SEARCHLIGHTS AT PLAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18711, 17 May 1924, Page 10

SEARCHLIGHTS AT PLAY.

LIGHT STREWS WAITEMATA.

NEW GLORY OF THE NIGHT.

FLEET'S FINAL DISPLAY.

UNWAVERING WHITE FINGERS.

Twenty-four comets, with tails sweeping the heavens—that was one impression of the searchlight display on the Waitemata last evening. From the / battle cruisers came six beams each, and two each from the light cruisers. Light conquered darkness for 30 minutes. It was fortunate, for the sake of effect, that a gale had brought hurrying a veil of clouds to shroud the moon. She was not shamed in the stark electric beams of 4,608,000,000 candle-power, and the withdrawal of her illumination made the victory of the arc lights the more complete. As fortunate, too, was the tarrying of the rain. The thousands who massed on wharfheadSj waterfront, and hillsides had only the wind to stand against. But the gale that set everything else in fluttering motion left the light shafts unmoved. Peerless and proud, like long ghostly fingers, they rode the storm, pierced the mists, and splashed the higher clouds with double circles of light. It ,was the Hood that led this chorus of light. At nine o'clock she took up the baton, and her imperious wave awoke response in every warship of the squadron. There was no ordered movement, but, instead, a medley. Each ship took its own time and its own direction. The effects were unstudied, but each in its own way striking. To the individual this was especially so when a beam literally hit one in the eye. Searchlights mean long distance sight to warships at night. Just what they can do was demonstrated time and again when a low, raking beam revealed in white detail each house on distant headlands. "Why, you can even see the snail holes," cried one spectator. " And the ravages of the borer are painfully plain," came another voice. "Yes, and see the mortgage grinning from the shadows," was the last word. The effective range of searchlight beams is two miles. When used in deadly earnest they do not waver across the heavens. They remain masked until the very instant. Then, at the signal from the fighting top, they shoot at their mark, the guns being fired simultaneously. It is a double release, a devastating salvo of light and-shell. That is putting the searchlight to official and deadly uses. But last night the display was a study in the macabre. Like knives, the beams slashed about in space, crisscrossing, like a heavenly trellis, or radiating like a cubist version of a sunset. Some people saw in the revolving beams the spokes .of the sun's chariot wheels. The power behind the beams is electricity. Each 36in. lamp threw a beam of 192,000,000 candle-power, for which 150 amperes of current was supplied. Sometimes the beam was a comparatively widely-diffused cone; at others It was an attenuated pencil. This variation is produced by a parabolic mirror, giving varying degress of concentration. The highintensity arc lamps are handled by the torpedo departments of the various ships. The final scene was a tableau. For a few minutes the beams were stationary, like lances at rest. The clouds were whitelined by a naval geometry of triangles, and diamonds, rhomboids and rectangles. The troubled waters of the Waitemata glanced and bobbed and silvered as never before at that hour. It was ' strangely beautiful, a bizarre effect, with an impression of unreality and artificiality. There was an air of waiting and silence for all the roar and thrust of the gale. And then there was darkness.

After it all a surge of excited people invaded Queen Street. It was Auckland en masse blown in from the waterfront, descending from the heights, all happily babbling of the last, but finest, spectacle of Fleet Week. There was an overwhelming rush for trams, and long waits for many, but all were content as sharers in the visual feast of a lifetime.

OFFICERS TRY THE ROD., FISHING AT TOKAANU. EXCELLENT BASKET SECURED. A party of three officers of the Delhi, who visited Tokaanu during the week, speak in glowing terms of the sport to be ■had with the rod in the Taupo district. Although the visit was perforce limited to about 24 hours' actual fishing, the party was able to secure a fine basket, containing 10 rainbow trout, weighing in 104A1b., in addition to ' one brown trout. The largest rainbow trout oaught weighed 131b. ° The party was delighted with the result, and, apart from the fishing, expressed their pleasure with the attractive scenery. Their operations were confined to the Tongariro River. MEN'S EXEMPLARY CONDUCT PRAISE BY MAGISTRATE. "AN EXAMPLE TO ALL." The exemplary conduct, of the members of the Special Service Squadron and the splendid example they have set during their stay in Auckland were highly praised by Mr. -J. W. Poynton, S.M., at 1/he Police Court yesterday. Mr. Poynton said there had not been one case of misconduct by the navy men brought under the notice of the Auckland police. Such a record was highly praiseworthy. It was remarkable, and said much for naval discipline that three visits had been made to Auckland recently, by the Special Service Squadron, the Japanese Training Squadron, ana H.M.S. Brisbane respectively, and in all cases the law had not been broken. Such behaviour was an example to the whole community. Senior-Sergeant • Rawle, in ' endorsing Mr. Poynton's remarks, pointed out that the men's splendid behaviour had certainly had an effect, since there had been an unusually small number of prosecutions at the daily sittings of the Court during the week.