IN TOWN AND OUT

Southland Times, Issue 21576, 14 December 1931, Page 8

IN TOWN AND OUT

NEWS OF THE DAY Examiners Cannot Play! Mr Gordon Bryan told his audience on Saturday night of a remark he overheard up north, when a candidate was advised to cheer up because Mr Bryan himself couldn’t play. He was only an examiner! Child’s Leg Fractured. Suffering from a ‘fracture of the left leg a child named William Brand, aged two and a-half years, residing in Oteramika road, was admitted to the Southland. Hospital yesterday. The child’s condition was reported to be quite satisfactory last night. * * * * Our Maligned Climate. Mr Bryan, examiner for the Associated Board, is virtually at the end of his tour of the Dominion, having now examined more than nineteen hundred candidates in New Zealand. In only one place in the whole of the land has there been no absentees due to colds and sickness. That one place is Invercargill of the much abused climate. * * * * Weight of Fat Sheep. The secretary of the Southland Metropolitan A. and P. Association (Mr A. L. Adamson) announces the weight of the fat sheep in the guessing competition conducted at the recent Summer Show to be 178 Jib. No one guessed the exact weight but several went close to the mark. The prize money will be distributed among the following: P. 11. Maclean, Gore, William Fleck,, Riverton, W. E. Hunt, Wallacetown, each with a guess of 1781 b, and T. Hoare, Wairio, and J. Graham, Kennington, each of whom placed the weight of the sheep at 1791 b. Child Knocked Down by Car. While Mrs Alice Mary Irene Mclnnes, wife of Mr Ralph Saxeby Mclnnes, accountant, residing at No. 9 Duke street, was motoring in a northerly direction in Dee street at about 5.10 p.m. on Saturday and when a short distance past Tapper’s Cycle Works, a child suddenly ran out on to the street. Mrs Mclnnes promptly applied the brakes, but before the car was brought to a standstill it passed over the child, Arthur Clement Patterson, who lived in the locality. The child, who is about four years old, was attended to by Dr W. J. Barclay and removed to the Southland Hospital suffering from a fracture of the left leg and abrasions. Inquiries made at the hospital yesterday revealed that the condition of the little boy was quite satisfactory. * * * » The “Quarrel” Sonata. At his recital on Saturday night, Mr Gordon Bryan told an amusing tale of Haydn’s wife to introduce that composer’s 2Sth Sonata to his audience, and to account for its familiar title of the “Quarrel” Sonata. Haydn, when employed as a capellmeister at about £2O a year of our money, fell in love with the attractive daughter of a wig-maker. She however took the veil, and the father insisted on Haydn’s marrying her elder sister, who in the words of Grove’s Dictionary, was "a regular xantippe—heartless, unsociable, quarrelsome, extravagant, and bigoted, who, as her husband said, cared not a straw whether he was an artist or a shoemaker.” Haydn had probably never read a line of Shakespeare, or here, surely, was his opportunity to test Petruchio’s method of shrew-taming! 'The lady is immortalized in the title of this 28th Sonata, but as with Beethoven’s “Moonlight” and “Emperor,” the title is not the composer’s, but is due to his admirers or publishers. ■H * ♦ * Seven Arrests Made. For several months past there has been evidence of the presence in Invercargill of an undesirable element, this manifesting itself in the number of minor burglaries and thefts perpetrated in and about the city. For an equally long period the police have been conducting careful and patient investigations in an effort to bring to book those responsible and what is believed to be a complete round-up of the offenders was commenced during the week-end. To face various charges of breaking and entering, and theft, three young men appeared in the City Police Court on Saturday morning ami were remanded until Friday. Since then four further arrests have been made and these men will appear in the Police Court this morning. In addition to the charges mentioned at Saturday’s Court sitting it is understood that others are pending. Prominently associated in these investigations have been Police Constables R. T. Beadle, A. Mcßae and J. D. Kirk, and Detective J. Hill, the work of all four being described as highly creditable. * ♦ * * Stewart Island Cable. All sorts of interesting classes of cargo are unloaded on Bluff wharf and in the discharge thereof many interesting dodges are brought into use. For this part of the world at least an unusual item on the manifest of the coastal trader Breeze, in Bluff on Tuesday, was several miles of submarine cable destined for the bottom of Foveaux Strait in the repair of the Stewart Island cable. This was unloaded from the Breeze on to the Island packet Tamatea and the method of transfer from ship to ship was interesting to watch although it did not seem to excite any particular interest by those working in the vicinity. The cable arrived in Bluff in the form of a huge coil in the forward hold of the coaster and- was paid out on to a specially erected staging on the forward deck of the Tamatea. The method of paying out was by means of a contrivance not unlike a gigantic piece of Meccano mechanism. This was fixed on the hatch over the hold and was driven off a winch head by means of an endless rope and a system of pulley blocks. The cable as it was paid out from ship to ship was guided in its course by other pulleys slung in the rigging over on to the Tamatea which was, of course, moored alongside. On the Tamatea it was guided by half a dozen men round and round into another huge coil occupying all the deck space in that part of the ship. Some idea of the length of cable may perhaps be gained from the time taken to' get it from ship to ship. A start was made at 10 o’clock and working steadily, excepting for the dinner hour, the job was done at 2.30 p.m.

“Rose Sunday.” Large crowds took advantage of the glorious weather conditions prevailing yesterday and the fact that it was “Rose Sunday” to visit the Rose Gardens where a magnificent collection of summer blooms is at present on display. The results of the excellent work carried out during past months by the superintendent (Mr J. A. McPherson) and staff of the Reserves Department were apparent in the gorgeous display presented and on all sides yesterday expressions of genuine admiration were to be heard. The well-kept beds, splashed with gay colours, well repay examination since there are many fine new varieties recently added and a fine collection of most of the older varieties of recognized worth. The flower beds are set between trim stretches of lawn and intersected with wide paths of white gravel. Since last summer the pathways have been rearranged so that it is now much easier to see both sides of all the beds than was the case before. The healthy appearance of the roses impresses one at once, and examination shows that the bushes have all made sturdy growth. This year there has been an absence of black spot on account of the mild early spring. Some of the plants, however, suffered earlier in the year from the attacks of rabbits. Drainage work carried on during the winter, when numerous lengths of 6in and 4in piping were laid, has greatly improved growing conditions. Indeed this year the Rose Gardens have been brought as nearly as possible to perfection and are a considerable improvement on previous seasons.