NEWS OF THE DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 8, 11 January 1943, Page 2

NEWS OF THE DAY

River Running Lou) The present extremely low level of the Mataura River has aroused the interest of Gore residents. Older residents state that they cannot remember seeing the river running so low. a large gravel bank has been exposed on the north side of the traffic bridge for about 150 yards, and the whole volume of water is now flowing in the main channel on the town side. Six piers of the railway bridge are also completely out of the water. A Long Ride When, a group of girl students returned to Dunedin by train after their vacation, they found that a fellow student, scorning the usual mode of travel, had ridden on horseback from her home in South Canterbury and was already in the city. During last year's session this student had arranged to stable her favourite horse in Dunedin. To avoid the payment of freight by railway or road transport she set out to ride to Dunedin, leaving herself four days to be in time for the beginning of the new session. Increase of 94.94 Per Cent An account for seven surf lines recently purchased by the Canterbury Surf Live-Saving Association showed, when discussed at a meeting of the association, that the lines were now almost twice the price of three years ago. The secretary of the association, Mr. G. Rundle, who took the trouble to work out the increase as 94.94 per cent, said that surf lines had been bought three years ago at a cost of £3 7/6 each, whereas the same grade of line bought this season had cost £6 8/7. These lines would be resold without profit to surf and life-saving clubs. Rata Blooms on West Coast Railway passengers on the Reef-ton-Westport line from Inangahua Junction to Westport get a beautiful view of the lower Buller Valley, which at present is covered with rata trees in full bloom. The hills, and in many places the river banks, are thickly covered with rata right to the water's edge. The full beauty of the valley is not seen so well from the roadside as from the railway line, and this is the first year so many travellers have had the opportunity of seeing the blooms. He Wanted a Taxi! Aucklanders are well aware of the difficulties of obtaining taxis in competition with members of the United i Nations' forces, but a late home-goer on Saturday night experienced at first hand just what that competition can be. Having learned to. "hail" with decision and to • jump for a door handle with the best, he had "got in first" with a taxi that pulled into a city stand. The passengers were already in the car when a United States serviceman appeared beside the driver's seat with an offer of double fare if the taximan would take him instead. His offer was turned down promptly.

New Fijian Dictionary The new Fijian dictionary, compiled by Dr. A. Capell, for the Government of Fiji, has been published lately. This is a revision of the Hazelwood dictionary, which has been the standard work on the language for many years. Mr. Hazelwood was one of the early missionaries and his work has stood the test of time, but many- new words have been added to the language, and Dr. Capell has brought it up to date. Horse Racing and the Maori A passage in a judgment issued by the Native Appellate Court contains a little dry humour. The judgment relates in part to an area of former mudflat now above tide level and claimed to be "native customary land." "The fact that the land was used for horse racing seems to be relied on quite largely by the claimants," states the Court, "but we do not think it could be suggested that horse racing could be part of Maori custom or usage, and at the best it relates to modern times, as the Maori had no horses." Old Coins in Sand While two small boys were digging in the sand near the Stanley Bay wharf they discovered two old pennies, one of them being one of the earliest coinage in Queen Victoria's reign, probably a century ago. The first impulse of the boys, who did not seem to realise the value of their find, was to have a ride in the bus which was just leaving for Devonport wharf. One old veteran said he believed the coins might have been lost when the locality was known as Brick Bay because the first bricks in Auckland were made there and punted across the harbour. "Dive Bomber Mosquitoes" "Talk about mosquitoes!" wrote Bombardier M. J. Healy from an island in the Pacific, in a letter to a Temuka resident. "They say they are not as bad here as further up the island, but I doubt it. They are as big as dive bombers, and there is a story here that one pulled into a bowser the other day. They filled it up with gasoline and it flew away before they realised that it was a mosquito. Taking it all round, though, we are quite happy and have little to complain about. We are losing a lot of surplus fat, but are getting as fit as fiddles."

Sport in the Indian Army "As played by the Gurkhas, basketball is no ladies' game," writes Lieutenant H. D. Ramsay, formerly of Dunedin, in a letter to a friend. Lieutenant Ramsay, who is serving with a Gurkha regiment, said that the officers turned out to play basketball with their men, "who loved-to get the Sahibs on the ground and give them a good ragging." "I have lost more skin playing basketball with Gurkhas than I ever did playing Rugby in New Zealand," he added. The ground was generally too hard for Rugby, he said, but a team of New Zealanders and tea planters had played a team of cadets from Sandhurst at Belgaum and had won by IS points to 3.