NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 252, 23 October 1936, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Sympathy or Congratulation? "Should it be a letter of sympathy or congratulation?" asked a member of the board of managers of the Seddon Memorial Technical College yesterday, when the board decided to send a letter to two of the members of the staff who are leaving to get married. The proposal was that a letter of good wishes should bo sent. This gave rise to the question—and also to the reply of the chairman, Miss 13. C'arnachan, that the tenor of such a letter would be a matter of personal discrimination. Bottle from the Sea. Containing an official paper of the United States Hydrographic Office, showing that it had been thrown from the Monterey in the Tasman Sea on April 2, a bottle has been found on the beach near the South Manukau Head by Messrs. ,T. and L. Clark, of Kairaka. When the bottle was thrown overboard the Monterey was about 300 miles due west of Cape Maria Van Diemen, and about 4(10 miles from where the bottle was found. Another thrown overbol d at the same time was found a few days ago near Maunganui Bluff. One Entry for Gold Medal. Only one entry has been received by the principal of the Reddou Memorial Technical College, Mr. G. J. Park, for the Seddon Memorial gold medal from the engineering class. Mr. Park was given authority yesterday by the board of managers to choose the judges. The chairman. Miss B. K. C'arnachan. explfiMied that there had been another entry, but the lad making it had died. The medal was worth winning. It entailed a great deal of work on the part of the entrants, which meant the surrender of lunch of their leisure time. More entries had not come forward, apparently, because the students had not thought that their work was up to the standard. World's Best Tourists. Americans travel more than any other people, even within their own country, said Mr. A. Gilchrist, of Sale, Victoria, a through nassenger on the Makura, which arrived at Wellington from Sail Francisco the other day. They were particularly interested in short tours around the various cities of the United States, he said. Most of them when visiting cities away from home made a thorough tour of the place and had the places of historical and industrial interest pointed out to them. "Americans are the world's best tourists," Mr. Gilchrist added. New Zealand Defence League. The fact that a wrong impression existed in some quarters over the aims and objects of the Xew Zealand Defence League was mentioned by several speakers at last evening's meeting of the provisional committee of the Auckland branch. It was stated that the league had been described as a Fascist organisation seeking to establish a private army, that it was acting on behalf of a munitionsniaking firm, and that its members had some ulterior motive in linking themselves with the project. The need of having adequate publicity to counteract such foolish statements and to inform the public of the league's work for the common weal was stressed by members, and a special publicity committee I was appointed.

Parents and Children,

"Half the ills of children are clue to interference on the part of parents," said Archbishop Julius at the thanksgiving service at Holy Trinity Church, Avonside, Christchurcli, held as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Avonside branch of the Mothers' Union. "When I was a child," said Archbishop Julius. "I had only to complain of an ache (due probably to bad feeding) to be served with physic. It is not much better now, with the' thousand patent foods and nostrums advertised as good for children. It is a wonder that children survive. Don't doctor your children," he added. "Give them good, wholesome food, fresh air and exercise, and they will be able to shake off disease."

Tormented Memories.

Have you ever known' a cat —just an ordinary tabby cat—to be scared of a bird— an equally ordinary blackbird? Cats are funny things. Here is an Auckland one who, seemingly goaded bv a mixture of fear and indignation, will send a dog of any size or breed yelping for the gate; her eyes bright with suspicion and feline emotion, she will leap at the intruder and turn his tail with a clawed pat on the nose. Frightened she is, but in her fear she finds desperate courage. But let her, resting her red-meat and milkfattened self in the outdoor shade, chance to hear the empty cackle of any innocent blackbird—that is, as innocent as a blackbird may be—and you will see her eyes half open and her ears flick back uneasily. She hates blackbirds in general, and one in particular. Not many months ago that one blackbird was the curse of her otherwise contented life. Her attitude toward it was first one of impotent fury; the blackbird knew it, kept up its torment, and the fury of the cat became strongly blended with fear. As she crossed the lawn, half-exhausted, as contented cats are, by the heat of a summer day, that mocking cackle came as if from nowhere, and in a flash the black inquisitor was darting and swooping close to her head, and the cat knew that all she could do was to mew in fearful impotence. It went on for weeks. The blackbird was unfailingly on the scene, until parental duties called its attentions elsewhere. And so it is that when a blackbird calls to-day, Sally the cat still remembers.

Old Military Disc,

A correspondent, Mr. H. W. Bacon, of 67, Salisbury Road, Gisborne, writes: "Having seen in Saturday's 'Star' where a medal had been lost for 20 years, also a ring for 12, I enclose a German military disc over 40 years old. Whilst digging a hole in my back garden I came across it about 2ft down. It must have been there a considerable time, as I have lived here over 20 years. I was wondering if any relations were living in New Zealand now and would like it." The military identification disc enclosed by the correspondent bears the inscription: "Julius Sasse, Berlin, Trift St. 40. 13-8-ISB4. ERS. Batl. E.R. 1." This inscription makes the disc 52 years old. Affection for Rotorua. "It is a wonderful place. I would like to see it again and again," remarked Queen Salote of Tonga, referring to her visit to Rotorua, during a brief conversation prior to her departure by the motor ship Matua yesterday afternoon. With her Consort, Prince Tugi, who is also Premier of Tonga, Queen Salote has been spending a three weeks' holiday in the Dominion. Although she had seen Rotorua before, her previous visit had, she said, been very hurried. This time she had had a better opportunity of seeing its attractions, and to meet the Maoris, whose language was, she said, very similar to the Tongan. As the Matua left, a group of Islanders 011 the wharf sang farewell songs in their own tongue, while a bugle salute was sounded aboard H.M.S. Dunedin when the Matua passed her. Disturbing the Peace. The quiet of the early evening at the corner of St. Mary's Road and London Street. Ponsonby on Tuesday was startlingly shattered. There was an alarming crash and a clatter, and people in the neighbourhood rushed to their windows in concern and wonder. All was quiet again this morning, but the light of day revealed that the noise of the night before had been the audible expression of a minor disaster. Several yards of the wooden paling fence in front of the house occupied by the Rev. H. Squires, curate of All Saints' Church, were heaped in disorder on the lawn, as if the mighty blow of some giant hand had swept them as: 1,-—for there was no sign of the cause. Put the explanation was given as the uncy|>ected ".ireer of a motor car which had been standing a little way up the steep slope of St. Mary's Road. Moil, it was stated, were working on ihe car when it suddenly moved o(F, t,iok the footpath in itis stride, clattered its way down the fence, and ended its run after taking a lucky course between two street poles. Bouquets and Bricks. "And now I would like to make a present to the board," remarked Miss E. M. Nutsey, lady superintendent at the Auckland Hospital, when she was replying at the Xurses' Home yesterday to a warm welcome slk had been given 011 her return from a trip abroad. She handed to the chairman, the Rev. W. C. Wood, a neatly-wrapped package, which she explained, amid laughter, was a brick. But it had come, she added, from the Park Lane home of Florence Nightingale; when the building was being demolished about 15 of the bricks had been rescued by the president of a national women's organisation with the idea of sending them to various hospitals to be incorporated in nurses' homes. "When I became chairman I was congratulated from all sides, and one day a friend said to me, 'You're getting congratulations now, but later you will get the bricks,'" said Mr. Wood. "It seems a strange thing that I should have got my first brick from the matron herself." However, he promised that the board would treasure it, and added: "In the meantime I will pass it 011 to the secretary; he gets his share of the bricks, too."

Shags as Trout-eaters,

The secretary of the Waimarino Acclimatisation Society, Mr. A. C. Henderson, writes: "With reference to Mr. R. A. Falla's statement at a recent Auckland Acclimatisation Society meeting that there is no proof that the small black shag destroys trout, I would like, through your columns, to inform him that we have sullicient evidence in the Waimarino acclimatisation district to satisfy any society that the small black shag has no more right to protection here •'.hail the large black shag. In my personal exr.evince of shooting and examining shags during the pa c t ?4 years I have shot only one small black shag which did not have trout in its stomach, but was full of koura. This was accounted for by the very wet weather and discoloured condition of the" streams of any size, making the water too opaque for the sliaps to see trout. It was only in the small hush creeks that visibility was at all possible, and it was on one of these creeks this shop was shot. A friend some years later shot a small wliite-tliroated sliajr during similar weather, and water conditions, and found the stomach contents to be koura. These are the only two instances known to my society of the small sliaps eating anything but trout. The only possible reason I can arrive at for the small shng-i not eating trout in Tauvo is tlmt there are few trout in the lake small enou.fo-' them 10 swallow, but away up in the streams, where the small trout are, the small shags will be found living on them. At one time no record was kept by my society of the stomach contents of any shags, but since this theory that shags do not eat trout has been propounded a record has been kept, and although small shags arc not so numerous as large shags in this district, we already have 011 record the following evidence ajrainst small shags:—One small black shag containing one trout (Sill long); one wliite-tliroated small shag containing one trout (7in) ; one white-throated small shag containing three trout (Gin, 7in ai d Sin)."