In Town And Out

Southland Times, Issue 23025, 20 October 1936, Page 8

In Town And Out

Through the Customs. “Strange markings—crosses, circles, and curiously-shaped lines—on the undersides of hump-backed whales caught in Cook Strait make them look like huge packing cases that have been through a dozen Customs,” said i Mr F. W. Vosseler in an address to the Alpine Club, Wellington. The marks, Mr Vosseler added, were made by the whale scratching and scraping itself on rocks in an endeavour to remove the irritating barnacles on its underside. The barnacles were sometimes as much as two inches across, and whales frei quently got into trouble in shallow water, in their efforts to get rid of them. Island Fruit. The Union Steam Ship Company advises that its new islands steamer Matua will now come through to Wellington after landing her Auckland ; portion of the fruit. This itinerary | will be followed each trip and should afford South Island fruit merchants the I opportunity of landing their island fruit in larger quantities and in much better condition. The above service began with the arrival of the Matua on Monday. At a later date it is proposed, should the traffic warrant it, to | arrange for through bookings to Lyttel- | ton, the steamer express to be the I carrying steamer between Wellington I and Lyttelton. ' Midnight Meanderings. I There are stealthy comings and I goings, swift scamperings, and petty ■ pillaging in Esk street late at night, i When the street is deserted a small army of stray cats emerges from a j variety of retreats and appeases appetites and an instinct for prowling in furtive forays on ash cans. Theirs must be a hazardous existence for most of the ash cans belong to business firms. The cats, however, appear to thrive, for their number never shrinks. Any night after 11.30 they may be seen, slinking swiftly and silently from beneath buildings and making straight for the nearest ash can. A noisy footstep and they take flight. But they always return—and always will so long as Esk street maintains its ash cans.

Bottle’s Sea Voyage. Covered with barnacles, a sealed bottle dropped from the motor ship Havel in Australian water on July 10, 1935, was found exactly thirteen months later on the west coast, ten miles south of Kaipara Heads, by a Public Works Department employee. The bottle contained a well-preserved message from an Austrian, Mr Hubert Irxmayer, of Wolkersdorf, near Vienna, and Mr Paul Kleinertz, of Elberfeld, Germany. In addition to passages written in German, the pencilled note covering both sides of the paper stated: “Good luck to everybody. Bye bye Australia, bye bye my old friends. I’m coming back. Your Paul. Whoever finds this letter, please write back.” Acknowledgment of the find has been forwarded by the finder, who is now awaiting a reply to learn where the bottle was thrown into the sea.

; Timber for Aeroplanes. 1 The possibility of using whauwhau, j the lightest timber in the world, for ' the construction of aeroplanes, is to be ; investigated by the New Plymouth I Airport Board. Numbers of whauwhau ' trees are growing in Pukekura Park, : New Plymouth, and the superintendent i of the park, Mr T. H. Horton, told the i board there would be no difficulty in growing _ thousands of the trees in Taranaki. He said the timber was lighter than cork, and might be eminently suited for the construction of aeroplane frames. Mr P. E. Stainton, chairman of the Airport Board, told the park committee that it was not beyond the realms of possibility that aeroplanes might be manufactured I in Taranaki in the not distant future, imported Sitka spruce, known in New Zealand as Abies Mengiesii, was very expensive, and the possibilities of growing spruce in Taranaki were being investigated. Veteran Cricketers.

If all goes well, King’s College Old Boys (Auckland) will have two veterans of English cricket in their ranks during the coming season. They are S. G. Smith (late West Indies and Northamptonshire) and R. W. Rown tree, who was on Yorkshire’s strength over 30 years ago. The years of active par- ■ ticipation in the game which stand to ; the credit of these two players would be an interesting subject for those who revel in statistical detail. Smith went to England with the West Indian team about 1906 or 1907, and for years after that was a regular member of the Northants first eleven, while Rowntree was playing for Yorkshire second eleven in the days before Rhodes, Hirst, Denton and Haigh reached the zenith of their careers. Smith is still one of the best slow left-hand bowlers playing in New Zealand, and it is doubtful if Rowntree has a superior as a wicket-keeper. Their presence will strengthen the King’s side.