NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 118, 12 February 1935, Page 11

NEWS IN BRIEF

Misty Weather Though a fairly heavy bank of fog was present in Cook Strait yesterday it caused no delay to shipping, all vessels entering and leaving port freely. Conditions over the harbour were misty during the morning, but cleared before midday, and the mist was not at any time sufficiently dense to impede shipping. At the Heads and down the eastern side of the harbour, where the fog lay so heavily last Saturday, mist was present, but conditions could not be compared with those ruling earlier. Last night the mist spread further over the harbour, but all ships left as usual without difficulty. Water Polo. In continuation of the Wellington water polo championship contests in the A grade, Lyall Bay A meet Hutt A at Te Aro baths this evening at 5.36 o’clock. Mr. W. 11. Gerrle will be the referee. In the B grade, the first round will conclude to-day when Wellington play Y.M.C.A. at Te Aro baths at 5.30. The second round will commence on Thursday. Keeping Father Straight. “Now I know how you can plough so straight in New Zealand," said a New South Wales farmer to a “Southland Tinies” reporter. He pointed to a hillside on which a man was using a single furrow plough. On the horse which was drawing the plough sat the farmer’s daughter, guiding it with expert hands. Bloodhounds to Seek Trampers. The suggestion that trained bloodhounds should be used to search for lost trampers on New Zealand mountains was discussed at a committee meeting of the New Plymouth Kennel Club. A member remarked that there might be occasions when the use of hounds would have been of great assistance on Mount Eginont. Trans-Tasnian Flyers? A laughable case of mistaken identity was described by Mr. R. W. Lightbund, a New Plymouth Aero Club pilot, on his return from an aerial holiday in the South Island. At Motueka, said Mr. Lightband, he and his companion, Mr. R. Crossman, were mistaken by a tobacco planter for two trans-Tas man flyers and feted accordingly. Mr. Lightband said that he was not allowed by pilots from Motueka to reveal the mistake until after the planter’s refreshments were consumed. Gorse and Ragwort. “I think in many ways your farmers are wonderfully efficient. To see all this rich pasture land which not so long ago was bush-covered is an eyeopener. It will give me something to talk about when I go back to Australia,” remarked one of the New South Wales farmers to a “Southland Times” reporter recently. “But I can’t understand why there are somany gorse hedges and so many fields of ragwort. lam sure good wire fences are much more economical and satisfactory, while it is extraordinary that steps are not taken to eradicate ragwort.” “One Big Eat.” “Railroad journeys in this country seem to me to be just one big eat.” This was the statement made to a Napier man at Taupo the other day by an American woman tourist who has spent some weeks in the Dominion, and who, during her travels about the country, has used the railways to a considerable extent. Remarking on ’ the number of stations on the various lines at which time was allowed for the procuring _of refreshments, the visitor said: “People seem to jump out of trains at. every opportunity to join the scramble for the refreshment rooms, and return to their cars laden with cups of tea and food, which appears to satisfy them for only a few miles. Then out they rush again.” The Clergyman’s Collar. “If it is comfort you want, then a low-fitting collar gives the most satisfaction,” was the remark passed by a clergyman at a hospital committee meeting when the question of the height of the collar for the porter’s uniform was the subject of consideration (states the Auckland “Star”). “I can speak from experience,” he continued, “for we have to wear our collars right up under our chin, and I tell you on the hot summer days they are most uncomfortable. That is why we often adopt the layman’s low collar when free from our clerical duties. I often think it suits us, too, and makes it hard to distinguish us from the ordinary man in the street, who rubs shoulders with us and thinks perhaps what hard-looking faces we have, like all other business men. After all, a clerical collar gives a benevolent appearance, and compels us to walk circumspectly.”