General News

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28999, 14 September 1959, Page 10

General News

Fifth Column? The bayonet and scabard of the only FN .300 semi-automatic rifle in the country was stolen from the “Army Week" display at the Auckland Drill Hall on Friday night. The theft has been reported to the police.—(P.A.) Magpie Attack E. Baraden, a member of the Avon Amateur Cycling Club, had to contend with an obstacle not usually associated with cycling when he took part in the Christchurch to Timaru race on Saturday. Near the Orari bridge, Barnden, who was riding on his own, was attacked by a magpie. He had a difficult time trying to ward off the bird and it was not until an official in a car closed up on Barnden that the bird desisted. Religious Pet • The congregation of St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church in suburban Melbourne, was kneeling in prayer yesterday morning—when a wallaby came hopping up the aisle. He hopped from the church .doorway, past lines of pews, and jumped through an opening in the altar rails into the sanctuary. Wideeyed parishioners waited in silence to see what would happen next, and the wallaby hopped back through the altar rails into the aisle, where he was caught by two men in the congregation and shepherded outside. He had escaped from the backyard of a nearby house.— (P.A.)

Takahe’s Diet The takahe eats anything from guinea pigs to rats, according to Dr. G. B. Orbell, who discovered the takahe still living in 1948. Dr. Orbell told the Association of Friends of the Museum in Dunedin that six pairs of guinea pigs were kept in the enclosure on a farm in the Wairarapa where several takahe are kept in captivity. The birds were fed the young guinea pigs as they were born. There was now a new-born bird on the farm, and it seemed to be thriving well. It was living on fresh grass. Whitebait Catches Catches of whitebait have been disappointing in Otago and also on the West Coast, which is usually one of the best places for netting. Only 501 b to 601 b of whitebait has been transported from the West Coast to Otago since the season opened on September 1. Most of the whitebait was caught in the Awarua river, Big Bay. Book By Hillary Under the title “No Latitude for Error,” Sir Edmund Hillary has written a book on his share in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. He is now revising the book which will be published in England. In the official account of the expedition led by Sir Vivian Fuchs he wrote the New Zealand section. His own book is a personal account of what the New Zealanders went through in laying depots and making their journey to-.the South Pole, Locomotive Derailed

Railway services between Christchurch and Lyttelton were continued with the use of a diesel engine last night after an electric locomotive was derailed in the Linwood locomotive yards not far from the Linwood station. The mishap happened late in the afternoon, and the locomotive was returned to the rails and taken away by 8 p.m. Lyttelton timetables were not seriously affected.

Lack Of Patronage Sunday suburban rail services, reinstituted in Auckland on trial nine months ago after a lapse of several years, ceased yesterday because of lack of patronage. Since December 14 the Railways Department has run on Sundays five trains each way between Auckland and Papakura and four trains each way between Auckland and Waitakere. The highest numbers of passengers to travel at one time yesterday were 72 on the southern line and 83 on the northern line. A train which left Auckland for Papakura at 9 a.m. carried only 22 passengers. An official said that the services had lost more than £2OO every Sunday since they started. —(P.A.) All-Age Sunday School

The establishment of an all-age Sunday school at the Berhampore Baptist Church, Wellington, had an auspicious beginning yesterday. One hundred and thirty-five attended the classes, which were supervised by 27 teachers. The youngest at the Sunday school was a baby nine weeks old, the oldest a woman aged 76. One of the teaching staff was 80 years old. The all-age Sunday school is already operating in several Baptist churches in New Zealand, and ih based on a 50-year-old system, intended to bring church teaching on to a universal family level, which originated in the United States.—(P.A.)