ITEMS OF INTEREST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20721, 7 May 1937, Page 5

ITEMS OF INTEREST

A performer's ruse to build up a radio reputation lias been found out. He was engaged at one of the national stations in New Zealand, and it was not long after his s'ongs went over the air that letters of appreciation were received from all parts of New Zealand. totalled in the finish 25, all in different terms, but with the same object. Courteously the station concerned answered all 25 letters. A week w’ent by and the station director's replies began to come back through the Dead-letter Office. In due course the 25 letters had been accounted for in this way, and now makes a neat little pile in the records section of the station.

Increases in the number of deaths and marriages and a decrease in births are seen when comparison is made between the, Auckland statistics for the four months en'ded yesterday and the first four months of 1936. Marriages this year have totalled 975, as against 926 last year; deaths 653, as against 594; and births 883, as against 911. The excess of births over deaths was 230, as against 317 in 1936. During April 229 marriage licenses were issued, and there were 208 births and 172 deaths.

While bees are ueatures of habit and highly communistic, they act on occasions with a caprice past understanding. In Wellington (the “Dominion” states), there is a steel pole used for the suspension of overhead tramway wires, which at present serves the purpose of a beehive, and is, no doubt, well stored with honeycomb. There is a small hole in the side of this hollow pole which a venturesome bee must have explored secretly and then, by some magic, conveyed the merits of its safety and invulnerability from interference to its fellow-workers. Officers of the Department of Agriculture have been requested to smoke them out.

An expedition to the Campbell Islands, 200 miles southward of New Zealand, is contemplated by Mr J. Jackson, of Jackson’s Bay, Westland. At present the islands carry some 8000 half-wild sheep, the shearing of which should in itself justify the expedition, stated Mr Jackson. The main island comprises some 45,000 acres of tussock country, Government leasehold, at present untenanted. It should, said Mr Jackson, support nearly 20,000 sheep with due development.