NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 150, 27 June 1931, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Good Wishes to (x. L. Weir. Mr. G. L. Weir, one of the Auckland members of the New Zealand cricket team at present in England, is a teacher on the staff of the Brixton Road School. Yesterday the scholars held a penny collection and raised sufficient money to send him a cable, conveying best wishes and hopes for his success, if chosen in the Test match team. "Dad" Weir, as he is affectionately known to his friends, is as popular amongst the scholars as he is with Ms sporting acquaintances. Successful Shooting Season. According to reports received by the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, good sport has been experienced with pheasant and quail during the present season, which will close on Tuesday. Game has been plentiful in all parts of the district. The limitation on a number of pheasants to be shot by a license-holder in a day has been nine this year, but there have been no restrictions on the number of quails taken. Ordinarily, sportsmen do not approach the limitation on pheasants, and they are satisfied with two or three birds. The licenses issued by the society for duck, pheasant and quail shooting were 2150 for the present season, the decline of 75 from the licenses issued last season being much less than was expected. The "Human Touch." How soon news travels amongst the poor was shown this week at the relief office of the Hospital Board. Well-known produce vendors at the Auckland market gave four sacks of apples to be distributed amongst poor families, and as women applicants for aid came in the relief office staff told them to bring baskets and they would be given a supply of fruit. The good news spread so rapidly that within a day or two scores of women and children, with baskets of varying sizes, appeared, and soon the whole gift was distributed. It was a happy little incident, for, although the relief office issues orders for food, they do not actually see the goods supplied, and the happy expression on the faces, of those who carry away their parcels. The gift of fruit supplied the "human touch." A Kindly Act. A kindly act of one of the lady helpers in the annual street collection of the Auckland Hospital Auxiliary yesterday, the object of which action was to save au unemployed man possible embarrassment, is told by a man who was on his way to try and get a position at the time. "Coming from Ponsouby this morning seeking a job," he writes, "I was politely accosted by a lady presenting a box for the Auckland Hospital Auxiliary. I said I was unemployed, with five children, and could not help; but that I was connected with a musical party which is giving concerts at the institutions which the auxiliary helps. The lady immediately gave me a badge, so that I wouM not be asked again. I thought it was very thoughtful on her part, and I should like to thank her publicly." The letter was signed, "Out of Work."

Source of Lake Pupuke. There was some interesting theorising as to the source of the water supply in Lake Pupuke at a conference which was held at Takapuna yesterday. It was generally agreed that the lake must be fed from an underground source, possibly through rock beds of volcanic origin, as well as by surface water. It was shown that the fall in the lake level was comparatively slight, considering the continual and ever-increasing demands which have been made upon it by the four iNorth Shore boroughs. A prediction made by an Auckland engineer in 1928 that the lake would bo practically exhausted hi 12 years from that date was referred to by Mr. J. W. Williamson, the ex-Mayor of Takapuna. The engineer had reported that with a normal rainfall and a contiLual increase in consumption the supply would be seriously impaired in ten years' time. As a matter of fact, the fall in the lake was only about lOin a year at present. Mr. H. F. W. Meikle, Mayor of Devonport, referred to the suggestion that the lake was fed by underground sources, and said it was quite feasible that after it fell to a certain level it would bo more rapidly: replenished. i

Rewa Shelters Fish. When the four-masted barque Rewa was taken down to Moturekareka, one of the islands near Kawau, it was intended she should be used as a sort of summer hotel, but instead of settling down comfortably on her bottom she took a decided list to port, and the only things that sleep aboard are the birds. The sea enters freely through a couple of big holes in the old barky's side, and the small fish have found her inside such a comfortable spot and so perfectly safe from the marauding kahawai and kingfish that they have turned it into a sort of piscatorial nursery. Hundreds of small fish go there, but even in that secluded spot they are not entirely free from attack. With the cunning inherent in his race, the small black water rat has found out that the Rewa's hold makes good fishing ground. There is no doubt the rat takes a certain toll of the little fish, because Mr. Hansen, the owner of the island, has found fish skeletons where the rats have hauled them ashore and stripped the flesh off the bones But an occasional rat raid cannot be so deadly as the continual onslaughts of the deadly kaha wai and kingfish, and so the Rewa continues t< be a popular resort with the small fish. Nelson Relics. Some very interesting relics of the famous Admiral Lord Nelson, Captain T. M. Hardy, o; the Victory and Trafalgar, and Lady Hamiltoi are to be shown shortly at the Auckland Wai Memorial Museum for a few months. They con sist of Lord Nelson's own sextant, his first dirk his pocket compass and a watch, and Captair Hardy's sextant and two watches. They were purchased by an Aucklander from the estate oi the late Miss Pamela Hardy, grand-niece of Captain T. M. Hardy, of the Victory, in whose family they have been ever since Trafalgar. They were originally purchased for the Auckland Museum, but the naval historian at Greenwich and the trustees of H.M.S. Victory at Portsmouth were so anxious to retain them in England that the Aucklander decided to put them on the Victory, because he thinks it is their right place, and also as a slight token of appreciation:of the wonderful respect and regard New Zealanders ! are held in in the Motherland, which, he says, all visitors to Britain from these parts must surely endorse. The H.M.s. Victory is now lying in one bf the first graving docks made at Portsmouth, i and has been entirely restored above deck, s If is the great naval Mecca in England, no less than a quarter of a million sightseers having visited ier last.year. •. ...0r;.;...: IndianisedTiji. '•/•;•- •"' •"' ' '• "Best team" of four horses: Mahadeo Singh, 1; Bissan. Singh, 2; Govindasami, h.c." No, this is not an extract from the report of a show in India; it is from the "Fiji Times," and there is a -whole column full of the names of Gandhi's fellow countrymen who won prizes at the ploughing competition and stock show of ,the Nadi Cane Growers and the Sigatoka Cane Growers. .The Iridianisation of the. Crown Colony . has .been gradual but'effective, and with so'many Indians so close, to-New Zealand it is no wonder that increasing numbers wish to take up their residence among us. In 1929 the Indian population of, the ; group was 73,125; to-day it is estimated at' 75,117. The Pijians themselves number.'9l,7ll, so' the imported colonists are gradually overtaking the native stock. The Indians were introduced to provide cheap labour for the sugar plantations, but gradually they have been settling down as permanent'residents,, until to-day some parts of Fiji are quite as Indian as India.. . Most of the Indians remain agriculturists, even wh.-ot there are more attractive pursuits open to them. Of the whole sugar crop harvested in Fiji, the Indians grow 75 to 80 per cent, and in 1930 they supplied cane worth £453,000 on the trucks. Outside sugar the crops mostly grown by the Indian farmers are rice, cotton, dhal and make. The Indian is an excellent farmer, and makes the best possible use of his land.