy quickly passed several taller opponents and won the quarter-mile in a great finish. There was no doubt that he could “run a bit.!’

“Whustle an’ I’ll come to ya, me lad,” is the sort of thing kept in mind by the sparrows who live at Thorhdon station. These cheerful girds (says the “Dominion”) have been well trained by the taximen at the station stand, who bring each day supplies of grain for their pets. The arrangement is that the taximen whistle and the sparrows come in flocks to collect the food. Sometimes after the first whistle they sit on the fences watching for the grain to appear. That is against the rules. They must alight on the ground—or no grain. The game is played daily and hundreds of sparrows take part. At the sound of the whistling they appear from everywhere, cheeky and eager.

According to the Abstract of Statistics, New Zealanders are leaving their own country more than twice as fast as new residents are coming to it. For the eight months ended in November immigrants intending permanent residence numbered 1228 (including 32 Indians and 18 Chinese). For the same period the number of former permanent residents departing with no intention of returning was 2832 (including If ‘lndians and 26 Chinese). Of these emigrants 1413 left for Australia, 1033 for the British Isles, 226 for other British countries, 49 for the United States, and 110 for other foreign countries. Besides these, of course, there were many New Zealanders—739B in all—who left the Dominion temporarily.