LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 8 December 1932, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

During November the. 14 schools which have been supplied with books during the current year by. the Dunedin Public Library were visited by the librarian. Tlie headmasters- of the various schools were consulted, and without exception they were all highly satisfied with the selection of books. The consensus of opinion was that the library formed a most valuable adjunct to the school system, and that, from the scholastic aspect alone, it was most -helpful, to both scholars and teachers.

A bland request for the return of materials for playing pakapoo, which had been confiscated by the police after a raid on a gambling house last week, was made by an elderly Chinese, who had been fined £SO for keeping a common gaming house, reports the Auckland "Herald.” When detectives refused to return the squares of paper, coloured inks, brushes and stamps used for pakhpoo, the Chinese appeared surprised and refused to be comforted by a remark from one of the detectives that the material was no longer of use to him. ‘‘Well, it is no use to you, either,” was liis parting shot. Making his sixth visit to New Zealand m 10 years, Mr H. E. L. Porter, the celebrated English alpinist, arrived in Wellington by the Ruahine last week. He was last in the Dominion three years ago; There were still three 10,000 ft. peaks he was anxious to climb, Mr. Porter said, in an interview. They were Mount Dumpier, Douglas Peak and La. P'erouse. He had suce’eded in climbing - the other sixteen -big .peaks, but those three had so far beaten him on account of weather and other conditions. All were difficult propositions, and unless favourable conditions were experienced he would probably be unsuccessful again.

The handsome dark-green launch Frangipani, built in Auckland for the fishing expeditions of Mr. Znne Grey, was the cynosure of many eyes on Monday afternoon, when she drew up bo the private launch stops alongside the Queen’s Wharf, says the ‘‘Auckland Star.” The scene became more animated when two lorry loads of luggage, baggage and estimated to weigh two tons and a half, arrived and were promptly packed into the launch, which, with the launch Avalon, belonging to Mr. Percy Williams, of Russell, left on’ Tuesday morning for the big game fish grounds down Mercury Bay. The Frangipani, however, was not conveying all of Mr. Zane Grey’s material, another ton and a half being sent to the bay by road—making about 172 packages in all for the camping and sporting requirements of the well-known novelist and his party. It was evident to waterfront spectators of the preparations that the transport item is a prodigious one in the itinerary of the travelled tourist and marine huntsman.

Arrangements for the visit to Hawera on .January 10 of the Australian Boys’ Band, which will ‘commence its tour of New Zealand at the end of this month, will be* made at a public meeting to be held in the Borough Chambers on Friday next.at 4 p.m. The band, which represents the Hurstville (Sydney) branch of the Young Australia League, will give 44 concerts in 28 towns in the Dominion, the net proceeds to be divided among charitable institutions in the various centres visited. There are 38 boys and two adults in the band. The bandmaster is Mr B. W. Caten, professor at the Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, who was a member of the Conservatorium Orchestra which tpured Now Zealand under Henri Verbrugghen in 1920. Mr Caten was also a member of the famous Scots Guard Band. There are 20 boys in the band under the age of 12, and 18 between 12 and 15.