NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 9, 11 January 1941, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Recruit Extraordinary.

Amongst the Territorial recruits who marched through W.llington on Friday on the way to camp, where they are to undergo three months' training, was a private soldier who wore five medal ribbons—the 1914-15 Star (formerly called the Mons Medal), British War Medal, Victory Medal, Military Cross, and French Croix de Guerre. The veteran "recruit" looked remarkably fit, and seemed to be happy to be on service again. A Shark Fact. There are plenty of shark stories every summer, but sharks which normally come inshore about i.ew Zealand are mild in disposition and harmless enough—very different from sharks on the Australian coasts. Most shark stories here, then, are thrilling in the telling, if flat enough at their moments, but a member of the staff of the City Council brought back a shark fact from Makara that is the exception. On New Year's Day his son dived from some rocks and came up to hear shrieks of "Shark!" "He believed it, and put his scrapers in properly," his father said. He reached the landing rock with a foot to spare from a definite attack. The shark, they believed was at least a twelvefooter and hung about the rocks so long that they had time to put a quite inadequate gaff into it, and for someone to bring a rifle, when the shots sent it off, apparently unharmed. A girl, a poor swimmer, was to have dived in with the boy, btf't fortunately hesitated. Race Down the Coast. An interesting race from -Patea to Wellington by four motor-ships—the Foxton, Inaha, Koutunui, and Hawera —ended yesterday. The first ship to arrive at Wellington and also the last to leave Patea was the 1 naha, which left Patea at 8 p.m. on Thursday and reached Wellington at 8.40 a.m. on Friday. The second ship in was the Hawera, originally a steamer, with her engines in the one-time conventional position amidships. She left Patea at 7.15 p.m and was alongside at Wellington at 9.25 a.m. The newest ship of the four, the Foxton, built in 1929, is a twin-screw, flat-bottomed motorship. Leaving Patea ten minutes after the Hawera, she- took over an hour longer for the trip. Last in, although leaving Patea nearly half an hour before the Inaha, was the Koutunui,. which berthed at 11.40 a.m. The Personal Touch. "Out here small things cause great joy and it was a treat to see how parcels were compared, swaps made, and letters exchanged," writes a V.M.C.A officer with the New Zealand Forces w the Middle East in a recent report, when referring to the issue to the men of another consignment of parcels sent by the National Patriotic Fund Board "One coincidence was that one soldier actually received a parcel that had been donated by his sister." The point stressed by the V.M.C.A. officer was the pleasure felt by the soldiers when they found that the parcels sent under the board's unaddressed scheme contained a personal note from the person who had donated it. He mentions in his report that most of the parcels had notes from individuals in them and that in most cases those who received them replied, thus completing the persona L touch. A large percentage of the parcels which came to the regiment to which he was attached were given by Nelson people and high school girls. He suggested that where possible parcels given by large groups might have in them a letter or the like from school girl or boy. Mr. G. A. Hayden, secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board, said that the board fully endorsed the reference made to the value of the personal touch. That was one of the ideas behind the unaddressed parcels scheme. Fire in a Tree-top. A sparrow's nest, poised 40ft from the ground on a branch of a large pine tree in the Botanic Gardens in Christchurch, was seen to burst into flames one morning this week. This remarkable occurrence was seen by the curator, Mr. J. A. McPherson, who did not wait to ponder on the cause, but immediately summoned a member of the staff to climb the tree with a knapsack sprayer in the event of the fire spreading. Fortunately no firefighting was necessary, notwithstanding the dryness of the timber. It is known that such fires have been caused by birds carrying lighted cigarettes into their nests, but Mr. McPherson did not think a sparrow would be likely to carry a cigarette end to a nest 40ft from the ground. He was of the opinion that the bird carried a smouldering match into the nest. The occurrence draws attention to a possible cause of forest and scrub fires, and to the need for extinguishing cigarettes and matches, even when they are left apparently at a safe distance from the danger zone.