NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 2, 3 January 1934, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Snapper Off Rangitoto. Campers at Bangitoto enjoyed good fishing oil tlie coast of the island on New Year's Day, when snapper up to 101b and 121b in weight were caught. It is stated that the larger fish are rarely hooked close to land, except during a heavy blow, when they go to the kelp. Campers At Waiwera. Seventy tente were pitched by campers at Waiwera over the New Year holidays, and the seaside beach had a festive appearance. The tent tally was reduced to 00 before the holidays were over. One party of holidaymaker's had the misfortune to get a small oil stove overturned, and the tent-was burned. All the Winners. Whether a knowledge of horses is necessary to win at the races is a debatable point, but yesterday a racing enthusiast who ha* had over four score years' experience of horses proved that it could he most useful at times. By watching the preliminary gallops, lie picked out what he considered the best horse in each race, lie only took one ticket on each race, and had 100 per cent of wins. Unusual Entente Cordiale. A remarkable association, amounting almost to a friendship, exists between a cat owned by Mr. R. M. Adams, of Riccarton, and a blackbird. The bird goes away every' winter, but with" the summer, says the "Press," it returns to Mr. Adams' garden, and while there it is almost constantly somewhere near .the cat. The bird seems to have no fear of the animal, and even appears to play with it.

Gift to Maori Chief. In token of the' esteem in which lie is held by the 'harriers of Wanganui, and as an ex precis ion of Christmas good will, a presentation wart made to Mr. Tanginoa Tapa, chief of the Parikino pa, at Wanganui this week. It took the form of a photograph taken of the 'gathering of harriers at Parikino at the time of the New Zealand cross-country championship last August, and shows Mr. Tanginoa Tapa standing next to ■'. W. Savidan, of Auckland, the champion. The gathering was quite informal. Mr. Tanginoa Tapa, who was obviously delighted with the photograph, thanked Mr. C. R. White, president of the Wanganui Harrier Club, Mr. A. We.ekes, and Mr. F. C. Atkinson for the gift, saying that he would hang it in the pa. He recalled the happy time spent, by the harriers, and said that the Maoris had enjoyed themselves equally as much.

Land Tor Brides. In New South Wales in 1823* a girl was liable to receive from the Government a piece of land as a marriage portion—land being then plentiful and girls scarce. Tile custom, says Mr. Frank Walker, Fellow of the Royal Australian Historical Society, was to grant reserves as marriage portions to the daughters of well-known settler.-!. "This marriage portion—2o square miles in area—was to be reserved," said Mr. Walker, "for the* fortunate young ladies until voting bachelors, lured by this added attraction, 'popped the question.'" The Rev. W. Cowper's daughter was tfto first to receive this marriage portion. -Mr. Walker mentions that the present site of the Sydney G.P.0., where stood a. building used as a police station, was bought by Governor Macquarie for £30 and a hogshead of rum. Good Tennis Sportswomanship. When the umpire called '"game, set, match" in favour of Mrs. 11. M. Dykes in her match against Miss Melva Wake at Wilding Park, Christchurch, in the Minnell Casket competition, Mrs. Dykes declined to accept the verdict. The ball that was called "out," she said, was a good one. Site sauntered in to the umpires' stand, where her old rival (Mrs. Dykes, when she was Miss May Speirs, was a Canterbury player, and held the doubles championship of Xew Zealand with Miss Wake) was' holding out her hand. They shook hands half-heartedly, but Mrs. Dvkes insisted on the game proceeding. Tho umpire had to give way, and "deuce" was called. The rallies were long and fierce, but in the end Mrs. Dykes prevailed. Then, at last, she raced in to the not for a hearty handshake. The gallery applauded the incident heartily. They saw in it a lesson for some of the men, who think that all is fish that comes to their net.

Young Hero Worship. Two friends who had not seen a big cricket match at Eden Park for many years spent a happy Xew Year's Day there on Monday. They left early ,to catch a ferry en route io Brown's Bay. a son aged ten of one of them remaining with two older boys of the other man. It was several "minutes before a tram to the city came along, and they were surprised to see the little chap climbing aboard the same car. As he is a very keen enthusiast, and a boy who knows many of the players personally, this was rather surprising. So was his leason. Vivian had just had a "life." This was too much for the youngster. As he told his father and friend: "I couldn't stay an» longer, because 'GiffV beginning to take risks. Badcock'a sure to get him, and T don't want to be there when his wicket falls." However, his hero played out time, and his worshipper had tlie pleasure of seeing him next morning complete his fourth consecutive hn if-century in this summer's I'lunket Shield contests.

It's a Small World. On his way to catch a ferry to visit North Shore relations he was to meet for the first time, a Lancashire native had an iinil(sual experience on Sunday. An aged nian accosted. him and inquired, "Is your name Smith?" The Englishman replied that it was. '"Well, well,'' replied the septuagenarian,' "L thought I could sec the likeness to Tom and Harry, with whom I worked on the West Coast and was friendly with all their lives. Which of the two was your father?" Now, although the Lancastrian has lwen in the Dominion eleven years, he has never been on the West Coast, eo there is no chance of the veteran having seen him before. His reply was therefore astonishing: "Xoither. As you know, they are both dead. But I do happen to be the son of their eldest brother Joe, who lived all his days in Lancashire and was never out of England." When the visitor, bordering on SO years of age, related this incident to his relations, they, 100, were struck by the resemblance to the four living sons of the two West Coasters. Pitfalls In Spelling.

j "Etymologist" writes: There are words I in the English language that occasionally ; catch us napping, even though familiarity lias accustomed us to their pitfall*. T need v only mention "gauge," "desiccated," fuchsia'' and "unparalleled" our. of a score or more that "give one furiously to think." Curiously enough, a word that is prominently displayed outside scores of apartment houses is on the "tricky" list. I refer to "accommodation," with its double c's and m's. Even signwriters have been known to perpetuate a mistake by painting one letter short, and errors in the written word are frequent. The other day I came across a novelty in spelling errors in the notice, "'Clientß' material made up," the word "client" being spelt with an "a." Added prominence was given by the size and artist.ic; design of the printed notice. The misuse of the apostrophe in'that awful word "gents" is a frequent cause of mistake, and here even! big business concerns have been known to err, probably owing to carelessness. "I've cot a little list," as W. S. Gilbert wrote, and the] word "gents" is one of the first upon it. j

A Windfall. An illustration of the old saying, "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," was furnished during Friday's gale at Gishorne. Several large branches were blown from a tree growing near the old Garrison Hall site, and within a few minutes a S"mall boy, com- ; plete with handcart, was busily chopping up the broken limbs, preparatory to their removal to his home. "Anybody Here Seen Kelly?" At the steer-riding competition at the Mercury Bay sports on Friday last much interest was taken, especially by relatives of the contestants engaged, the bulk of whom came from Kuaotunu, where, probably as a sideline to their work, the young residents in their idle hours, practise steer-riding. Their susceptibilities, however, were rudely shocked' after their numerous efforts and throws from the untamed steeds when a man named Kelly, and not from the Isle of Man either, calmly mounted'a steer back to front and rode it to a standstill, to the applause of the hundreds of spectators present. The steer was just as wild and untamed as any of them. System That Worked Once. Much lias boon written on . the use of systems for backing racehorses, but one young woman on the last'day at KUerslie races had a system 'entirely her own. Her brother, not being sure of bis sister's ability to pick winners, got several real good place bets, from a well-known city enthusiast, supposed to be an authority on racehorses, and presented the choice to her. She accepted the list, but when out of sight she calmly tore it up. it was noticeable that her appearance at the pay-out windows was fairly consistent, and when pressed for an explanation she said: | "On all sides one hears various horses praised! and disparaged. 'Tips' arc too freely given to be important, and I back the horse in each race that I hear the least about. That is: my system.'' And she tripped away to the pay-out window clutching five tickets on Con Fuoco —the profitable winner of the last race. "London Calling."

On a recent morning an Auckland business man sat in his office alone. He was, for the time being, the only occupant of the whole business block,' his presence at work being accounted for by the fact that he was connected with the amusement industry, which, like newspapers, lias little leisure during holiday times. His immediate duties finished, his thoughts tTirned to Christmas in England, and he was wondering what his old colleagues were doing when his reverie was interrupted by the loud clangour of the telephone bell. "London here," said a voice. "dust hang on a minute or two." Could it be that his former chief had gone to the trouble and expense of putting in a 12.000-mile call to greet him at the festive season? It must bo; what else could it be? He waited with eager expectancy, but alas, disillusionment inon came, for the voice over the wire was that of the manager of a local picture theatre, and the subject was strictly business. It was "The London" calling, not the great metropolis.

Churchwardens' Callings. When preparing the list of churchwardens in the diocese (says the "Xelson Diocesan Gazette") it occurred to the writer that a classification of the profession, trade, calling or whatever a man's occupation may be called would be interesting. The descriptions given in the annual returns shows a. jrrcat variety. There is one each of the following:—Orchardist, clerk, salesman, carrier, grocer, railway guard, district engineer, stationmaster, mercer, phimbe •, sawmiller, secondary school-! master, shop assistant, accountant, stocki a pent, railwayman, home duties, postmaster, doctor, orchard instructor and battery manager. There are two bank managers, electricians and carpenters. There are three schoolmasters, blacksmiths and miners. There are four who have retired from their callings, and there are 21 farmers. It can scarcely be said that the church people arc narrow-minded in I their selections. Farmers predominate with 21 representatives; 27 different callings are distributed among the remaining 40. A Communal Holiday. An excellent method of holidaying was adopted by members of the Wellington Y.M.C.A. A bus was hired, and the party of 28, including several ladies, set out on a sight-seeing .trip along the east coast. Each day a party was selected to go ahead in a private car and choose the camping place and prepare the meals. Late on Christmas day the travellers arrived at Gisborne after an uneventful jour-! ney from Wellington. They passed the night in the Y.M.C.A. building there, and the fol-j lowing day visited the most outstanding points of interest in the district, and then set out for Opotiki, via the Motu route. Since! then Mr. Les. W. Anderson (states the "Poverty Bay Herald") has received advice of i their safe arrival in the Bay of Plenty. From Opotiki they intended to travel to TftiirangaJ thence to Kotorua, returning home via Lake Taupo. The cost of the trip for each mem her! of the party was not expected to exceed £5 15/. The holiday had proved such a success \ that the party were already making plans for a visit to Melbourne during the centenary i celebrations. " ,

Night Spent On Beacon. Further particular!? of the mishap which resulted in a Port Chalmers launch party of four being marooned on a beacon in the channel on Sunday night indicate that the experience was anytning but pleasant. After the launch engine failed and the men had given up hope of reaching shelter, the launch drifted towards the beacon, and after one or two failures the boat was moored to it. Heavy seas were running, and no work could be carried out to the motor, so three members of the crew climbed the beacon and took shelter in the rough shed which is built on it below the lamp, the fourth member electing to remain aboard the launch. The wind was bitterly cold for the men on the beacon. Their clothing had been drenched, and with only one wet rug as, a covering they were huddled in the confined space for the night. The fourth member on the boat twice attempted to make himself comfortable on a! settee, but each time, was thrown heavily to| the deck. While he had an advantage over his comrades so far as shelter was concerned, he suffered severely from seasickness. Three times during the night the position of the' launch had to be changed. i

One Happy Boy.

A little boy walked into the "Taranaki i Herald" office proudly displaying a, handsome mode; tip truck, all nicely painted and bear-, ing hits* name on the cab door, and along the Hides of the truck his "occupation,'' that of carrier. 'Die truck it? the work of the boy's father. He is unemployed and consequently funds are scarce, but he was determined that his son should not be denied the joy of a! visit from Santa Clans. It had been the boy's ambition to have a truck, and for some weeks past when he has been in slumbe.rland the boy's father ban worked on'the truck, so that it would be ready for, Christmas morning. Xo stocking was big enough for this gift. It is 3ft long, and the boy wonders how Father Christinas managed to get it down the chimney without petting soot on the bright new paint. The truck is beautifully made and finished, and no detail has been overlooked. It is a perfect model, fitted with headlights,! glass windscreen, closed-in cab with upholstered seat, steering gear, hinged door* with I glass panels, beaten steel mudguards and running-boards, a mechanical contrivance for working the tip, and balloon tyres—double on the back. Screws have been used throughout instead of nails, so that if any part, is broken it can be replaced easily, but the whole toy ' is so substantially constructed that this is not likely to happen.