LOCAL AND GENERAL

Northern Advocate, 21 October 1935, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Offence in Public Place. ™ , Leonard Deeming, on a charge of casting offensive matter in a public place at Maungakaramea on September 29, was fined 10/ and costs 10/ at the Whangarei Police Court this morning.

Rotary Luncheon. Dr. d. Cook was the speaker at the Rotary Club’s weekly luncheon today. He dealt in a most informative and interesting manner with the health of the Maori race, tracing the history of the Maori from his , arrival in New Zealand up to the present day and emphasising the problems that had been created as a result of contact with the pakeha.

North And Tourists. It is necessary for the North, to be in a position to cater adequately for tourists, to have better transport facilities. That was the opinion, expressed this morning, by a member of a firm catering extensively in tourist transport who passed through Whangarei. That firm, the Aard service, had frequently found that overseas visitors, when notified of the delays necessarily, entailed, through the linking up of transport in the North, had decided to alter, their plans, and miss the North out of their itinerary. ,A through service between Auckland -and the Far North, it was stated, was necessary.

New L.B.W. Rule. ; The new leg before wicket rule, which makes it possible for a bowler to secure a decision with a ball that pitches outside the off stump ana breaks back, will be enforced in the Plunket Shield matches this season, as well as in matches against the visiting M.C.C. team. The New Zealand Cricket Council has decided to ask that the rule should be observed by affiliated associations in all their first grade matches.. The New Zealand Council decision was made following a cablegram received from the Marylebone Cricket Club, asking that the rule should be tried in all matches against the M.C.C. Sociable Seabirds. , An unusual sight met the eyes of the crew of H.M.S. Wellington when she called off one of the smaller islands in the windward group of the Fiji Islands recently (writes a Suva correspondent). As the vessel approached the island immense flocks of - birds came flying to. it and landed upon her decks in hundreds. They were remarkably tame, and two - which landed upon the bridge permitted close-up photographs to be taken of tfiem, and the female bird allowed herself to be stroked. Later a sailor came into the cabin with one bird perched on the palm of his hand. An- officer identified it as a bo’sun bird. When, the sailor went out on deck the bird flew off for some distance, and then came back to settle upon the sailor’s hand again, Bible and Elocution.

“There is no finer training for the elocutionist than in reading aloud' from the Bible. Its prose style is magnificent; it is a storehouse of beautiful and poetic imagery of infinite variety. Its language is of the simplest, and yet it .is the worst read of all our literature,” remarked! the Rev. W. Lambert, who judged the Scripture-reading class at inter-Bible Class competitions in Wanganui. “As a : clergyman myself, lei, me say that as a class, we are nespohsibie for the bad voicing which ;g!nerally accompanies the public'reading of the Scriptures. The parsonical voice is a byword'constantly caricatured. It is muffled by some, singsonged, by others—flattened, breathy and forced. The clergy have passed on this unnatural diction so that many of the best of our lay-speakers are also guilty;”

Motor Trip of 10,500 Miles. A round trip of the United States of America by mdtor-car, covering a total distance of 10,500 miles, was completed recently by Mr P. D. England, of Wanganui, who has returned to the Dominion after three months’ absence. Mr England said that the main roads were mostly of concrete, and driving was comparatively simple because one knew what the other fellow was going to do. On the main highways there were tracks for fast and *slow driving and a centre track for passing. Mr England said it was safer driving along Broadway, New York, than in the Avenue, Wanganui, because of the traffic regulations. With regard to the* prices of petrol the cheapest Mr England obtained was 4£d a gallon and the dearest 1/ a gallon. A noticeable feature of the trip was the American’s love of trees. Everywhere one went trees were preserved. Roads and footpaths were built, around them. The absence of fences outside private homes, with lawns right down to the footpaths, was another pleasing feature. Terrific Heat. When he was going through Death Valley on a motor tour of the United, States, Mr P. D. England, of Wanganui, who returned to New Zealand recently, said that the temperature was 122 degrees in the shade. This made it necessary to refill the radiator every 20 miles, the motorist having to carry his own supply of water. All windows of the car had to be kept tightly shut, said Mr England, to keep out the intense heat. To open the window was to receive a hot blast of air in the face like the flame of a blow-torch. After passing through the magnificent scenery of the Grand Canyon (Arp zona), Mr England encountered the first stretch of really bad road—B2 miles of what the Americans described as “wash-board.” The famous Painted Desert with its beautiful colourings was then traversed, the trail leading on to Santa Fe and Kansas City. In this State Mr England motored for one and a half days through standing wheat, the crops growing right down to the edge of the road, without being fenced in.

The special spring offerings at Henry Wilson’s are arousing the interest of shoppers. The new dress fabrics are already being sought after, while towels, sheetings, curtain nets and damask cloths are selling freely to wide-awake housewives.