NEWS OF THE DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1934, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Causing considerable inconvenience but successfully eluding all attempts at capture, a fantail has lived for three days in the dining room at the New Plymouth Boys’ High School. A bather in the Waingongoro River at Eltham had an unusual experience recently, being bitten by an eel. His big toe was badly lacerated. The Ngamotu beach committee paid a visit of inspection to the beach yesterday and discussed improvements to the present facilities provided at the palladium.

As part of St. Andrew’s Day celebrations in Taranaki a combined pipe band concert was given in Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, yesterday afternoon by the Hawera and New Plymouth bands. The bands were in charge of Pipe-Major A. S. Kirkland (New Plymouth) and Drum-Major J. R. Nairn (Hawera). A good attendance of the public listened to several band pieces and solo items.

About 60 persons were present, including an almost complete attendance of members, at the annual smoke concert of the New Plymouth Round Table Club on Saturday night. Mr. L. W. Lovell presided and proposed, after the loyal toast, the toast of the New Plymouth Club. Rotarian R. H. Quilliam, who responded, proposed the toast of the Round Table Club, to which Mr. C. P. Smith replied. Pins were a useful adjunct to cricket in a match played at Manaia on Saturday. At one end a bail was already supported upon one stump by a nail, and in the course of the match the projecting end of the other bail was broken off by a ball which scattered the stumps. It was replaced by a pin. The difficulty then arose that each time a wicket fell it was necessary for umpires and fieldsmen to search diligently the surrounding grass or to procure a new pin. It seemed to those concerned that the average of batsmen at that end who fell to the bowler rather than a fieldsman was higher than usual.

While he was in Australia on his return after a five months’ tour abroad, Mr. John Montgomery, who returned to Christchurch last week, experienced a rather severe earthquake. It was consistently referred to in Australia as merely a tremor, he said, but if an earthquake of one tenth the intensity were to happen in New Zealand, it would be recorded as a very heavy shock.

A busy afternoon was spent yesterday at the North Egmont mountain house, the warm weather attracting many visitors. Mr. lan Aylward and a guide made an early morning ascent, beginning at 3.30 o’clock- Conditions were extremely difficult on the upper snow field and step-cutting on a comparatively short traverse took well over an hour. Visibility from the summit was not good, a heavy bank of clouds forming later in the morning. Some idea of the height of the new IYA transmitting mast near Henderson may be gauged from the fact that a 2ft. wrench, dropped from near the top of the structure a few days ago, has not yet been recovered. Intensive searches have failed to reveal the whereabouts of the wrench, which, it is presumed, has become embedded below the surface of the soft clayey ground. A hammer, dropped from the mast a few days previously, was discovered with only about an inch of the handle protruding from the earth. The Loch Ness monster has become a profitable source of income to the residents of the lake district, said Mr. John Montgomery, who has returned to Christchurch from a trip to England. Hundreds of cars go to the Loch to see the monster, and it has become a popular picnic ground, the visitors all hoping for a sight of the famous beast. Apart from the usual picnickers’ requirements, the shops of the locality sell rubber models of the monster. The inhabitants of the district are frequently heard to express the hope that it will not disappear, but will stay and possibly attract more of its kind. An unusual incident occurred in a cricket match between a team from the Drainage Board and a Sumner team at Christchurch last week. A Drainage Board player who'thad already scored 20 runs in one over, including two sixes, struck the fifth ball so lustily that it flew over the boundary fence and crashed through the window of a tramcar going up Ferry Road to the city, narrowly missing a woman passenger. The tramcar stopped, but the only damage was the broken pane, and the batsman went back to finish his over with another four.

The relation between body and spirit was expressed in an analogy drawn by the Rev. Clarence Eaton, chairman of the North Canterbury Methodist-District Synod, and Mr. L. Watson (Oxford) at the Synod. Synod was considering a suggestion in a report on church attendance that one of the Sunday services should be replaced by a study group for adults. Mr. Eaton remarked that because a man ate two good meals a day there was no reason for discarding one of them. “Yes,” replied Mr. Watson, “but I don’t want porridge at dinner-time as well as St breakfast. It is not a matter of discarding a meal, but of substituting one of a different kind.”

The Railway Department’s excursion from Taranaki to Wanganui yesterday was liberally patronised. There were 223 passengers when the train left New Plymouth, 106 of them having taken tickets to Wanganui. This number had been increased to 326 at Inglewood and 356 at Stratford. There were 308 aboard on the train’s arrival at Wanganui. The numbers were increased on the return journey, there being 364 passengers on arrival at Hawera. This number had decreased to 225 when the train reached its destination at New Plymouth. On both the outward and return journey the time-table was maintained, the train arriving at both Wanganui and New Plymouth practically on time. The Associated Board, London, announces an important change in, the name of its musical diploma. Up to the present the initials L.A.8., signifying Licentiate Associated Board, have been in use; and many students in New Zealand have gained this distinction. The title has now been changed to L.R.S.M., signifying Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music, corresponding with the change made last year in the title of the Associated Board. All present and future holders of the Licentiate Certificate are now entitled to use the initials L.R.S.M. (London) more nearly corresponding with the L.R.A.M. or A.R.C.M., the diplomas of the associating bodies, awarded in England only.

Smoking is permitted in most of the London theatres. There is a curious belief that the habit of smoking makes a fire risk, and smoking in theatres is prohibited in New Zealand for that reason, but it is not on record when a theatre was actually set on fire through someone smoking in it. Usually fires in theatres have emanated from the stage when naked lights have come into contact with flimsy scenery, curtains, or the players’ dresses. While Melbourne still prohibits smoking in the theatre auditoriums, the city of St. Kilda, three miles away, does not. That is why the Palais Theatre, twice the dimensions of the De Luxe Theatre of Wellington, is one of the most popular cinemas in the State, as there a man (or woman) may smoke as much as he or she pleases. So vast is the auditorium that the air does not become affected.

Stated to be the largest tree ever handled by the Waipawa Box and Fruit Case Co., a huge pinus insignis tree was cut up at Waipawa, Hawke’s Bay, recently. The tree was about 55 years of age, and was over 14ft. in girth. At the mill it was necessary to cut 6in. off the side of the log to enable it to pass under the double breaking-down saw. On inquiry from Mr. Riddell it was found that the tree felled was a comparative pigmy to others on his property. One magnificent specimen of a pinus insignis measured just on 20ft. in girth, and was of immense height, while two cotton poplars measured 24ft. and 20ft. respectively in girth. Mr. Riddell also has probably one of the finest stands of oak trees in the Dominion. Fully 120 oaks of anything up to 3ft. in diameter, and fairly even in size, range each side of the drive. At the homestead two enormous specimens of redwood —one a Wellingtonia and the other a gigantic sequoia semperimvirous—were stated by a timber expert with Canadian experience to be the best of their kind he had seen in New Zealand. ■ The fact that several residents at Stewart Island had been very much worried over the numbers of dead mutton birds to be found on the beaches all round the island was mentioned by Mr. R. A. Falla, M.A., ornithologist of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, who, in company with Mr. A. W. B. Powell, conchologist, has been conducting a biological survey of the island since October 24. The residents, he informed an Invercargill reporter, had feared that with the thousands of birds which were dead the industry might be adversely affected. “We made some interesting observations on the birds, which appear to be in good condition and breeding in great numbers this season,” he added. “I examined several hundred dead birds, which turned out on investigation to belong to the Tasmanian variety, which, as far as is known, does not breed in these waters. The Tasmanian mutton birds are slightly smaller and slightly different in colour. There were thousands of dead birds, particularly at Mason’s Bay. Apparently they had been blown off their course by a storm and died of starvation and weakness.”

A contribution of £56, part of the proceeds of the Best of All art union, towards the New Plymouth Mayor’s relief funds, has been received by the Mayor, Mr. E. R. C. Gilmour.