LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20862, 19 October 1937, Page 6

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

A Fine Head Quite recently a fine specimen of a 19-pojnter deer was shot by a rabbiter on Mt. Peel Station. Harrier Championships At the annual meeting of the West Coast (N. 1. Athletic Centre, held at Wanganui last night, the New Zealand harrier championships for 1938 were allocated to New Plymouth. . An Early Hatch Last week a Timaru resident while at the back of Clayton and Mt. Peel Station, saw a Paradise duck with a hatch of four ducklings. The early arrivals were on the Phantom River, which is the boundary between the Mackenzie and Geraldine Counties. Wool Semiring Industry A Conciliation Council sat at Palmerston North yesterday concerning an application for a new award in the wool scouring industry in the Wellington district. Little progress was made, the proceedings being adjourned till to-day. The employers’ assessors were adamant for a 44-hour week and said they would take the question to the Arbitration Court if the workers did not agree. Rotary Club The weekly meeting of the Timaru Rotary Club, held in the Caroline Bay Tearooms, was attended b> Miss Ethel Law, M.A., who gave a most Interesting and illuminating address on Canada. Miss Law, who was for six years National Secretary of the Y.W.C.A. in Canada, dealt with the peculiar problems created by the presence in Canada of a large percentage of Independent groups of all nationalities, and indicated the progress being made by Governments and organisations, such as the Y.W.C.A., to assist all sections to become Canadianised and nation conscious. Mr P. D. Laurie presided, and a vote of thanks, on the motion of Mr F. I. Washboum, was accorded the speaker for her pleasing and instructive talk. "Bought” 121 Wives A tall and picturesque man, bearded and jolly, is Monsignor Francis Gsell, Roman Catholic administrator of the Northern Territory, now enjoying six months’ leave in Sydney. He tells a remarkable story of having 121 “wives," all his own according to tribal law, and each one bought and paid for. “I've been buying wives for the last 23 years,” he says, “and I believe I have more than anyone else In the world to-day.” To a puzzled and somewhat scandalised interviewer he explained that these purchases were purely formal, and were arranged with the particular object of protecting young aboriginal and half-caste girls, and converting them to Christianity. Mostly he gave his "wives" in marriage to the young men of his Bathurst Island mission, though, in the event of the husband’s death, they reverted to him. The most successful aspect of his strange experiment is that It prevents child marriage and polygamy, both of which are grave evils among the natives of Northern Australia. A Solar Puzzle A correspondent signing himself “Meteor” writes: Under the above heading a paragraph appears to yesterday's “Herald,” Perhaps I may be able to help with the request to solve the phenomenon. This solar happening wee what is generally known as a solar halo or corona- It is generally caused by little crystals of ice or small frozen drops of water high qp to the atmosphere refracting and reflecting the sunlight. Fine dust high up in the atmosphere will have the same effect, After volcanic eruptions many beautiful haloes or coloured rings may be seen round the sun. Sunday’s display, which lasted approximately one hour ending at 6.30 p.m., was to the form of a circle completely round the sun, but indistinct in parts. pn a horizontal plane on each side of the sun two very bright patches of coloured rays might have been noticed on the halo. These were actually what are known as mock-suns—-parhelia as they are named scientifically—and were at one time regarded as presages of dreadful events, as was also the solar halo. It was strikingly noticeable that the colour red was entirely on the inner rim of the circle or halo. Had your observer looked more carefully he would haye seen another halo higher up to the atmosphere, about 15 degrees due gputh-east. Only the lower portion of this was visible, probably through there being no dust or ice particles further away. On this halo the lower part showed the red fringe on the outside, that nearest the sun. Probably the display was caused by ice particles, as the mountains are heavily coated with snow and ice from the recent heavy rains. A physicist such as Joseph McCabe could explain easily the conditions to which the light produces such phenomena as mock-suns on the halo, but I am afraid I cannot, as mathematical formulae and diagrams would be needed to explain it. Very briefly it is the ice crystals to the air forming prisms which decompose white light and distribute the constituent colours In space with symmetrical forms. Perhaps this may be of some help.