NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 89, 16 April 1927, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Shooting Season.

An impression has got about that there will be a close season for duck this year. This is not correct. The season for shooting cock pheasants, Californian and Australian quail, grey duck, spoonbill and black swan opens on Monday May 2, and closes on July 31, 1927. Pukeko can be shot throughout the Auckland Acclimatisation Society's district from May 2 to May :'.l. both days inclusive. Artistic Streets. "The fennel and wild parsley makes a magnificent show from the artistic point of view, but we are not artistic," wrote a ratepayer to the Devonport Borough Council when discussing the state of the footpath outside his' dwelling in Grove Road. He further pleaded that immediate attention was necessary to avoid "annoyance, discomfort and injury." The Deputy-Mayor, Mr. John Henderson, spoke sympathetically ofthe street in question, but regretted that nothing could be done in the way of permanent improvement until the next financial year. Meantime the engineer was requested to take steps to harvest the crop of weeds so pleasing to the artistic eye. Distance Lends Enchantment. Among the best-trained athletes, the percentage of those who can run a mile in anything like "fair" time is very small, and it is recognised that to run the 1700 yards, or four laps of the circle in the Cricket Ground, irrespective of pace, is no mean effort. Distance, it is understood, lends enchantment, and perhaps that accounts for no less than f>2 between the ages of 10 and 14 years lining up for the mile championship of the primary schools on Thursday. Many of them did not complete a lap, others got to the end of half a mile hopelessly beaten, so they retired. The final half and quarter saw them dropping out freely, but a fair proportion kept plugging away to the end, no doubt hoping for the 'second wind" they had so often heard about. Like Moses of Old. On several occasions during the Ministerial tour of the Hauraki Plains this week, play was made on the name of the member for Ohincmuri. One speaker referred to "the Apostle Samuel." and another likened the M.P. to Moses, leading his people to the promised land. However, another reference, not quite so flattaiing, was made when Mr. Samuel arrived at a township in company with the Minister of Lands and Minister of Public Works, five hours behind time. Because it was impossible for an inspection of certain country to be made at such a late hour, darkness having fallen, one speaker with the district's interests at heart found in th-j representative Parliamentarian, a resemblance to the arch traitor of the New Testament! Mr. Samuel enjoyed the joke, and said that if he could live up to the standards of Moses, and lead his people to prosperity, he would feel that he had achieved something worth while. Easter Weddings.

Easter brings Lent to a close, and with it the prohibition for the period of the solemnising of marriage in the Anglican and Romati Catholic Churches. The week following the holy days. Good Friday and Easter Sunday, has always been a favourite time for weddings. The Easter decorations, still in place, lend brightness to otherwise sombre interiors. "Happy the bride the sun shines on" is a saying that is largely losing its force. The innovation of evening weddings ha? gained great favour in Auckland during the past year, therefore it is to be expected that many of next week's celebrations will be held under the illumination of electricity. Good wishes are nowadays expressed in showers of rice or confetti, or more substantially, and no doubt more acceptably, in household furnishings. Poets have ceased to write nuptial songs as was the custom in Elizabethan and Caroline days. Some of these song?, notably Spencer's on the occasion of his own wedding, were very beautiful. Herrick wrote many to celebrate the nuptials of his friends and patrons. Local poets might well consider this as a theme for their verse. Bound in suede or vellum the epithalamic would provide a lasting memorial of the happy occasion.

Creeping Things Innumerable. Although there are people in Auckland who declare that they have seen snakes of variegated hues, the Dominion is singularly free from these reptiles. On odd occasions a snake has been landed in New Zealand with a fruit cargo from the islands or with timber shipments from Australia, but apparently the climate makes it impossible for them to live in the open. When one goes to a Sunday school picnic it is possible to recline on a pile of bracken without first industriously beating all the surrounding locality with a big stick. The fact that there are no snakes in the Auckland Zoo was commented upon to-day by a visitor from India. He said that snakes were of special interest to children, who might in future years, go to a snake-infested country, and find it essential to know the appearance and characteristics of venomous and non-venomous makes. "I quite appreciate the anxiety that is felt should the reptiles get abroad in the country," he observed; "but adequate precautions are possible to prevent their escape, exactly the same as in the case of wild animals. There is a wonderful variety of snakes, many of them beautiful, and some of them absolutely harmless. In fact, the nonvenomous snakes would be an advantage in New Zealand, as they would keep down the various types of vermin, frogs, insects, etc."

A householders' Meeting of One. Public interest in school committee elections is never remarkable for tumultuous enthusiasm, and rarely do the faithful group of civic workers who carry on the self-sacrificing tasks attending to the business details of education ever come into the spotlight of publicity, or receive public encomiums for their work well done. At one suburban meeting last week, however, one solitary householder who attended to hear the committee's annual report read, did his best to reward them as per established precedent. Rising in his place amid a desert of empty benches he moved a formal vote of thanks to the outgoing committee for their assiduous labours; as no one else was present, he then seconded the motion, supporting it with his best wishes for their future endeavours. Then, as the modesty of the chairman made it difficult for him to put a motion adulatory to himself, the householder put his own motion to the meeting, and carried it unanimously with acclamation, with a request that the motion be recorded in the minute-book of the committee. This public encouragement of tneir good work gave, such a fillip to the outgoing committee that they all agreed to stand for another term, and were voted in by the householder present. Touring de Luxe. Imagine a North Island tour in a train made up like that for the Royal party, on a run from Wellington to Napier, the Manawatu (Jorge, to Mount Egmont, a day in the Tongariro National Park, a night at the Waitomo Caves, two or three days at Rotorua, half a day at Te Aroha, the same at Helensville, a fishing outing at Russell, and a visit to the kauri forests at Dargaville. Imagine, further, that the gaps in the railway system of the South Island have been converted into a permanent way, and a similar tour could be planned as far as the Bluff The idea was taken up some time ago in America. Special trains are sent on trips across the American continent, making stops as required at various points. The trains consist of sleeping cars, dining and observation cars, barber shops, library and writing tables, an entertainment car with loud speaker and gramophone for concerto, a lecture platform, a moving picture screen and a gymnasium. The chairs can be moved aside for dancing. During the eummer season such trains leave New York each week and take about eMit davs across. Travellers can take advantage, after a week or so on the Pacific Coast, of returning to the East by a different route. In nautical language, the stops are spoken of as "ports/' and on one or two of the cruises there are extensions, to Hawaii and Alaska.