LOCAL AND GENERAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4812, 22 February 1936, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Readers will be pleased to learn that the Railway Department Has arranged a week-end excursion at very cheap fares to New Plymouth in connection with the New Zealand Band Contest at New Plymouth. Full particulars will be found in the advertising columns of this issue.

An interesting sidelight on the German opinion of the New Zealand troops in occupation after the war was given to Dr. Pottinger, of Invercargill, during a recent visit to Cologne. “They weren’t here long,” he was told. “They were too friendly, always buying chocolates for the children and having everyone as a friend.”

“The Dionne Quintuplets—or quints, as we call them—are now worth 24,000 dollars in their own right, and all within 18 months,” writes a resident 'of Leask, Saskatchewan, Canada, to a friend in Hamilton. “It is claimed that Canada has benefited to the extent of 2,000,000 dollars through increased tourist traffic, as each afternoon the children are placed in a sun room, so that visitors may see them through the glass.”

When scientific experts are searching for a sunken wreck they use a very delicate instrument called an echo-sounder, by which they are able to trace on a chart an outline of the wreck. The value of the echo-sounder has been recognised for some time by marine authorities in New Zealand, and steps are being taken to have the apparatus more widely used in finding the depth of the channels in certain of the more important bar harbours of New Zealand. Such an equipment would provide a quick and accurate record of the state of the channel, and would have a tremendous advantage over the present sounding methods. It would be a great boon to shipowners, and would help to avoid wrecks.

Writing to a friend in Hamilton, a resident of Leask, Saskatchewan, Canada, says;—“We have only two seasons, winter and summer, for the intervening periods are very short. No sooner is it the longest day, June 21, than we get a bad frost, and at times most of our tender vegetables are blackened by August 21, only two months from the longest day of the year. And, as if we live in hopes all the time, as soon as the shortest day (December 21) is past we begin to notice the days lengthening, and very soon we gre looking at the seed catalogues and get right back to mother earth, which, owing to the snow, we have not seen since November 15.”

Following the publication of the special issue of Anzac stamps commemorating the twenty-first anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli, a local artist has raised the question whether the New Zealanders landed wearing caps or hats, since the stamp portrays a New Zealand soldier in the characteristic felt hat of which all members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces were so proud. The artist, Mr. T. F. Nichols, who executed a painting of the New Zealanders landing at Anzac Cove, depicted the “Diggers” in caps. Inquiries at the Defence Office and among returned soldiers revealed that the majority of New Zealanders actually landed wearing felt hats, with caps slung from their shoulder strapsAlmost immediately on landing it was discovered that the high felt hat offered too large a target, and an order was issued to discard hats and don caps. However, it is generally agreed that if the stamp were to depict a New Zealander wearing a cap the representation would not be a faithful likeness of the traditional “Digger.”

People present in the Melbourne City. Court recently during the hearing of a charge of unlawful possession against a young man derived some mild amusement from the quaint but expressive language used by some of the witnesses, and (says the Melbourne Age) by the utter bewilderment on the faces of the members of the Bench at some of the expressions. At one stage so much “slanguage” was being used that members of the Bench looked as if they were hearing a foreign tongue. One police witness said the accused, when arrested, gave the name-of “Teddy Frogskin.” _ The young man told the court he did so “for a joke.” He explained that a woman’s handbag found in his possession had been given to him by a girl friend as security that she would “turn up” to meet him on the following night. Previously she had given him a “couple of skinners,” and he wanted to make sure he did not get any more. The girl in question supported this evidence, adding that she had bought the bag at a draper’s shop in Bourke Street. She could not remember the name of the shop. It was one of those “joints” downstairs — below a shop. The Bench dismissed the case.

Comment on- the general unpreparedness of the Dominion to resist air and gas attacks and on the lack of gas masks, bomb-proof .shelters, and instructors to train civilians to meet an emergency was made by Archdeacon G. H. Gavin, who is in charge of the Waikato diocese during the absence of Bishop Cherrington in England. Archdeacon Gavin’s remarks were made at a meeting of the North Taranaki branch of the Red Cross Association. He said that in his opinion the international situation was most grave, and that the defence deficiency should be seriously considered by the Government. He stressed the fact that the British Government, which was not easily scared, was taking strong measures to increase armaments, a sure indication that they had an inside knowledge of affairs. Archdeacon Gavin was chaplain with the New Zealand Forces from 1914 to 1918, and was mentioned in despatches.