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New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 53

Tempted by the calmness of the water, a party of ladies went for a row on the harbour the ether evening. The boat fell in with a school of porpoises. Feminine fancy quickly transformed tho sportive fish into sinister denizens of tho deep. The solitary man- upon whom devolved tho duty of sculling the boat was implored to change the course. He obeyed orders, but tho porpoises could not bo shaken off. For quite a long time they played around the boat wherever it went, and before they finally headed for Cook Straits the terrified ladies had quite made up their minds that the “ sharks ” had sanguinary designs upon them, and that. Lambton quay and its tea-rooms would never sea them more.

The marvellous perfection to which instruments for the reproduction of i lie human voice have boon brought is illustrated in a gramaphone of tho very j latest patern, which Mr Alfred Hill lias j just brought over from Sydney. By I means of the gramaphone, singers, rtj citcrs and brass bands can be hoard as clearly as if the performers were actu- ; ally on the spot, and there is an entire ■ absence of those jarring noises which i sometimes accompany the disclosure of tho phonographic records. Mr Hill’s is about the first instrument of the Kind which lias found its way into New Zealand. It was exhibited on the Wellington Bowling Club’s green on Saturday. and gave great pleasure to a largo number of visitors. The Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Auckland district recently made an inspection of the Kawliia lands.