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Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 November 1924, Page 16

The Governor of Victoria some time ago sent to His Majesty the King a pair of Mallee fowl as a gift, and these remarkable birds, if they make the voyage safely, and proceed with their domestic duties in the Royal domain, should cause something of a stir among nature lovers privileged to see them. The pair were obtained frcm that genius of Humbug Scrub, Mr T. P_. Bellchambeis, who has been studying the Mallee fowl for 40 years, and has just written its life history. Mr Bellehainbers says that in their moundhatching arrangements these fowls re: veal a knowledge of engineering, chemistry, heat radiation, capillary attraction, and evaporation, and a working acquaintance with meterology, as they prepare for any changes in the weather. The birds sent to the Iving are nine months old, and their parents are aged 15 and 14 years respectively, and are still going strong. To fit the fowl for the rigours of the English climate the youngsters were taken away from the dry conditions of Humbug Scrub and put into wet country. Mr Bellchambers thinks that they ought to do very well in the Royal grounds, but, if they are not a success, another pair will be sent. Lovers of animals, and more especially dogs, may be interested to learn (says the Auckland Star) that in the course of his sermon on Sunday at St. Mary’s Cathedral on the humane treatment of animals, Canon Percival James said that, while, he did not expect others to agree with him, he personally believed in the continuity of the life of animals beyond the phenomenon called life. He said there was nothing in the Scriptures to preclude the idea that animals might not jiass on to an afterlife, and that thought had been expressed by many of the world’s great thinkers, writers, poets and statesmen. A third sunken German destroyer has been salved at Scapa Flow, Orkney. About 30,000 hop pickers left London for Kent recently by the Southern Railway.