NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 72, 26 March 1930, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Long Maori Name. ' Some of the Welsh place-names are hard- to beat for length, and much harder to pronounce, but some of the ancient Maori place-names run the Celts fairly close. Two men on a service car down the East Coast were discussing names. The conversation turned on some of the better-known Maori names, such as KikoWhakare*va. and everyone in the car contributed something to the. controversy. The man who won the competition was a eheep farmer from up the coast, who produced (and pronounced) Pipiwhenuatauwhareparae, which is the name of a hill tip toward the East Cape. Cruise of Southern Cross. Now that-the hurricane 6eason is over in the ; Islands, the Melanesian Mission steamer Southern ; Cross is getting ready for her next cruise, and will eail from Auckland on April 8 for the New Hebrides and the Solomons. The familiar steamer has only four more trips to make before being replaced by two schooners, which will do her . work much more economically. Filial plans and specifications-are now being prepared, and when they are complete the work of building the schooners will be, gone on with. As explained l some time; ago, the schooners wilMi&ve their headquarters in the Islands, and will not come to Auckland, as the Southern Cross does at the present time. Sydney's Vagrants. 1 People in Sydney were evidently allowed to sleep anywhere, thought Dr. J: de Vilnits, a globetrotter, who has recently passed through Auckland. . It was quite the acccptcd thing, he said, . about dusk to see men r methodically going through the parks, collecting all the newspapers which the general public had open-handedly cast from them, with the intention of using them for bedclothes. The police never seemed to take the slightest notice of them. They were just there. It is the same with loiterers in the streets, he continued. In New Zealand there apparently was a strict vagrancy. law, and any suspicious characters were carefully shepherded by the police. In Ballast to New Zealand. ' It is not often that steamers have to come all the way out from the Old Country to New Zealand in ballast, but, owing to the falling off of shipments from England-to Australia, both the Maliia and the Mairnoa, Shaw, Savill steamers, are coming out empty to the Dominion. They are wanted to pick up produce here for the Old Country. If times were ordinary, they would bring out merchandise for Australia, and then come across to New Zealand in ballast, but owing to the temporary slump Australia's imports arc not what they used to be. The Port Sydney is also coming out from England to New Zealand in ballast. Of course, the two Shaw, Savill boats and the Port steamer are additional to the regular traders in the New Zealand-Britain trade. Home of the Tara-punga. The shores of the Blue Lake, on the northeast end of Tongariro, are the nesting place of tho tara-punga, the pretty little gull with pearlgrey back and wings, which is so often seen on the shores of Lake Taupo. '-The lake is set in a rocky amphitheatre, and is about a third of a mile in diameter. The fact that the birds nested in this.solitude is well known to the natives of the Taupo district, and it used to be their practice to visit the place in the nesting season, and gather the eggs for food supplied. Apart from the nesting season, the tara-punga is rarely seen at the Blue Lake. The birds occasionally travel as far afield as the bcachcs along the Bay of Plenty A.. Mr. Massey's Birthday. v Seventy-five years ago to-day the late Eight Hon. W. F. Maseey was born in the North of Ireland. He.caiue to New Zealand ai a young man, and for many years farmed in the Mangere district. He first entered Parliament in 1894, be-, i came Leader of the Opposition in 1903, and Prime Minister in 1912. His death, which occurred in 1925, was largely due to the tireless way in Which he worked while in oflice.- His term included tho strenuous war years. Mr. Massey represented New Zealand more than once in London at Imperial: and other -conferences, and no representative has appealed more to the imagination of the British public. His bluff, honest sincerity struck a responsive chord in the heart of John Bull. North Shore Hospital Needs. Keen interest is taken the people of the North Shore in the proposal to establish a branch hospital across the water. At Northcote there is a hospital reserve of 70 or. 80 acres having a . very fine site, second only to that of the Auckland Hospital site. A hospital there would serve a population of about 25,000, and, allowing three beds for every 1000 of the population, which is the usual quota, that would mean a hospital with; 75 beds. No branch hospital will ever have the special departments that a base hospital has, and all special and. critical cases from North Shore would have to go to tile base hospital. Those who favour a cottage, hospital being erected in the meantime are faced with the fact that the Health Department will not sanction such a building so near a base hospital. When the North Shore will get its hospital is purely a matter of finance. Mount Eden Baths. For ' seventeen years Mount Eden has enjoyed the possession of municipal baths, and though they have been run at a loss the gain to the borough in other ways is considered to. more than compensate. In the loans recently approved by the Loans Board is one of £3500 for a filtration and heating plant for the baths. The ratepayers are shortly to have an opportunity of expressing their approval or otherwise of the proposal. The practice in the past has been to change the water twice a week—a rather expensive business, as the' borough has to buy its water from the City Council. According to the report of a bacteriologist, the presence of bacteria showed the necessity of chlorination. The Borough Council's idea in proposing to heat the water is that the baths. would be popular all through the winter, and not merely in the warm .weather. It Js estimated that if the proposal to chlorinate and filter the water, is carried into effect it will mean a-saving of from 50/ to 60/. Under the ,present system of renewing the water twice a week, the loss in 1929 was £150, in 1928 it was £300, and in, 1927 it was £185. Watermelon Crop Fails.' f People who find the Auckland waterfront a fascinating .place ,for a stroll may have , been struck by the 'absence of the watermelon" boats this- autumn. -In - past -years a trim-yacht- from Whangaparaoa with cabin and deck load of monster melons used to tie up three or four times a week at the launch steps near Prince's wharf ; and; dispose-of her cargo over the side. Large green'melons cut in two were attacked with vigour'by boys sitting on the launch steps. - With their faces, half buried in the: luscious red pulp,' 'the<youngsters reminded the. amused older onlookers of theh-.: own youth, when such a feast meant. paradise instead of the .pains of indigestion. The yacht's customers included all sorts of people—men who carried their purchase away in a. siigai: sack, others who carried it in. their, arms-.like; an 'infant, women who brought kits or. bags, but one very seldom noticed, a boy with sufficient strength, of will to get far away from the steps without investigating the interior and' • having a feast; This year the smart little yacht and- the picturesque • scene j of' bargaining are .absent, and people who are fond of melons will .be sorry'to know that the crop was an absolute failure. Like the. tomatoes, the melons suffered from the unseasonable spring and early summer, and ! though several plantings • were - tried-every. .uner'Msd,