NEWS OF THE DAY.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 7, 30 July 1930, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Spring is Coming. Indicative of tlu? fact that- Spring Is coining, it is reported that willows in tile district are showing signs of budding. Blasting Necessary. Iu their operations in Orlando Street the iJo rough Council’s drainage gang has struck a heavy deposit of stone, making blasting necessary. This need not cause residents in the vicinity any alarm, as the blasting is m charge of competent- men. Special Permission. Permission is given by the Minister of Internal Affairs to Major R. M. M’Farlane. of Dunedin, to take and hring thither, any rare, specimen of bird or beast that may he of special interest to science. It is probable that such a trip may be undertaken next summer. For the Talkies. The bears in the famous Yosemitc National Park. California (U.S.A.), are so used to the sight of a “movie” camera that it does not perturb them in the slightest. But there had been difficulties in getting them to utter their “woofs” for thetalkies. One naturalist however, fixed up his microphone at a feed, ing table loaded with honey. He thus got some flue lapping sounds, which audiences will no doubt greatly appreciate. Money Begets Money. The manner in which money begets money is exemplified by Mr. R. E. McDougalPs gift to Christchurch City of £25,000 for the now art gallery. The gift was announced on March I,oth, 1028, and soon, after Mr. McDougall’s cheque was received by the City Council and put into a trust account. According to the financial statement presented to the latest meeting of the City Council, the total amount to the credit cf this trust account was £26,802 7s 9d on. deposit £26,80ft, qftid the re. mainder in current account. Nearly a Tragedy. The danger of leaving children unattended in motor cars was illustrated the other day. when a child was nearly strangled through getting its head caught in a side window of a motor car (says the Wellington Evening Rost). The mishap occurred when two young children were left in the car while their parents were inside the house. One of the children put its head out of , the opojn 'window, and the other on© started to screw the window up. The result was that when the parents returned to the car they found the window had been, screwed up so tightly that the child was black in the face and in need of medical attention. A Mysterious Lake. The world would never have heard of an obscure village 25 miles from Rome had it not been for a mysterious lake which fir-t appcare.i in 1895, disappeared, came one© again, and vanished until February 1, of t>h,i* year. The lake shows signs of having com© to stay, for it is extending its shores and causing considerable stir in the neighbourhood. Geologists are all allaying anxiety by their reports that the causes of Hus phenomenon are not .-'vjolcanic, but are tlx© results of underground cavities pdoduced by the corroding action of saline waters.

Gold-Mining Roman,ce In Rhodesia a woman farmer went for a picnic one Saturday afternoon. She came aero,as an outcrop of quartz. The same night she dreamt that there was a, gold mine on the spot, and that she received £so.Chi) for her share of it. On no more than the strength of the dream, diggmg was started, and a valuable reef was found. A dip into the romance of gold is always full of optimistic records of tins nature. An old digger on Ontario, after 70 years’ fruitless effort, decided in despair to give up lor good and all. As a gesture oi baulked auger he flicked off a lump of quartz. It was thickly streaked with gold. In a couple of mouths he was a wealthy mafa. Gout and Alcohol. There was a time when gout was supposed to be duo solely to overindulgence in alcohol, and the first step was taken by a medical man on being called in to treat a case of gout was always to order the patient to oh stain from alcohol. Sir Robert Stout, however, must have been a sore trial to the experts, because be was a lifelong teetotaller, ami suffered seriously from gout (remarks the Christchurch Star). There is the parallel case of Mr. i/. M I silt, who at one stage of ins career suffered martyrdom from i beumath-m. Nowadays the authorities bold 1 hat alcohol lias little or nothing to do with either gout or rheumatism, ami some of them go so far as to say that a little alcohol not for the stomach’s .sake, but for ill” tomperature's sake, is one of the best anti.gout specifics.

influence cf Cinemas | “That the influence of the cinemas j is on the whole Iteneficial”, was the I> subject of the annual debate between the Christchurch Boys’ High School and the Waitaki Boys’ High School. Waitaki took the affirmative view and the Christchurch the negative. Professor L., G. Pocock, in criticising the teams, said that while the Waitaki team was well balanced he had seldom listened to, so much hot air. They had used long words and long and bombastic phrases. 1 lowevor, they had put up a good performance, which was only marred by an excess of verbosity. The Christchurch team had been more natural, but- should have used, more argument and less declamation. No decision was given after the debate. Maori Burial Ground. Evidence of the existence of old" Maori burial grounds which are unknown to many Maoris was provided in the Native Land Court- in Auckland on Tuesday (says the New Zealand Herald). An application was being heard in which a Maori woman wished to petition some "400 acres of sand-dune country near Waiuku. An elderly Maori who had seen tlie notification of the application in the Maori Gazette gave evidence that the foot of a sandhill in the property was an old burial ground, the applicant’s grandmother having been interred there in 1883. The commissioner for the Waikato.Maniapoto district. Mr. E. P. Earle, who presided, granted the application but reserved from sale the old burial ground. It ig stated' that in olden times the Maoris often placed the dead at the bottom of a sandhill, and by walking on the hill covered the bodies with sand Efficient Tourist Department On his return from a visit to New Zealand, Mr. P, J. Maries, cf Sydney, paid a warm tribute to the efficiency of the New Zealand Tourist Department. Air. Marks said he was paricularly impressed by the ex-, cedent arrangements made for touring various centres of the Dominion, and by the splendid services of motor cars by which it was possible to visit all points of interest with the minimum of trouble. He said that while in Wellington he met a special commissioner from America, ’ whom the New Zealand Government had invited to the Dominion to study the scenic attractions, the ideabeing that on his return to the United States he would, by lecturing and other means, induce tourists to visit New Zealand, Air. Alarks suggested that the New South Wales Tourist Bureau could learn much by studying the methods of Now Zealand. Zoo Ssa Lions Die, It is reported that the male sea lion at the Auckland- Zoo died on Sunday, July 13, and was -followed hy the female a week later, the cause of death in each case being double pneumonia. Each animal died within two days of becoming ilk and the suddenness of the attack prevented any adequate treatment being given in time. The curator of the zoo. Mr. L. T. Griffin stated that the sudden changes in tno Auckland climate were considered to be the cause, of the pneumonia. -Sea Leans '.were generally regarded as very hardy animals, and were frequently k ep t for considerable periods m circuses and other taravelImg shows. Many lived *o a greats age in captivity but some wer no doubt better , hie u.aa others to accustom themselves to changes in climate and conditions. While they did not suffer from illness in south«tn J a dudes Ibemusie*' of the ©old dear atmosphere, the frequent ch£n . ges of temperature in Auckland might prove harmful. The sea lions which had been in the zoo for over 18 niont <hs, had never shown am previous signs of illness.