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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19965, 6 December 1926, Page 8

Scenes reminiscent of the days when steamers embarked and disembarked passengers at .Dunedin, were witnessed on Saturday afternoon prior to the departure of the Maheno for Melbourne, via Bluff. The vessel was timed to sail at 2 p.m., and long before that hour a large crowd had assembled on the Rattray street whart. > It is estimated that over 1000 persona were present, and they found much to occupy their attention. Waterside workers dodged through "the crowd with trucks of goods, and people chatted freely with departing relatives and friends. - Two racehorses were hoisted aboard and lowered into one of the for’iard holds. The Maheno carried a large complement of passengers, and these lined the ship’s upper decks when she moved out from her berth at 3 p.m. The vessel was assisted to turn in the basin by the tug Dunedin, and she presented a fine spectacle as the tug escorted her down channel. When the Maheno passed the end of. the Victoria wharf there were renewed calls of “Good-bye” and hundreds of handkerchiefs were waved, while broken coloured streamers held by many passengers floated in the breeze. ' The ferry steamer Maori from Wellington to Lyttelton encountered-a fairly rough passage on Friday night and Saturday, and was about an hour later than usual in arriving at her destination. The express ’train, which is timed to leave Christchurch at 8.50 a.m., was consequently delayed, and was not despatched until 9.20 a.m. The train, however, made up nearly all the time lost, and arrived in Dunedin some minutes after the schedule time. Two fine overseas pictures—“ln Memory of Bravo Meii: The Delville Wood Memorial Unveiled” and “The Guard Dies, But Never Surrenders: The Unveiling of the Guards Division War Memorial on the Horse Guards Parade, London”—form the front page of the illustrated section of the Otago Witness, to be published to-morrow. “The Chaos in China,” showing the Hanyang Gate where 10,000 people perished; “ ‘Slip Coaches’ for Aairships. R 33 in ‘Taking Off’ Trial with Two Planes,”; “An Outsider’s Cesarewitch Victory,” where Myra Gray won at 50 to 1; “Britain’s Most Powerful Passenger Locomotive”; “The Historic Regatta at Venice,” and "A New Bridge to Connect England with Scotland' 1 are other pictures from overseas, ana present a fine variety of spirited photography. Pictorially represented subjects nearer home are “The Forbury Park Trotting Club’s Spring Meeting at Dunedin”; “ ‘Miss New Zealand Comes Home to Dunedin”; “An Otago Harbour Board Enterprise” ; “The Sculling Championship of New Zealand”; and “Distinguished Visitors to the Dominion,” the last showing Admiral Sir James Fergusson with his wife and daughters, who are at present in New Zealand. The issue contains a number of photographs of pretty girls, Washington’s most beautiful debutante, “The Little Woman Preacher,” competitors for the American International Beauty Contest, and fashionable mannequins being shown in attractive and typical costumes. A beginning was made in Sydney recently with a new organisation for young people, which, if it is as successful in Australia as it has been in other countries, may become one of the Commonwealth’s great movements (reports our correspondent). Its aim is to enlist the active interest of boys and girls in the land, through junior farming clubs, and to' assist them—and through them, their parents and their own children in later become more scientific farmers and graziers. The movement has the active . backing and blessing of the Agricultural Department* the Royal Agricultural Society, and all the kindred organisations. Lectures, demonstrations, and classes will be included in the work of these junior clubs, one or two of which are already actively operating.

The City Fire Brigade received a call at 10.25 last evening to a shed off Cargill road. On arrival it was found that a slight blaze Kad broken out, but had been extinguished before any damage was done. Details of a sad drowning accident at the Public Works camp at Tangarakau on Saturday of last week show that a small boy named” Pat Duggan, son of Mr and Mrs P. Duggan, was playing with other children on the bank of the river which runs at the back of the married men’s quarters, when he stumbled into the water' which was in high flood at the time. His mother, hearing the children calling for help, hastened to the scene and made heroic efforts to reach him. Had it not been for the timely arrival of another woman, who, with great presence of mind, pulled the mother out of the swift running river, in all probability there would have been a double tragedy. The child quickly disappeared. The body has not been recovered. The boy, who wias about three years old, was one of a family of nine children. Memories of Solomon and the disputed baby were recalled at a function at the Auckland Y.W.C.A. Hostel last week, when the trophies won at the recent girls’ athletic contest were being presented. In the competition for the New Zealand Herald Challenge Cup, two teams—Brown Bros, and Geddes and the Presbyterian Bible Class Union —tied for first place, and the question arose as to which team should hold the cup. The two captains were called to the stage to receive the cup, and the awkward question of precedence was solved by the pair advancing arm in arm. Fortunately the cup was furnished with two handles, and the trophy was borne off by the two girls after the manner of Jack and Jill with the pail of water (states the New Zealand Herald). Thus far honours were even, and a whispered consultation resulted in the captains agreeing that one team should hold the cup for the first six months, and' the other team" for the remaining period, until the cup is again in dispute. Sixteen bankruptcies, 13 of which were in the North Island, were notified in the latest issue of the New Zealand Gazette. Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., presided over a brief sitting of the City Police Court on Saturday morning, and fined two first offenders for drunkenness, 20s and 10s respectively. The alternative in the first case was 48 hours’ imprisonment, and in the second 24 hours. “The suggestion that telephone subscribers should be charged according to the amount of use made of the telephone is one that has received very careful consideration by both the department and the special committee appointed by the Canterbury Progress League a few years ago,” said Mr P. R. Climie, secretary of the Progress League, on Thursday, in commenting cm a letter in Wednesday’s issue of the Lyttelton Times, dealing with the question of telephone charges. “While it is admitted by all concerned that a system of measured rates is the fairest that could be employed/’ Mr Climie added, “it unfortunately necessitates keeping account of the number of calls on each telephone, and the heavy additional cost of accounting outweighs very considerably the benefits to be derived If, however, the department could classify the telephones into two or three distinctive grades according to use, it would certainly remove or reduce the inequalities mentioned! by the correspondent.” The recent strange case of suspended animation of postponed death, in a Maori village at Wanganui, sends memory tagging hack to other curious instances of the soul’s stubborn refusal to part company with the body (says the Auckland Star). Many years ago a Maori tobunga named Ehau enjoyed great popularity in the Waikato and the vicinity for his alleged success in bringing the dead hack to life. At any rate he performed the feat in a quite astonishing manner on one occasion, when he caused an apparently dead girl to sit up and speak. There a case near Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, a few years ago, when a woman who had died clearly repented of her rash decision, for she rose on her couch and interrupted the tangi by describing most vividly her journey to the Reinga, the Maori spiritland, and what she saw there. She was offered food to eat there, she said, but fortunately she was not foolish enough to accept it, otherwise her “wairna/’ her soul, would have remained there. But the most remarkable incident of all happened at a big tangi on the West Coast. Wiki, an aged chieftainess, had died, to all appearance, and the loud mourners were beside her bier. A surreptitious bottle of brandy was going the rounds among the members of the wake party of wahines. The corpse suddenly pushed away the mats and sat up. Stretching out her tatooed right hand, she mad© peremptory request: “Homai te waipiro f In astounded silence the bottle was passed. Wiki took a long, long pull, sighed a deep gratified sigh, and sank gently back on her pillow. They all said it was a beautiful death.

Fresh water fishing in New Zealand has increased greatly in popularity in recent years, and the authorities are making it much more difficult now for the unsporting fisherman to take his “catches” by illegal methods (states the Evening Post). The law regulating fishing by recognised means is gradually. being tightened up. The Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. R. F. Bollard) says it is realised that poaching has been carried on, and every effort is being made tp control this illegal method of taking trout. Additional therefore been appointed. “Further,” Mr. Bollard says, “the time has come to stop the catching of large quantities of irons for the purpose partly of creating records, and it is now being made illegal for any person to take more than 25 trout in any one day, this being considered a very good basket. It was believed that a fairly large amount of poaching was carried on at slight time, and, further, that illegal methods were in some cases adopted, such, for instance, as fishing with illegal lures, and it was therefore decided to. make it illegal to fish for trout between the hours of 9 p.m. on any one day and 4 a.m. on the following day.” The recent discussion by the Imperial Conference of the question of dual control of the New Hebrides Islands by Britain and. France has brought up again a curious error in the definition of the boundary of New Zealand(states the Wellington Evening Post). That error involved the inclusion of the New Hebrides group, and mod of the islands of the Pacific in New Zealand territory. The Letters Patent of ber 16, 1840, which established New Zealand as a separate colony, defined its boundaries to be “the parallels of 54deg 30min ’north,” and of 47deg 10mm south Latitude, and the meridians of If&ieS smin, and 179 deg east longitude. The verbal error &E “34deg 30min north” was corrected in the Letters Patent of April 4, 1842 by which the northern boundary was defined to be “33deg south latitude.” And curiously enough in a joint letter from the Agents-general for New South Wales, J'cw Zealand, Queensland, and Victoria in 1882 it was pointed out that “the New Hebrides group was originally part of the New Zealand 'under the charter of 1840. A sweeping criticism of the present-day State educational system was voiced by Mr E. C. Isaacs, late inspector of technical schools, at the breaking-up ceremony in connection with the Pelmerston North institution (states, the Dominion). “Our schools at the present time are not functioning as they should and are not ing the powers of the children as they should be doing,” said Mr Isaacs. _ “In my owinion the system of school instruction has not progressed in effectiveness in the last -500 years, while it is 50 years behind public opinion and public demands. Our technical schools system is too bookish. I would remove education absolutely from politics, and, secondly, I would have no individual director of education. _ What can one man brought up in a literary atmosphere know about trade and the professions and the primary industries of our country and be able to euide the destiny of the nation’ Therefore, continued the speaker, I feel that education never be brought into its true place in the national life of the people until we evolve a co-operative system. We must have aa administrator, but I would have the best brains of the country associated with him in determining the best system t°r schools. I would secure all experts, Tiius would every possible power which our children possess be brought out. and by means of having every side of our national life represented wo should accomplish soma good.” •

There was a good deal of amusement amongst the passengers of a train which passed through Te Kuiti a day or two ago (reports the Auckland Star), when they heard a farmer on the platform complaining that labour was very scarce, and that it was nearly impossible to get a man who had been trained to do farm work to go out back to his place. “The best man ,t can get,” he added, “is a steward off a boat, and to see that fellow trying to learn how to milk would make a cat laugh, although it has to be confessed ho is mannerly to the cows and calls them many endearing names. The best of the joke, the missus thinks he is a grand fellow for the backblocks, because he has taught her how to shake all the crumbs on the tablecloth cn to a plate like they do at sea, so that on a wet day. she hasn't got to shako it outside. Then he amuses the kids by showing them how to balance a plate on his nose; but, oh laws, to try and make a farmer of him is almost beyond the power of anyone!” ,

An extraordinary and, so far as I can gather, unprecedented occurrence took place on a local farm one day last week (writes the Okaiawa correspondent of the Hawera Star). The owner of the farm is a lover of bird life, and the farm is really a sanctuary for wild ducks and pheasants. A pair of wild ducks have made it their home for some time, and about a week ago the farmer was quite pleased to see a nice brook of about a dozen ducklings swimming in a dam. A day or two afterwards some members of the family, upon visiting the spot, was astonished to see one of the ducklings struggling in the clutches of a number of frogs. W ith the aid of a long 'stick an attempt at rescue was made. Some of the frogs let go, but the remainder dived under a log, taking their victim with them, and that was the last that was seen of it. The action of the frogs presents a problem which perhaps some of our naturalists can solve. It is beyond the majority of us. How a woman who had a house to sell, in tne vicinity of iimaru, obtained several hundred pounds more lor it Uidu sue originally asked, makes an interesting little story (states tho Herald). Hie woman Lad decided to ask £650 lor the property, and an agent, having heard of her decision, took a prospective buyer to see it. It so happened tnat v.hen they arrived at the house the lady was dressing to go out and did not und it convenient to go to tho door, so she sent her attic daughter with instructions to say that she was not at home. The agent and tiie prospective buyer thought that, while they were at the house there could be no harm in looking through it, so they stepped in and carried their desire into effect. bn realising the position, the woman of the house, being only partly dressed, stepped into the wardrobe in her room and closed the door, and when tho self-invited visitors reached this room, on their tour of inspection, tho prospective buyer remarked to the agent: “And she only wants £550 for the place. Well, she’s a fool; I’ll close the uoal on the spot.” All unconscious of the fact that the owner of the property had heard this interesting little comment on her house the agent and his man departed. The woman, however, put the conversation which she had overhead to such good use that the man to whom the property ad been originally offered for £550, subsequently paid £9OO for it! And this story, it is said, has the merit of being true. The Palmerston North Borough Council is framing a new by-law in respect of the type of construction of wireless aerials, and the prohibition of the erection of poles within 12 feet of any service main. Asked by a representative of the Dominion for the reasons for the regulation, the borough electrical engineer (Mr J. W. Muir) stated that the purpose was to prevent interference with the borough reticulation and also to ensure safety by remedying the misconstruction to aerials in the borough. There waa a Government regulation governing these matters, but it was not specific enough for local body purposes. He went on to say that a casual investigation had shown him four cases where aerials in the town presented a menace by straddling the borough power lines and leaving only a short distance to spare. In addition, there were other irregularities to be found in regard to wireless aerial erection which the new by-law was designed to rectify, and it was intended to carry out an inspection in the borough in this connection. “W ireiess is becoming such a favoured pursuit that I anticipate ca the present rate of increase there will soon be afi installation at every fifth or sixth house in Palmerston North,” said Mr Muir. “It is with a view to adequate protection against such time that tho new regulation is being framed.” Probably the shortest meeting ever held in the history of the Auckland Harbour Board took place last Tuesday afternoon (states the Star). Members had been called together for the purpose of passing a resolution to accept the new by-laws. Promptly at 3 p.m.' the chairman (Mr H. R. Mackenzie) touched his bell and moved the resolution. It was seconded in a moment and declared carried by the chairman all within a minute and a-half. Looking at the two pressmen with a smile on his face, the superintendent (Mr Burnett) said, “That is all for you, gentlemen, this afternoon.” As the two press representatives left the board room a member was heard to remark, amidst laughter, “Gentlemen, you may now smoke.”