NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 18, 23 January 1933, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

A Thames "Bradman." Thames cricket has its local "Braclman' in R. Clarke. Batting for Tararu against Karaka. on Saturday, heiknocked up 140 runs in an hour, this being his fifth consecutive century. Hf Mushrooms. The recent sultry weather, with sporadic warm showers, following on the" long dry spell, has set those who favour mushrooms looking for that table delicacy. The first, appearance of. the edible fungus is reported from Hamilton, following rain there, and the heavy downpour early on Sunday morning has put folk round Auckland a-niushroom-hunting. Awards Cancelled. •• Notice of the cancellation of a further four industrial awards, owing to the inability of the employers and the workers to agree in conciliation proceedings, is published in the current Gazette. This brings the total number of awards cancelled in this'manner to 59. The latest awards cancelled concern the South Auckland butchers, northern district coach workers, Wanganui municipal labourers, and the Wcstland district motor and horse drivers. • r Northern Big Fish. Last week's reports indicate that the big game fish anglers at Russell and Whangaroa had very successful sport. Two of'the biggest fish taken at Russell were a striped marlin weighing 2111b, caught by Mr. H.» White-Wickham, of London, and another, weighing 2241b, taken by Mr. Hobsoji, of Milford, Auckland. Mr. Hay, of Mercer, landed a mako shark that scaled 1491b. At Whangaroa, Mr. Stanley Ellis' catch included | a swordfish of 2611b, and two mako sharks of 2401b and 2371b. Aorangi's Amenities. The theatre sound system which was installed on the Aorangi a few months ago has proyed successful, and passengers speak highly of the talkie film programmes that are screened in the evening at sea. The portable equipment, in charge of Chief Wiireless Officer Gordon Power, was specially designed for the vessel by Mr. W. D. Kerrigan, of Sydney,, who was aboard the vessel yesterday oil return from Suva. A number of executives and staff of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company on annual leave embarked at Fiji, being allotted cabins on D deck. The little joke of the ship was this mark of exclusiveness. They called their quarters the "C.S.R. Flats!" Demand For Peas. '. • _ , As a result of a keen demand for Marlr borough peas ill Melbourne, a direct boat is to sail from Picton to Australia next month. This will be the first instance of direct loading for Melbourne at Picton for many years, and recalls the hey-day of the barley trade, when direct shipments of the. famous Marlborough grain to Australia were common. Another familiar feature about the present instance is the fact that the name of the Vessel to call at Picton is the Wainui, but it is not, of course, the little old Wainui of the Picton-Wellington ferry service. The boat is to load on February 10. Maori Relics Found.' Greenstone adzes and many other relics which told of. Maori occupation have been uncovered. by workmen at present engaged in levelling the sandhills on the section at the corner of North Parade and Shirley Road, Christchurch. The sandhills on this section were once the camp of Maoris making their way from the Kaiapohia Pa to Banks Peninsula. They stopped there on the journey, caught eels in Dudley Creek, which runs' nearby, and baked them in ovens. 1 The remains of these ovens have been uncovered by the workmen. "Outboard" Thrills. , ■ ; . ... The Outboard racing boat competitions supply thrills comparable with the broadsiding track. At the Auckland Outboard Racing Club's competitions on Saturday at the Panmure Basin, the Seahopper lived up to its name when it 'struck troubled water. She "buckled" so suddenly that she threw the ' driver, C. R. Burgess, overboard and roared on at 25 miles per hour, to pile «p on rocks at the basin entrance. In the last race of the day three boats, Hell's Bells, Silver Slipper and Miss Clevedon, were racing for the turn. Silver Slipper got safely round, but"' Miss Clevedon side-slipped, throwing her driver out, and got into the course of Hell's Bells, which hurdled the other boat, also throwing her driver into the water. Both boats were damaged, but stayed afloat. „ A Day for the Beach. Heavy rain fell in the small hours and the morning broke cloudy, but the day was innocent of rain, and turned out to be a typically hot day—"real old-fashioned summer weather.'' People flocked'to the beaches. On the Waitemata side the tide suited in' the afternoon for bathing, and consequently the beaches on that side were specially thick with people trying to get cool. The boats to the down-harbour resorts such as Motuihi were packed, and-the place is so popular that you wonder where Auckland went when it was "tapu." It was a six o'clock tide on the Manukau side, but that did not deter thousands from visiting the many bays. While waiting for the tide to make the picknickere amused themselves with games on the sand, and many walked around the bays, low tide making this possible to an extent that is unknown on the Waitemata side. When the tide is out one can walk' from below Blockhouse Bay right round to beyond Atkinson's Beach at Titirangi. Habits of Spiders. "Naturalist" writes: "From observation, it would appear that all young life behaves in the same way, and learns by imitation. Young spiders, for example, seem to know fear when their 'parents' are absent, just as children do, and take heart when their 'parents' are at hand. A fly entered the parlour of that spider commonly called daddy longlegs. Immediately about half a dozen small daddy longlege made' for the outer portions of the web as fast as they could run, and that was fairly fast. Then a full-grown spider appeared on the scene and began to treat the fly as it deserved for its carelessness. It? did not fear the fly,, which buzzed in an alarming way. Thereupon the smaller spiders ventured from their hiding places and came closer. Had they been children, one would hivve said they were interested spectators. When the fly was properly enmeshed in the web, they came still nearer. It was, a most interesting study." Unconscious Imitation. Some children at Green Bay, on the Manukau, were amusing themselves yesterday afternoon by swinging on the end of an old rope tied to a branch of a pohutukawa overhanging the beach. They swung out from the bank, and when in mid-air let go and landed on their fpet on the soft sand. Had the .tide been a high one and full in, they would have dropped into the water. Possibly not three people lounging on the beach knew, that the little pakeha kiddies were unconsciously imitating a game that was played by Maori children before the white man liad ever heard of New Zealand., The "Maori swing" was a flax rope attached to a flexible sapling erected at the edge of a river bank, or the sea shore, and used as a sort of human catapult. Tlie village youths and maidens used to spend hours launching themselves into the cool water, and the one that was catapulted farthest was the victor. It is interesting to remember that the children of the two races had other games in common, such as the kite, the top, knucklebones, and even cat's cradle. These games, however, are found in many parts of the world, showing that if mankind had not a. common origin a boy is very much tha same sort of thing whether black, ydloir, or plain white.