NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 253, 25 October 1932, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Wanted, a Cat.

A mild sensation was created in the Town Hall last evening, amongst the fair listeners in the front row, by a large rat, which ran along the floor in front of the platform whilst Mr. Szigeti was in the middle of playing the "Kreutzcr" sonata. Thus another thrill was added to an already thrilling performance. One could hardly blame'the rat for wanting to hear the great violinist, but it would seem that, despite the fact that the tendency now is to reduce hands, another employee might as well be added to the strength of the Town Hall staff, and that ie a competent cat. Famous Shipping Disasters Recalled. A living link with the steamships. Kotomahana and Penguin, vessels which were well known in New Zealand's early days, is provided by Mr. J. B. Hutton, of Hataitai, Wellington, who arrived at Auckland yesterday in the Port Dunedin, from Liverpool. Mr. Hutton came out in the Rotomahana in 1879, and for many years he was an engineer officer in the Penguin, being one of the survivors of that ship when she was wrecked in the Cook Strait. The veteran is wonderfully well, despite hits S3 years. He has been on a visit to his sister at Broughty Ferry, Scotland. In Praise of Bowls. High praise of the "royal and ancient game of bowls" was given by Mr. W. Perry, president of the Wellington Centre, at the opening of the Thonidon Bowling Club's season on Saturday. The origin of bowls, said Mr. Perry, was lost in antiquity, but the game was at least 700 or 800 years old. He had played most games in his time, but in his opinion bowls was the best of them all. He knew no other game that maintained so -perfectly the spirit of camaraderie and good fellowship among the players. In bowls the good players did not form cliques among themselves; the novice was as welcome on the green as was the veteran. King Country Fertility. A fanner who arrived from Te Kuiti by car on Sunday, epeaking of 25 years' experience in the King Country, says that he has never seen such phenomenal growth as that which is taking place now. Where only a few weeks ago the cows were looking thin and the paddocks were looking bare, the greatest change he has ever seen has taken place, and everything points to one of the best seasons they have over known. The value of fertilisers i<3 seen every day of the week, and it is almost past belief that some* small farmers are now taking off 50-acre farms. Those who are devoting their energies to intensive cultivation on small areas are even surprising themselves at the results they are getting. Modern China. The medical superintendent of the McKenzie Memorial Hospital, Tientsin, China, Dr. E. J. Stuckey, 0.8. E., B.Sc, is now visiting Wellington on furlough. Interviewed, he expressed the opinion that there is a great future for the Chinese nation. The resources of the country were, he said, vast, and the people were peaceable and hard-working. At the present time, of course, they were disturbed over the action of Japan in Manchuria and the Shanghai affair. In his view, Japan or any other country which tried to seize Manchuria would find there a rather indigestible morsel. He did not think Japan would hold Manchuria. The new Memorial Hospital, which cost £20,000, had a clinic of from 300 to 500 patients a day. The patients were asked to pay a small fee, because Chinese valued their medicine and treatment more if they paid for it. "Home." "Do not pay any attention to those who would rob you of your birthright of alluding to the Old Country as 'Home,' " said Mr. H. T. Gibson, retired headmaster, when addressing, on nehalf of the Xavy LcaTiie, an audience of young folk at the Tivoli Theatre in connection with Trafalgar Day. "To speak of England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales us 'Home' is to supply the keystone to the main arch of that invisible bridge which connects us with the land of our origin. Those who, through either ignorance or- perversity, through either short-sightedness or beclouded vision, cannot recognise in our use of the word 'Home' genuine sentiment, and not mere sentimentality, are indeed blundering into a mental blind alley of civic incompetence. May you youir; Xcw Zealanders ever continue to look upon the Empire as your country and the Old Land as your Home." J "Inside" and "Outside" Medicine. According to Dr. E. J. Stuckey, medical superintendent of a hospital in Tientsin, Xortli China, where from 300 to 500 patients attend the clinic every day, :t has been found best to charge a small fee. He said that if a Chinese got his medicine free and did not like it, he would pour it into the nearest gutter, but if he paid for it he would drink every drop us ordered. The Chinese still preferred their own native doctors for "inside" medicine, but for "outside" medicine (surgery), they gave Europeans the palm. Dr. Stuckey, who is spending two months of his furlough in Xew Zealand, whs asked whether the Chinese were apt in aesimilatin - ; knowledge in Western medicine and surgery. He replied that the Chinese he had come in contact with could learn all the Europeans could teach them. The Season's Best Souvenir. Pictures in colour are again a. feature of Brett's Christmas Annual, and they will appeal specially to friends overseas, as they convey an idea of the colouring that is so marked in our scenery, an idea which m inevitably lost in the ordinary photograph, no matter how good it may be. The supplement picture shows ;> placid corner of beautiful Luke Wakatipu, with the well-named Reinarkables rising in the background, their crests dusted with the fir.-st snows of autumn. A characteristic bit on the Auckland waterfront by Walter Wright is excellently reproduced. Another page is a reproduction in colour of a photograph taken on a Hobbenia-Hke roaJ near Geraldine, South Canterbury, and this will explain to people in the Old Country why we say that Canterbury is "so English. 7, A double-page cartoon by J. C. Hill represents a "mixed ■ bag," immortalising in caricature many well-known people from the Governor-General downwards. The liner Remuera, sailing from Auckland on Thursday, affords an opportunity 6t sending Brett's Annual to friend* at Home, the mail being due in London on December 2. Another mail for Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, Canada and the United States closes at Auckland on Monday, next.

Toheroa and Seagull. An excellent subject for a film study is the New Zealand toheroa, the shellfish which digs itself into the sand on several of the Weet Coast beaches of the North lelantt. There is a toheroa bed on Muriwai Beach, and an interested city resident set out recently to hunt it up. He had no previous experience of this shellfish, but was guided to it, about three miles up the beach from the lower end, by noticing a flock of about 200 seagulls congregated at a certain spot. Observation of the muscular reactions by which a 4in toheroa digs iteelf into the sand in the epace of a minute or so furnished a very interesting ha If-hour for the visitor. October and November are the close season months for toheroa-taking by man, but there iri no close season recognised by the gulls, and these _ birds displayed -great energy and ingenuity in breaking the shells to get at the toheroa flesh. As there me no stones on Muriwai Beach, the guile have to be both active and ingenious to out-guess the toheroa. According to "Wizard" Smith, the toheroa beds adversely affect the value of the Ninety-Mile Beach as a motor speedway. In 1&29 a total of 0532 cases of toheroas, mostly from Ninety-Mile Beach, was packed, representing a value of f 12,442.