NEWS OF THE DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1934, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

About a dozen young rhododendrons, planted in the .gully where Pukekura Park runs into Brooklands, are looking very healthy since their transplanting. A vivid background is provided by a fine kowhai in full flower, from whose branches come the cries of several tuis.

A specimen of monstera deliciosa is at present fruiting in the greenhouse at Brooklands, New Plymouth. The plant, which is a native of Mexico, has big leaves, broad and tough, and sends out from the trunk long suckers reaching downwards to the ground in search of sustenance. The fruit is edible. It is deep yellow when ripe and has a delicious flavour principally reminiscent of fruit salad.

Football enthusiasts at Eden Park, Auckland, on Saturday had a very interesting and mixed afternoon’s sport. The first curtain-raiser was a hockey match between Australia and Auckland. To many the game of hockey marked a new experience. The second curtainraiser was the final of the senior seven-a-side tournament. Then followed the Auckland-Taranaki representative Rugby match, which was regarded as the most brilliant exhibition of the season at Auckland.

A rubbish Are yesterday morning set alight the hedge fronting Mr. E. V. Tingey’s property in Vivian Street extension. As there was a likelihood of extensive damage being done to the hedge and the plantation within the garden the brigade was summoned. It was necessary to use 400 feet of hose to take the water from the comer of Vivian and Morley Streets. The outbreak was quelled with one lead after about 20 feet of the hedge had been burned.

At the Wanganui Jockey Club’s meeting on Saturday a horse called Tanin was a starter in the Trial. He was No. 13 on the card, he carried 13 10s tickets on the totalisator, he was 13th favourite, and carried 7.13. There were enough omens here for a big surprise but none came, Tanin was never sighted and finished nearly 13th in the field of 13. Many sheepfarmers have already commenced shearing operations in earnest. On Friday, on a farm in the Pukekohe district, a start was made with the shearing of the dry sheep, a draft of 250 wethers and hogget ewes being received at the shed. The fleeces were well grown and the sheep in excellent condition. Competition was exceptionally keen for horses at the sale held at Pukekohe on Wednesday. Practically a total clearance was effected at prices satisfactory to vendors. Good reliable farm horses brought up to £39 10s; medium sorts, £26 to £3O; hacks and harness horses, £8 to £l5.

Painful injuries to his left ankle were received by Mr. W. Purcell, a member of the New Plymouth Cricket Club and of the Rivals hockey team, when he was assisting in moving a roller at the Central school flat on Saturday. Mr. Purcell was pulling the roller with his back to it when his toe caught in the ground, and the roller passed oyer his ankle. Mr. Purcell received medical attention but owing to severe bruising the extent of the injury is unknown. An example of the tameness of native birds, if unmolested in suburban gardens, was given recently at Mission Bay, Auckland. On going into her garden a resident narrowly avoided stepping on a grey warbler, or riro-riro, which was gathering spent blooms from a bush beside the verandah steps, apparently for the nest, which hangs from a near by clump of bamboo. The bird was not much perturb'd, however, and returned almost immediately for more blooms.

Graphic details of the burning of the luxury liner Morro Castle were recounted to Mr. E. Pratt, of , Hamilton, operator of the amateur radio station ZLIGU, by an American amateur with whom he was in communication on the evening of the tragedy. Mr. Pratt contacted the American station, W2GIZ, which is located at New Jersey, at about 5 p.m., and the operator, who was an eye-witness of the beaching of the burning liner, told Mr. Pratt of the scenes on the shore and details of the casualties. After the national anthem the audience streamed out of the dress circle of a New Plymouth theatre on Saturday night. But one man remained in his seat, deep in slumber. As a gentle tap failed to waken him and there were fears that he might be locked in the theatre for the night, he was finally subjected to a rude shaking. He woke. * slowly, very calmly, he looked around him. Without a word, unperturbed by staring eyes, he beat time on an imaginary piano to the mtisic that was filling the theatre. Then quietly he stood up and gravely and sedately he waltzed down the aisle.

It is 18 years ago on Saturday since the New Zealand Division entered the offensive on the Somme, and over a period of 23 days successfully encountered the best German troops in several battles. The gains in that attack were, greater than in any single operation since the offensive was launched on July 1, and they were not exceeded in 1916. At the Somme, the New Zealand Division gained its first Victoria Cross in France. The winner was Sergeant D. F. Brown, of the 2nd Battalion, Otago Regiment, but the award was a posthumous one, Sergeant Brown being killed while he was sniping the retreating enemy. Proofs of all the 14 stamps which are to comprise the new pictorial series for the Dominion have now been approved and forwarded to London. The annual report of the Post and Telegraph Department states that the printing of some of the stamps has been completed, and that the rest of the work is in hand. No pains had been spared to ensure that the stamps were of an excellent order, and an issue combining artistry and workmanship in a high degree could confidently be anticipated. The whole series would be placed on sale simultaneously. .

“Absolutely ridiculous —the most absurd thing I have heard for years—what does this Marine Department know—it is doing more harm than good.” These were some of the remarks made by members of the Raglan County Council, when a letter received from the Roose Shipping Company stated that a royalty had to be paid to the Marine Department on all sand dredged from the Waikato River. It was resolved to point out to the department that any such charges in reality only served as an extra burden on the county, which purchased the sand for reading, while the channel in the river was kept in good order through the operations of the dredge. Illustrating the difficulty found by the older Maori in grasping the principles of the white man’s trading system, Mr. J. B. Poynter, addressing the Tairawhiti Maori Association on “Sidelights on the Maori,” told a good anecdote. An aged Maori, having two bales of wool to dispose of, took them to an agency and agreed to have the wool sold on commission. When the accounts were made up, it proved that Hori owed the firm Is 6d, slump prices for wool having failed to cover the charges. The agency manager agreed to let the Maori off paying the money, but suggested that Hori. should make up the difference by the gift of a chicken, and the deal was forgotten. Next year Hori appeared once again at the firm’s office, and presented a chicken to the manager. “What’s this for?” asked the recipient. “Oh, I got another two bales of wool outside!” replied the Maori.

Public mention has been made of a bullet being retrieved from an Australian soldier after it had nestled in him for nineteen years, and a similar souvenir being dug from a New Zealand soldier after eighteen years. It is only fair to say, therefore (says M.A.T. in the Auckland Star), that a Taranaki Crimean veteran who died but a few years ago carried to the grave a bullet shot into him by a Russian rifleman at Inkerman. There is in Auckland and in good health a man who on Gallipoli received a shrapnel bullet —and other fragments. He carried the shrapnel bullet for years. He ultimately suffered much inconvenience and went to a soldier-surgeon, who took a chance —and pulled the bullet down a nostril. The bullet had struck him near the spine, had travelled up the back through the skull, and had come to rest imbedded in the frontal bone. There is a lengthy person in Auckland who found himself in the Boxer Rebellion. Some enthusiastic rebel, lacking good ammunition, had loaded his blunderbus with gramophone needles. The Auckland man has picked many needles from his legs in the ensuing years. An equally tall soldier confessed that for years after the Great War he suffered on occasion from irritation. It was invariably traced to another sporting shot coming to the surface of his skin and longing for daylight. He explained that one day his curiosity got the better of him and he raised his long form to gaze over a trench when Abdul the Damned fired two shot cartridges out of a doublebarrelled gun into him, and thus gave him that speckled appearance. There is a man at Auckland who has spent ten years on fighting service in three nasty wars. Never in his nickelled career has he received a scratch. Men’s felt hats cleaned and re-blocked tor 2/6. We also renovate suits, costumes, dresses, etc., at J. K. Hawkins, Dyers and Dry Cleaners, corner Devon and Liardet Streets. New Plymouth, ’Phone 685. We collect and delivar.