ITEMS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 31, 31 October 1932, Page 11

ITEMS IN BRIEF

About People and Events CHATTER SILENCED When the orchestral prelude to the third act was being played at the Grand Opera on Saturday night the conversation of the audience reached such a pitch that the conductor, Signor Emilio Rossi, was forced to intervene. Signor Rossi rapped his baton on the desk, stopped the orchestra, and turned round to the audience. Almost at once there was silence, and the prelude, one of the gems of the evening, was resumed iu absolute quiet. Elbow Dislocated. Doreen Rough, a schoolgirl, who lives with her parents at 5 Fifeshire Avenue, fell down while playing with some companions at the Pirie Street Reserve on Saturday afternoon, and dislocated her left elbow. She was attended to by the Free Ambulance and taken to the Hospital.

Tracks in the Snow. As a means of ensuring the safety of climbers on snow-covered mountains the Ruapehu Ski Club has experiment? ed with Condy’s crystals, which, when scattered in the snow, leave a vivid coloured stain, readily seen by searchers. In future, all members of climbing parties will -be issued with a small bottle of crystals for use in emergencies.

Arm Broken in Police Cell. A man who was arrested for drunkenness in Hamilton on Thursday evening fell in the Hamilton police cells during the night and broke his right arm. He was admitted to the Waikato Hospital. When his name was called in the Hamilton Police Court ou Friday in connection with the charge of drunkenness, Sergeant Angland referred to the accident and obtained a remand for a week.

Prison Libraries. The libraries in the prison camps of New Zealand contain mostly “old stuff that people have given away because it was no longer any use to them,” according to Miss B. E. Baughan, who addressed. the annual meeting of the Howard League for Penal Reform in Christchurch. She said that the libraries in the prisons were wretched affairs and little official attention seemed to be given to them.

Too Much for Granted. “I cannot help feeling that some social services are being taken too much for granted by the public,” said Mrs. A. M. Bisley, of Hamilton, at the annual conference of Auckland branches of the Plunket Society- She quoted as an instance the fact that at the Waikato Show the society had arranged a rest room for mothers and a creche for babies. For a week six of the committee members worked, each day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and at the end of the week the sura of 2/10 was found in the collection box.

Mr. J. E. F. Perry'as Lecturer. “One phase of his work I would like to refer to,” said Mr. J. Norrie, chief librarian, when paying a compliment to Mr. J. E. F. Perry, his retiring assistant, on Saturday morning, "are his lectures to the scholars of the secondary schools in the central library. These go on through the winter months, and are most delightful to listen to. There is no secondary school in Wellington which does not benefit by these talks, and the effect of such lectures must leave their mark on the children as they grow up.”

1918 Epidemic Recalled. ■ When referring to the school library system at the Wellington Headmasters’ Association’s send-off to Mr. J. E. F. Perry, the Assistant City Librarian on Saturday morning, Mr. H. A. Parkinson mentioned that be was headmaster of the largest school at the time of the introduction of the new system, and remembered an occasion when a whole case of books had disappeared. Mr. Perry, in referring to that episode, said that it bad occurred at a time when a whole lot of books had been lost.® "It was at the time, of the epidemic (in 1918) when the schools were turned into hospitals or depots, and anybody and everybody was coming in and out all day long. We Jost half our books at that time.”

Shoals of White Shrimps. Mr. Adams, who is in charge of the Portobello station, recorded recently the appearance in Otago Harbour of immense quantities of a. small white shrimp. These were being freely eaten by mullet and other fish, as well as by Sga-birds, and their bodies were cast upon many beaches in such numbers as to whiten considerable areas above high water mark. These shrimps were identified by Mr. G. M. Thomson, chairman of the board, as Nyctipbanes Australis, a species found in most parts of the New Zealand area, and also in the sea to the south of Australia. The shrimps seem always to appear in vast shoals, which are not, however, confined to any particular season of the year, though mostly occurring in the autumn and winter months.