Local and General

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 23 April 1935, Page 4

Local and General

Letters to the Editor appear on page 2 of to-day’s issue. The Okaiawa fourth grade Rugby team played Manaia. High School at Manaia on -Saturday when the match resulted in a win for iManaia by 15 points to eight. Mr C. Blair was referee.

A pillion rider, in law, has been identified with the controller of a motorcycle, says the "Christchurch Star.” This case as important in regard to the risk taken by the pillion rider, but it is also a reminder of the terrible number of accidents that are occurring every month in New Zealand as the result of this dangerous double-banking practice. Motor-cycles require much more stringent regulation, especially in the elimination of noise, but pillion riding should be made illegal.

"When I find Mr Winston Churchill dej>loring that war is no longer a gentlemanly and chivalrous business,” said Dr. •H. N. Parton at the League of Nations Union at Christchurch, "I asi inclined to remember that it was only after the last war that the common man became articulate through that essentially modern medium, the novel.” Dr. Parton added that had there been a Remarque to record the feeling of the Duke of Marlborough’s common soldiers, the, sentimental illusions about war might long ago have been dispelled.” Sydney is a godless place and Melbourne, on the other hand, a most godly one,” was a remark made by Miss M. A. Trent, who returned to Christchurch from a visit to Australia. "The Sydney Royal .Show will start on Good Friday,” Miss Trent explained, "but in Melbourne I had to get a taxi to take me to church on Sunday morning as the trams did not start to run- there till two in the afternoon. I was warned in Sydney to discuss neither politics nor religion in Melbourne, as feeling ran too high on both topics.”

A "Manawatu Times” reporter visiting an aviary was rather intrigued to learn-that the bird fancier bred his own meal worms. The grubs had been obtained in a small quantity, and kept in a kerosene box with bran, pollard, a little apple for moisture, and flannel or sacking for warmth. The grubs, which multiply rapidly, were over half-an-inch long, and clung to the sacking when it was held up to the light, wriggling with indignation. Meal worms are used to feed soft-bill birds, and in Europe are bred commercially and sent by aeroplane to Britain. They are sold by weight. The need for a proper mental perspective in the observance of Anzac was stressed at Palmerston North on Thursday last by the Rev. John Hubbard when conducting the commemorative service at the Boys’ High School. Anzac Day ought not to be employed to glorify that which was only hell. War must not be allowed to 1 darken.the horizons of the world any more, and love of country and patriotism should be used to .foster a love for all the nations of the world nationalism should be conducive of internationalism. It was a worthy remembrance of Anzac Day for the boys- to give themselves to the task of labouring for goodwill. Thinking of starting a trolley bus service of its own, the Municipality of Osaka, Japan, has written to the Christchurch Tramway Board asking for information concerning the running of the buses. At a meeting of the board, the letter was received, and it was decided, on the mption of Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., to supply the information required. Mr Howard went on to say that the hoard could safely say that trolley buses were a success. Compared with £'22,000 a mile to lay tram track, the overhead gear for trolley buses only cost £2OOO a mile. But in Christchurch, the board was faced with the ridiculous position of having to pay £566 a year for petrol that was not used. “It is a most extraordinary situation,’’ he added. “Gilbert and Sullivan could have writtent quite a funny little story around it.”

How the kufnara first came to New Zealand was related to an interviewer by Mr Taiapa, of the Maori Arts anc; Crafts School at Ohinemutu. The topic under discussion was the ancestral canoes of the East Coast Maoris in the historic migration from Hawaiki. These two canoes were named respectively Takitimu and Horouta. Takitimu was tapu, consecrated to the transport of warriors only, and being thus sacred could not be used for the conveyance of food. As a journey of thousands of miles across the Pacific could not bo sustained without provender, tho voyagers carried a “ruakapunga,” a. huge bird, that wa,s despatched . daily with a warrior on its back to and from Hawaiki and the canoe as it sailed towards Aotearoa. Thus food was regularly supplied to the migrants, and by the agency, of the ruakapunga fresh seed kumaras were first planted on the East Coast of New Zealand, whence this nutritous tuber has been planted everywhere. The ruakapunga. may well have been the feathered counterpart of the giant roc, that great bird whose fabled powers of flight and strength occasioned such terror in the story of Sinbad tho. Sailor.

The last day of tho Easter camp fo.r pilots, organised by the New Plymouth Aero Club, was marred by rain yesterday, By Into afternoon the downpour had become so heavy that none of the visiting ’planes was able to leave the airport’ In the morning, however, a close formation flight Avas made over New Plymouth and the navigation test; for the' Kingsford Smith Trophy was held. W. Stanton (New Plymouth Aero Chib) was first with 85 per cent. Seven pilots were Avithin 10 marks of one another. The test A\ r as set in a triangular course of roughly 12 miles from the airport to the Waitara Raver, thence to Egmont Road and back to the airport. The examiner, FlightLieutenant Somerset Thomas, R.A.F., said that all competing pilots had shoAvn a high degree of efficiency in navigation and that'the general standard in camp Ayas excellent:

I love the tints of auUimn well, Russet and golden broAvn, Brave spots of colour on the grass When leaves come fluttering doAvn. But autumn gone, old winter comes, So don’t delay, bo sure You're safe from 'flue, from oough or cold' ' , _ With Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure.^