LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 25 September 1933, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Hawera Tire Brigade received a call to a chimney fire at premises in High (Street at 8.20 a.m. on Saturday and checked the outbreak before any serious damage was occasioned. The Sargent Art Gallery Committee has resolved to spend up to £SO on tile purchase of a picture or pictures by Now Zealand artists to be exhibited at the Wanganui Arts and Crafts Exhibition of 1034.

A three-seater motor car owned by Mr A. ChrystaJ, of Eltham, was removed without authority at an early hour on Saturday morning from a street in Eltham, where it had been parked. The vehicle was recovered the same afternoon by the New Plymouth police and a man who was driving was arrested on a charge of unlawful conversion.

February 27 and 28 and March 1 of next year have been fixed as the dates of the annual Rotary Conference to 'be held at New Plymouth. It is likely that the conference will be opened by his Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, and will be attended by between 250 and 300 members of tne Rotary Clubs of the Dominion. Most of tUem will be accompanied by their wives.

The. Christchurch railway station possesses a much-travelled white cat. it performs its job of rat-catching so well that the station staff considers that it deserves the occasional country holiday jaunts. Most of the day ii spends, cat-fashion, sleeping m a sunny spot, but every now and then it explores a guard’s van, gets shut in. and is carried off into the country, in this way it has gone as far afield as Leeston, but its most frequent trips have been to Lyttelton. Of incoming trains the one it knows best is from the Islington freezing works, for the train crew provides a special tit-bit oi meat for it. So welf does the cat iknow this train and the time of its arrival that the cat is always waiting ior it when it comes in.

Among the recent accessions to the Alexander Museum at Wanganui is a set of red and white ivory chessmen, exquisitely carved. Each of the pieces is mounted on a carved ivory ball, which contains, in some instances, two or three carved balls, the one placed inside the other. Placed in a small glass case and set out on a board the set is very attractive, and should, lie doubt, be interesting fo chess enthusiasts. It has been deposited by Mr. P. I). England, and it is understood that it was brought from India by his grandfather The idea of ivory balls being carved one inside the other is quite a common one in eastern decorations, and Mr. V. B. Willis, of Wanganui, has in his possession an elabo-rately-carved ball some four inched in diameter, which contains no fewei than 13 balls, each delicately worked, ft was originally secured in Peking by Mr. Gregor McGregor. An unusual passenger for Honolulu by the Aorangi, which left Auckland a few days ago was a three-months-old Irish water spaniel pup bred by Mr. L. E. Pole, of Morrinsville, and sold to the order of a buyer in Honolulu. New Zealand dogs are said to be in demand in the Hawaiian Islands owing to restrictions on importations from America, for fear of the introduction of animal diseases. No .such restrictions operate with regard to dogs from New Zealand. Mr Pole is secretary of the Morrinsville Gun Club and when residing in Hawke’s Bay took a prominent part in kennel club affairs.

An example of what can be done by the pioneer spirit was given to a party which visited a block of land at Awhitu, near Manukau Heads, selected for small farms settlement. The visitors were taken ashore from the launch in a dinghy constructed by two settlers who, for the past two years, have been making a living by gum-digging in the district prior to the subdivsion_of the block. The timber had been felled, pit-eawn and shaped by the men from pinus insignia trees, aiid in spite of the primitive, arduous methods used, the dinghy is a trim little boat. The Hon. C. J. Carrington, M.L.C., who was present complimented _ the men on their self-reliance and initiative.

As a result of a lucky find by a resident of Central Otago, the Otago University Museum has received into its keeping one of the most interesting relics of the days of the Maori which have yet been discovered in Otago states the “Otago Daily Times.” Recently Mr. G. Rae, of Miller’s Flat, was working over country on the east bank of the Molyneux River, when Income across a cleft in the rocks. C'uri osity prompted him to make a thorough examination, and to bis surprise he found bidden away among the rocks a package about sixteen inches in length. On turning it over be found that il was wrapped in a very finely-woven flax matting, within which was a wrapping of Otago tapa cloth, made of the inner bark of the liohere. Removing the wrapping, he found to his aston ishment a roughly-cut feather box, oi wakahuia, and inside it several large bundles of huia feathers in addition t» a number of smaller bundles of scarlet kaka feathers. In addition to the feather box Mr. Rae found the rem nants of a beautiful plaited flax kit. within which was a flat slat about inches in length, the cutting of which had been carried out with remarkable precision by stone tools. At the museum the box was carefully opened and was found to contain seventy huir feathers. The feathers were bad!;, crumpled and some had been attacked by moths. Under skilled treatment, however, they have resumed some o’ the gloss and beauty that were theirs when they were hidden nearly ICC. rears ago.