NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 283, 27 August 1935, Page 11

NEWS IN BRIEF

Wanganella’s Mails

The Chief Postmaster has been advised by the .Sydney Post Office that the Wanganella, which left Sydney for Auckland last .Saturday, is carrying, for Wellington, 43 bags of ordinary mail matter ami 70 bags of parcels. The Wanganella’s mails should reach Wellington on ’Thursday morning by tbe Main Trunk Express. Vandal in Cemetery.

Even tiie Bolton Street Cemetery, half forgotten retreat, where sleep many of Wellington’s early settlers, is not immune from the vandal. The City Uo.nncil mentioned in a recent letter to the New Zealand Forestry League that a fine Norfolk Pine in the cemetery had been deliberately barked.

Children's Lucky Escape. Au electric power pole saved two young children from serious injury on Sunday afternoon, when a motor-car swung out of Moxham Avenue, Hataitai, and crashed into the pole, snapping it off about five feet from the base. The children were standing behind the pole, which protected them from the ear.

Fall from a Ship. Although he fell a distance of about 20 feet from a ship to the wharf at Wellington yesterday morning, Mr. E. Bew. a deck hand On the Canadian Challenger, escaped with a lacerated wound to his scalp and injuries to his back. He was taken from the Glasgow Wharf to the hospital by the Free Ambulance.

Administration of Samoa. The Prime Minister, the Rt, Hon. G. W. Forbes, in an interview? at Christchurch, said that the appointment of an Administrator of Samoa to succeed Sir Herbert Hart had not yet been considered by Cabinet. The matter was not urgent, however, as the position of Administrator was being capably filled in the meantime by Mr. A. O. Turnbull, formerly secretary to the Administration.

Pareniata Bridge. On page 7 of this issue appears a sketch of the Paremata general traffic bridge, executed at the instance of the designing engineer of the Public Works Department. Each of the piers, 50 feet apart, rests on a number of piles, which will be driven to the solid under the bed of the harbour. There is no pretence at any ornamentation. Strength has been made the one consideration. The horizontal line presented by the side rails of the bridge may later on be broken by the erection of light standards on the pier-heads. Being for pedestrians as well as for general traffic it will be necessary to light the bridge to ensure safety.

When the Curtain Went Up. Accidents are always liable to happen during the production of plays, and one of the accomplishments of the amateur actor or actress must be to keep his or her head and “gag” or otherwise play for time until the error is righted. In a one-act play at the Wellington Competitions on Saturday night the curtains were rung up to reveal the stage set and a young woman sitting in morose attitude at a table. The scene remained thus in what at first seemed to the audience a novel and dramatic opening, but time drew on with the immobile woman still sitting alone at the table until suddenly the curtains fell again. What should have happened was realised when a voice from behind the closed curtains spoke a kind of prologue, the curtains parted again to show the woman at her table, a second character walked on and the play proceeded. The little drama was then presented without further hitch. If the play does not win a prize the cast will at least be compensated by having in their repertoire one of those comic anecdotes which can be told by all old actors.

Rongotai College Grounds. A grant of £4OO for improvements to the playing field at Rongotai Boys’ College has been received by the board of governors, and the work is now in progress. Rongotai College is on a particularly uncongenial site for football and cricket grounds, for tiie land on which it stands was part of the Lyall Bay sand dunes, now nearly all levelled out for building sites, aerodrome and sports grounds. The creation of turf is difficult on sand with a covering only of top-dressing, and an additional unexpected difficulty is caused by the Lyall Bay sand hills having been a burial ground for unwanted objects that could not be more easily disposed of when the district was practically a desert at the city’s back door. Among the objects which have been found in the grounds of Rongotai College is a moa’s claw, unearthed when the land was being levelled. It seems curious that such a relic should be found in what is geologically recent and impermanent land, but the fact that a promontory not far away is called Moa Point may assist in the conclusion that the district was once associated in the minds of men with the giant prehistoric birds.