News Of The Day

Northern Advocate, 23 January 1939, Page 6

News Of The Day

Dry Spell Continues, After a month of dry weather, Whangarei and district farmers are looking anxiously for signs of rain. During the week-end the barometer dropped to 29.8 and there were indications of rain for today. However, .a rise was recorded this morning, the barometer showing 30.2. Rain still seems as far away as ever. Sheep farmers are not noticing the effects of the prolonged absence of rain, but it is having a very adverse effect on dairy herds. In many localities there is a serious water shortage, farmers in some centres having to carry water for household and other purposes.

* « • * Amusement and Embarrassment. For a while all went well. She was an antiquated model, but by all the laws of motoring justice, she should have gone at the will of the driver. Like most old cars of this make she was used to carrying a heavy load, including mother, father, sons and daughters, a few neighbours, and an overflowing collection of weekly provisions. But on Friday she revolted, and chose Whangarei’s busiest intersection as the scene for the rebellion. As the crowd gathered, “Lizzie” became more disobedient to crankhandle and self-starter. As the crowd found humour in the incident, “Lizzie’s” occupants grew more embarrassed, while other motorists swore silently at the needless hold-up. It was only a minute or two before the car again started, but Friday night shoppers had a hearty laugh from the incident.

$ i> ♦ * Dredge Returns to Work. With the completion of its annual overhaul,, cleaning and painting, the Whangarei Harbour Board’s dredge was towed from the Town Wharf Basin back to Port Whangarei to-day, and will resume dredging of the swinging basin. The dredge was laid up just before Christmas.

Miss Nora Heysen, the daughter of a leading Adelaide landscape painter, Hans Heysen, has been awarded the Archibald Prize worth £450 for a portrait of Mad : ame Elink Schuuerman, wife of the Consul-General for the Netherlands in Sydney. ♦ * * * The Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, has refused the second request by the leader of the Opposition, Mr. C. R. Attlee, to summon Parliament.

Whangarei Business Approves of Shorts. '

Envious eyes are being cast at the Kensington Petrol Service Station. When other businessmen and employees are making their way to work clad in neat , suit, collar, tie, and felt hat, the proprietor- of . this service station and his assistants go ; about their duties bedecked in summer shorts. A businessman in Kaikohe was recently noticed performing his duties clad in shorts and open neck shirt and minus socks or jacket. He does not have the privilege (all to himself, however, as the cool appearance of the Kensington garage attendants shows.

Porpoise School at Ocean Beach. A spectacular display by a school of nine porpoises was given at Ocean Beach, Whangarei Heads, yesterday afternoon. Several fish leaped clean out of the water when not more than 50 yards from the rocks. Big rollers were coming in at the time, and the porpoises could be seen swimming and turning close to the surface. The school made straight for the rocks, wheeled, and headed for the peach at such speed that onlookers expected them to go aground. At one stage two of the fish were in breaking water. With remarkable ease they doubled in their tracks and made off after the school, which headed north, still hugging the coastline and 'performing “aquabatics.”

JNQUIRIES among Wellington motorcycle importers with reference to the report from Palmerston North that the motor-cycle business was being crippled by the refusal of the Government to license imports of new machines, failed to discover any parallel case in Wellington. Several importers have not yet received their licenses. ’