LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 30 December 1926, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The secretary of the' Astronomical Society advises that no meetings will be held until about the second week in February. The observatory will, however, be open to the public on Tuesdays. The Presbyterian. Bible Class Conference is being held at Wanganui this week, nearly SOO delegates from all over New Zealand attending. A boy named Keith Doyle, of Oanraru, who left home to attend the conference, has not arrived, causing consternation in conference circles. A magnificent “shot” from Ngarualioe was witnessed at Taumarunui recently by Mr R. W. Smith, M.P., and his son. Mr Smith, junr., told a reporter of the local paper that lie and his father estimated the ‘jshot” to be nearly 2000 feet high. They had seen the volcano active on innumerable occasions, but this shot eclipsed all others in size and grandeur. It- ; hot up straight at first, and then spread out like a huge canopy about the crest of the volcano. “It was a magnificent sight.” said Mr 'Smith. In the course of an interview with a Mana.wa.tu Standard reporter on hie return from South. Africa, Mr. P. A. McHaidy, of Fitzherbert, stated that there were 6000 tennis courts in and around Johannesburg, all made out of hard material, and with an ant-heap covering. Nearly everybody, he mentioned, went about with a. tennis racquet in their hand. “They are of the opinion,” Mr. McHlardy added, “that our game of tennis on grass courts must be slow, and that we ate out of date, but my reply to thus was that we do really play lawn tennis on beautifully cut lawns, and that our best games are all played on the grass; further, that sn far we had turned out many first-class players, including one- world’s champion.” The “shooting” of several scenes for the local motion picture, “Carbine’s Heritage,” attracted considerable attention at the Ellerslie racecourse on Friday, when the performers, with their painted faces, were followed from place to place by people, who found time to think of other things as well as. races. Fifteen members of the company were present, and eighteen .scenes wore taken, among them being one of a bogus arrest of a. villain intent on interfering with Carbine at the stables. This was watched by a large crowd. Pictures were also made of various beauty spots on the course, the gardens lending themselves admirably to screen photography! Of the Tibetans it has been said that they are rather nice people, but do not wash themselves. This is probably true, for Tibet has a long and hard winter. But, according to advices received by Captain Beale, British Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, the reproach should no longer apply to pilgrims to Holy Lhassa, for a large engine and pump is being set up in the Monastery of the Grand Lama, at Lhassa. The whole plant was railed to the end of steam locomotion at Kalinpang. Then it had to be carried in sections to Lhassa by coolies over wild mountain tracks and through gloomy and profound canyons. It takes a month to walk from Kalinpang to the Forbidden City. Dr. Harvey Sutton, of the N.S.W Department of Education, made some interesting remarks on the growth of Australian children at a meeting organised by the Feminist Club in the Hotel Australia, Sydney, recently. The period of greatest growth for the Australian girl, he said, was the year preceding her thirteenth birthday; for the boy, preceding his sixteenth birthday. From the age of six years, Australian children grew five times as fast in the months January to July as they did in the remaining five months of the year. An Invercargill resident who recently spent some weeks in the North Island, chiefly in the Manawatu, Wanganui, and Taranaki districts, stated to a Southland News reporter that- the number of swaggers to be seen on the roads was remarkable. They were to be seen at frequent intervals, travellin g singly, in twos and threes, tramping with swag on back, resting by the roadside or making for a- farmhouse for a meal or shakedown, or both. The majority of these men were honestly in search of work, and many had travelled on foot long distances without success. Inflated land values and the decline in the price of dairy produce had severely hit those parts of the Dominion, and shopkeepers there complained that business was very dull. Sir Hiairry Barwell, who has returned to Sydney by the Mataram after visiting Papua, was impressed by the dearth of native labour for the needs of the plantations. Sir Henry said that the development of Papua was taking place along sound lines; but in the mandated territory nothing march had been done bv the civil administration which was established in 1920. The reason was that the expropriated territories were still in the hands of a board, and developmental expenditure was not considered justified until the plantations were transferred to private enterprise. The transference should be completed by March next year. Further, the natives showed a disinclination to work for white settlers, and in the British Solomon Islands progress was blocked by the labour shortage. He could not see how developments could take place unless coloured labour were imported. Although eight years have elapsed since the signing of the armistice it is only x now that action has been taken to dispose of the hutments at Featherston military camp (states an exchange). A few buildings have been used for other purposes from time to time, but the main features and landmarks of the camp proper have altered little since the days when some 9000 soldiers were in the making at one time. Notable exceptions, of course, are the non-existent social halls, canteen buildings, and the rows of shops. Seventy-five buildings of 15 different types are available for disposal. hut of this number probably IS? will he retained for use by the Defence Department. Thirty-six of the buildings now destined for other purposes are the well-remembered soldiers’ hutments, each 120 ft long hv 20ft wide. It is understood that the Defence Department will give other Government departments the first refusal of the purchase of _ the buildings. after which the remainder or all will he advertised for sale by tender.

How a farmer bought a line of over 1000 sheep from the saleyards as a speculation and grazed them on the road-side until he sold them, renting a holding paddock only occasionally at night, was revealed to members of the Cook County Council at a recent meeting. It was decided to prosecute the breaker of the by-laws.

“The new High Commissioner’s office in London is a very fine building,” stated Mr J. Stanton, of Auckland, who returned from a trip to the United Kingdom and Europe by the Rotorua. “The windows have been specially decorated and present a fine sight with their swordfish and pictures of tourist resorts. The whole thing is giving the Dominion a good advertisement.”

New Year’s Eve celebrants at Hawera will require to refrain from observing the occasion by fireworks demonstration in public thoroughfares, as an intimation has been given by the police that action will be taken against persons so detected. An illustration of the danger incurred by the practice was given on last New Year’s Eve, when the dress of a local lady resident was set on fire through contact with an exploding bomb. The person responsible on that occasion was subsequently ordered to pay a substantial fine.

A special telegram in the Auck'nnd Star from its Stratford correspondent says that further attention is to be devoted to the oil-bearing strata s of Taranaki, the representatives of a wellknown and influential organisation having completed negotiations for the right to exhaustively test by boring extensive areas in the Whangamomona district, on the Stratford-Ohura railway fine. It is announced that experts will he on the field early in the New Year to make a thorough geological survey of the locality, during which the sites on which the various, bores will be put down will lie determined. The most modern machinery obtainable will be utilised in the boring operations.

In a cage at the back of his father’s house in Tonks Street, New Brighton, Master Manfred Kennedy feeds a yel’/ow and black tortoise with, lettuce leaves, thistles, and dandelions for about six months in every year. After that he does not need to. bother with it, because it buries itself in. the ground and sleeps till the warm weather comes again. The tortoise is 14 years old, and was brought from sunny India to Manfred when he was a baby, by his uncle. When it came to New Zealand first it was allowed to run around the hack yard for some Years. On one or two occasions, however, it . was i lost, and a cage was made for it. " Tn the children’s pets section at the North Beach (Christchurch) gala, the tortoise attracted much attention, and its shining mottled shell and vellow legs were admired. Eor the most part it sat perfecty motionless in the farthest corner of the cage, only moving when some inquisitive bov poked it with a stick “just to see if it’s alive.” —Press.