General News

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21990, 14 January 1937, Page 8

General News

Sharks at New Brighton While sun and surf-bathing are not so popular at New Brighton as was noticed last year visitors to the seaside find a good deal of pleasure and display a lot of patience in fishing from the pier. While the small boys and the amateurs content themselves with light fishing lines and hooks that occasionally catch herrings and other fish of various sizes, the experts wield heavier cords at the end of the pier. A fair amount of success attends their efforts and during the last week some excitement was caused when sharks measuring sft Sin and sft lin were landed. On Monday Mr W.- Keogh caught a shark from which, when opened, no fewer than 32 young.were taken. Recently another;’produced 28. Sixty progeny for two sharks shows the productivity of these fish and the difficulty in keeping their numbers under control. The young shark in this case served to provide bait for further catches. A huge conger-eel, some skate, elephant fish, groper, cod, and kahawai have also been landed by the expert fishermen on the New Brighton pier during the last few days. Thorough Investigation The Fish and Game Society of Western Australia wishes to introduce Californian quail into its district, but it does not intend to add to the State’s pests. After having consulted acclimatisation societies and ornithologists in New Zealand the society is now asking branches of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union to give their opinions on the quail. The question specially asked is whether birds have become a pest, in what direction and to what extent. Members of the North Canterbury executive yesterday agreed that Californian quail were not a pest, one member saying that the greatest pest was the manner in which Christchurch sportsmen cleaned out the plantations. Members also expressed appreciation of the thoroughness with which the Western Australian Society was making its investigations. “If our own acclimatisation societies had been as thorough as this in their investigations of new game we should have been much better off than we are to-day,” the president, Mr G. C. Warren. “A Frozen Fort” “We hear of some ridiculous misconceptions of Southland,” remarks a Southland newspaper, “but it is hard to think of any more amusing than this. An Invercargill resident who has been living in Wellington for some time was talking to a Wellington friend and the conversation turned to Bluff. The Wellington resident must have known very little about Bluff, for one of his questions was, ‘How long is Bluff frozen over each year?; ” All-Metal and Glass Buildings All-metal buildings and a greatly-increased use of glass as a structural material were among the many interesting developments foreshadowed by Mr C. R. Ford, of Auckland, in a review of science in architecture, delivered to the engineering and architecture section of the congress of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science. Vacuum panes, glass bricks, and bullet-resisting glass were among the new products coming on the market.—Press Association. Heavy Loss in Lamb Values The heavy loss in fat lamb values where water was lacking was mentioned by Mr Anderson Riley, of Marlborough, in an address on water supply problems at Temuka. From his district, he said, about 60,000 fat lambs were railed every season. Forty thousand of these Jambs would be driven six or seven miles and during two days they would not get a drop cf water. At a very conservative estimate these lambs would lose a pound to two pounds each in weight. Calculated at 6d a pound, with only one pound loss in each lamb, the loss involved each year in the district was considered to be more than £IOOO. Right Hand and Left Eye The handicap under which many persons labour through not knowing that while they use their right hand for such things, as writing, it is their left eye which is dominant, thus leading to lack of co-ordination, was brought out in two papers given by Mr R. Sankey Fraser and Mr F. G. Hayes Towns to the opticians’ section of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science. It was stated that this lack of natural coordination between hand and eye provided a latent disadvantage in any field of manual activity, and both lecturers found that such persons had a hidden tendency to revert to left-handedness for certain actions.—Press Association A Costly Error The great similarity of colour, size, and design between the Reserve Bank £SO note and the 10s note has caused serious loss to a visitor to Paeroa. He purchased a small article in a local shop, and. thinking he was handing over a 10s note, inadvertently paid over a £SO note. The shop assistant failed to notice the mistake and the valuable note was placed in the cash register with other 10s notes. Change was subsequently given to other customers and the small red note worth £SO was paid over a second time in mistake for a 10s note. Some' considerable time elapsed before the original mistake was noticed by the visitor and, although every effort was made, the lost note has not been recovered. Auckland bankers say the mistake could easily be made and they advocate an alteration in the colouring of the £SO notq, to prevent similar occurrences. One bank manager says that the present mistake is far from being unique. Public Reserves and Parks That . only £12,000 had been set aside by the Government for expenditure on public reserves and parks was mentioned by the Minister for Lands (the Hon. F. Langstone), when a request made to him, when he was in Napier, for the purchase of 155 acres of well-known native bush country at the summit of Tutangakumu, on the Napier-Taupo road. “This money,” said the Minister, “does not go very far when it has to be divided among the 775 public domains, more than 800 reserves, and eight big national parks. However, the Government is really in earnest in trying to preserve as much as possible the remaining beauty spots of New Zealand.”—Press Association. Fishermen’s Appeal The limits recently, imposed on the size of fish caught by men in the fishing industry were discussed by a deputation headed by Mr J. Campbell, which waited on the Minister for Marine (the Hon. P. Fraser), at Stewart Island yesterday. Mr Campbell said that experienced fishermen on the island claimed that a 10inch fish was a good edible fish and to throw it overboard was a total loss for fishermen. Fish were dead when thrown back and only went to feed sharks. The Minister said that the rule would not be enforced until a full investigation had been made. His desire had been to conserve the supply of fish and ensure a good supply for fishermen in future. Mr Fraser added that he was very anxious to have the fishing industry put on a proper footing and to ensure a good living for fishermen.—Press Association, Exiles from Germany “A large number of German Jews, exiled from their own country and coming, out to Australia and New Zealand, was a noticeable feature on the Mongolia, outward bound to Australia,” said Miss B. Stevenson, who returned to Dunedin by, the Marama. “Many of the exiles told passengers that since they had boarded the vessel they had laughed for the first time in many months. Passengers were particularly kind to them, and care was taken to make them happy.” Baggage and the Customs The new system under which passengers arriving from overseas make signed declarations of dutiable goods instead of replying to oral questions by customs officers received a rather hard first trial in Auckland this week when the Awatea arrived from Sydney with more than 400 passengers. The plan, appeared to work well, for though the examination shed was a very busy place as the large quantity of luggage was landed, the officers seemed to have less to do than usual in the interrogation of passengers, and undue delay was apparently avoided.