NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 115, 17 May 1941, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Harmony at Waiouru. "When I was at Waiouru Military Camp this week I was asked to endeavour to obtain two pianos for use in the camp," stated Mr. G. A. Hayden, secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board, yesterday afternoon. "The isolation of Waiouru Camp necessitates special provision being made for entertainment, and the board would appreciate a gift or loan of pianos to assist in this direction. Sheet music is also required." Ancient Maori Game. In remote Native schools in the north the ancient Maori game of top whipping is still played in the same manner and with the same materials as were used generations ago. The tops, which are larger than their European prototypes, are painstakingly carved by hand from pohutukawa. manuka, or totara. The whip is made from flax or cabbage' tree leaves, tied to a manuka handle, and the method of spinning is to roll the top in the fibres, then set it in motion with a deft flick of the wrist. Thereafter it is a matter of whipping, and the children expend vast energy chasing the tops as they spin in playgrounds, down.tracks, in paddocks, and even along beaches. Troops Marching- at Night. The most suitable means of revealing to night motorists the movement of troops were discussed at a meeting of the Automobile Association, Canterbury, states the •Christchurch "StarSun." The question arose when a letter was received from the Commissioner of Transport (Mr. G. L. Laurenjson) calling attention to the many acciI dents which had been narrowly averted at night with motor vehicles approaching marching troops. "Put white | trousers on four or five of the rear troops," said one member. "Use hurricane lamps at the front and rear," said several. Mr. C. Holsey: We tried that the other week. After a hundred yards the lamp blew out. And then last night, we went on a route march, but the lamp got so hot that we could not, carry it." Crocodile Took Fright. An amusing incident on the Nile is described by a Christchurch soldier in a letter home, states the "Star-Sun." His unit was crossing the river by pontoon when a big crocodile came nosing around the craft. One of the soldiers clapped the bayonet on his rifle and. standing up in the boat, lunged downward at the brute with all his strength. He had. however, much underestimated the toughness of a crocodile's armour, which will turn a bullet; the bayonet glanced harmlessly off the scales and the soldier, carried away by the force of his thrust, dived overboard fairly on to the crocodile's back. Fortunately, the crocodile, more used to being the attacker than the attacked, was for the moment so astonished by the reversal of roles that it swirled away, and the other troops had time to drag their mate back into the boat before the crocodile returned to snap at the proffered meal. Besides a wetting and a fright, the would-be harpooner i got twenty-one days' C.B. for "playing the fool."