General News

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21745, 30 March 1936, Page 10

General News

Weather Statistics

Akaroa has the honour, if it-can be called an honour, of being in second place throughout the Dominion in the total rainfall for' February. First place is taken by Dawson Falls, near Mount Egmont, and with 32.04 inches was the only place to have more than 30 inches. _ The rain fell on 18 days. Akaroa had 25.48 inches, but the days on which rain fell were only six. These figures are taken from the latest issue of the Gazette, and only four other stations throughout New Zealand had more than 20 inches during the month.

Thousands of Grey Shags

The preying of grey shags on the food of fish in the Waitaki river was discussed at the annual meeting of the Waimate Acclimatisation Society. Mr ,S. F. Cox reported that the birds were present in thousands at the mouth of the river, and although they were protected, were a serious menace. He moved that a remit be drafted for consideration at the next conference that these birds be removed from the protected list. The motion was carried.

Missionary to Revisit India

Dr Charles North, of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Baptist Union and Missionary Society, was the preacher at Oxford Terrace Baptist Church yesterday morning. J>r. North, who, with* Mrs North, will leave soon for England, will also visit the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society s stations in East Bengal, at Brahmanbaria, and Ch andpur, where, in 1898, he inaugurated and established medical mission work.

An Unwanted Fence A* 20 foot length of wooden fence and lattice work was placed by some unknown persons across the entrance of the Canterbury University College School of Art on Saturday morning. and students attending classes at the school had some difficulty in crossing the obstacle before it was finally cleared. The police were informed and asked to find an. owner for the fence. It was later found that the same section of fence had been placed across the gateway of Canon S. Parr’s residence in Rolleston avenue, and that a length of fence, answering the description of the one blocking the School of Art had recently been removed from the College House boundary to make room for building alterations. Late last night no steps had been taken to remove the piece of fencing from its last resting-place, against Hereford street boundary fence of the art school. Introducing the Kiwi The chicken raiser of Arizona who had visions of domesticating the New Zealand kiwi because of the abnormally large egg which it lays can be excused for his mistake when a newspaper of the prestige of the New York Times” describes the kiwi as a cross between a dwarfed Australian ostrich and a white Leghorn hen. A correspondent at Rotorua has forwarded to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce a clipping from the New York Times in which this description is given. The reader is further informed that “down takes the place of feathers, its eggs are slightly smaller than a hen’s, and a two foot fence is too high for it to fly over.” This description is accompanied by an illustration which shows a somewhat overgrown leghorn with unusually small wings.

Paspalum Gum

A farmer was startled recently near Papakura, South Auckland, by seeing his white horse come home covered in spots, almost as if it had some disease. But it was found that the horse was “spotted” with a gum that is exuding from the paspalum grass seed pods. Several animals have been so covered, and hard work is needed to make the animals clean again; it has to be done with hot water and a scrubbing brush. This peculiarity of the paspalum has been noted only in fhe last two seasons. It is also causing great damage to clothes in suburban areas, where the grass is overgrowing the footpaths.

Caterpillar Pest

The caterpillar pest, recently reported to be causing extensive damage in North Auckland, has also appeared in the Okato district, 16 miles from New Plymouth. A 16-acre paddock of oats on Mr L. O. Sullivan’s farm was completely ruined. Ploughing was hampered by the pests crawling over the horses and driver whenever a halt was made. Though the area is a long way from the coast many seagulls gathered each day to feast on the insects. War in Abyssinia

The best basis of peace in the war between Italy and Abyssinia would be a settlement by negotiation on terms that would be received favourably by most of the inhabitants of Abyssinia, according to Lord Cranworth, an English visitor to Auckland, who travelled through the country in 1911 as a member of a British delegation that endeavoured to promote trade with Kenya. Lord Cranworth, who met all classes of people in Abyssinia, said that the present Government of the country was not looked on with much favour. It would be a disaster for the white races, however, if ended in complete victory for the Abyssinians.

People who had travelled through Abyssinia did not held the natives of the country in any affectionate regard. Apart from bravery, it was difficult to find any admirable quality in the ruling tribe, the amhara. A Novel Hare A novel hare was seen running at a greyhound race meeting at Otahuhu, Auckland, recently. The hare, a very good imitation of the live animal, was threaded on a wire running round the course. A cycle frame had been upended, and the thread attached to the hare was wound round the back wheel. Two men turned the pedals by hand, and aided by a 120 gear, managed to keep the hare ahead of its quarry. Early in the evening there was considerable trouble with the apparatus, much to the delight of a crowd of small boys. Their delight knew no bounds when in the middle of a race the hare stopped dead, and cries of “Got a puncture, mister?” were hurled at the uncomfortable operators. “Spectre of the Brocken” „ “The spectre of the Brocken,” that strange phenomenon in which' mountaineers see their shadow reflected in a bank of mist, occurred during a recent traverse of Mount Oates in the National Park region at Arthur’s Pass. The occurrence of the spectre of the Brocken is very rare, but has been recorded occasionally in the European Alps, and has been recorded in Canterbury by Mr G. Mannering. During the traverse by Messrs W. Fraser and R. Scott a halt was made in the early morning on the

shoulder of the mountain. On their looking west towards Goat Pass, where a bank of mist was hanging, their shadows appeared in the centre of a circular rainbow. As the mist receded or approached the shadows altered from nearly life-size to gigantic proportions, and the effect continued for some time. The following account of an appearance of the spectre of the Brocken in the Hartz mountains in Ger-

many is given by an old writer and an experienced mountaineei i : “When '-the rising or the setting sun throws his rays over the Brocken upon the body of a man standing opposite to fine light clouds floating round or. hovering past him, he need only fix his eyes steadfastly upon them and in all probability he will see the singular spectacle of hi? own shadow extending to a length of 500 or 600 feet at a distance of about two miles before him.”