LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20823, 16 March 1931, Page 8

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Passenger traffic was heavy on excursion trains to and from Auckland yesterday. There were 352 passengers, including members of the Te Aroha Fire Brigade,' on the special train from Te Aroha and Waihi, and the usual excursion train from Hamilton brought 450 people. There wer'e 316 passengers on the excursion train to Hamilton. Both the Main Trunk expresses last evening were well filled.

The St. John Ambulance made a fast trip to Helensville yesterday afternoon to bring a patient to the Auckland Hospital. The distance of over 35 miles was covered in an ltour and a-quarter, and the journey back an hour and a-half, the longer time being necessitated by the condition of the patient, who had to be spared any jolting.

A number of animals of varied description was brought to Auckland from Canada by the Union Company's cargo steamer Waihemo, which arrived from Pacific - Coast ports yesterday morning. The animals include 27 pedigree Jersey cattle, three purebred pigs, two Rocky Mountain goats and two Rocky Mountain sheep. All the animals will be landed at Auckland, the sheep and goats being for the Auckland ' Zoo. The cattle are for New Plymouth.

No date has yet been fixed by the Marine Department for the opening of the Auckland oyster season, as a number of beds in the Hauraki Gulf have yet to be inspected. It is not likely that the times of opening and closing of the season will be determined for nearly a month.

While a quantity of butter was being loaded on the steamer Cornwall at King's Wharf on Saturday morning, a tally-clerk. Mr. Albert Bruce, aged 43, of 67, Vauxhall Road, Devonport, was struck by a crane-hook, and his ankle was broken. He was taken to the Auckland Hospital by the St. John' Ambulance.

The cable steamer Iris is being recommissioncd and is to leave Auckland on Wednesday for Bass Strait to, mend a fault in the Tasmanian-Australian cable. After the work is completed the vessel will proceed to Cook Strait, where two telegraph cables will be repaired. Captain W. Oliver is now in command of the vessel, having replaced Captain Hughes, who recently retired.

The valuo of surf and life-saving clubs on the Auckland beaches was shoj,'n on Saturday afternoon on tho Takapuna Beach. A small lad, John Hart-Smith, who was playing in a small punt, found himself in difficulties and was brought to shore by Mr. George Cameron, a member of the Takapuna Club. Mr. Cameron, who was teaching some children to swim, noticed the plight of the boy, who had lost his paddle and was rapidly being carried away from the beach by the breeze, and after a stiff swim suceeded in reaching him. The punt was half-full of water when Mr. Cameron reached it, but he was able to tow the boy and the punt to safety.

As usual on the fourth Sunday in Lent, otherwise known as " Mothering Sunday," harvest thanksgiving services were held yesterday in a number of Auckland Anglican and Presbyterian .churches', and also by some other denominations, including the Salvation Army. Offerings of fruit, vegetables and flowers were brought and afterwards were taken to orphanages and other charitable institutions. "Mothering Sunday " received its name from the old English custom by which small girls presented their mothers with " Sininel cakes " upon that day. It was generally considered as giving a respite i;i the midst of the penitential season, and is still so treated in France and elsewhere. Hhrvest festivals, however, are associated with it only in the Southern Hemisphere, owing to the reversal of the seasons.

The question as to which officers of the three services are entitled to wear aiguillcttes on the right side of the uniform coat, instead of on the left side, has been raised by the publication of a photograph in the Herald of Major-General R. Young, the retiring General Officer Commanding tlio New Zealand Military Forces, and his successor, Brigadier W. L. H. Sinclair-Burgess, who are seen wcaiing the cords on different sides. Aiguillettes are worn on the left side by all general officers of the Army, flag officers of the Royal Navy, officers of air rank in 'the Royal Air Force, and by certain other senior officers in charge of commands. Only aides-de-camp to His Majesty the King and to Vice-Regal representatives are permitted to wear the insignia on the right side. Brigadier Sinclair-Burgess has this privilege as he is an honorary aide-de-canjp to the King.

An instructing sign of the times was afforded at the Ngaruawahia Regatta on Saturday by the crew of the winning war canoe, who celebrated their victory, not, as one would imagine, by the chanting of some Maori war song, but by singing the popular " theme song" of a recent motion picture.

That the natives of the Solomon Islands fully appreciate tho work that is being done by medical missionaries was stressed by Dr. E. G. Sayers in the Pitt Street Methodist Church last evening. He said that one old man, who suffered from severe asthma, was so pleased with the result of medical aid that a few days later he sent a canoe load of asthmatic people to tho mission station. These natives travelled 150 miles, so keen were they to take advantage of treatment.

Two very raro feathered visitors put in an appearance in a creek near Renwick, Marlborough, recently. Tall birds with webbed feet and long curved bills, they have been identified as Australian black or straw-necked ibises. Residents have been interested to watch them feeding as they aro expert eel catchers and capture largo specimens. Mr. W. Martin, headmaster of the Blenheim School, saw a pair of Australian ibises at Tahuna, Nelson, during the holidays. Tho birds appear so infrequently in New Zealand that tho chances arc that those now at Renwick are identical with the pair seen at Tahuna.

Fishermen at Corsair Bay and Rapaki, Lyttelton Harbour, are at present catching many of the curious little fish known commonly as "puffers. " These interesting sea specimens swell to an abnormal size when attacked or in any danger and adopt a ferocious expression. In just what manner the swelling is accomplished makes an engrossing subject for research and the habit iB regarded as one of' the most interesting of sea phenomena.