LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 October 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Girl Guide Association. The annual meeting of the Masterton branch of the Girl Guides’ Association will be held in the Social Hall, Municipal Building, on Monday, at 3 p.rn. Parents and friends are specially invited to attend. Miss Nora Ractlifl'e, who has just returned from an extended tour overseas and attended many Girl Guide gatherings, will be the speaker. Debenture in Rubbish.

Among some rubbisn in the basement of the Wellington Hospital men employed under the No. 13 relief scheme recently found a debenture for £5O. It had been there for 18 years. The debenture was handed to the authorities, who found that it had been declared lost in 1926 and the £5O had been paid to the beneficiaries of the holder, who entered hospital in 1918 and died in 1920.

Photography and Research. Photography will play an important part in the work in the laboratories new in course of erection, at the re-cently-established Plant research Station at Mount Albert. There is provision for a large photographic studio on the ground floor of the building, and it will be possible to obtain complete pictorial records of plant diseases, pests and allied matters which are the subjects of investigation. Thousands of plates will be exposed and, with the prints carefully filed and indexed, a full reference system will be available. Misfortunes of Vessel. The series of misfortunes experienced by the former Richardson Line steamer, Mako, since she left Auckland for Sydney in tow by the steamer Salamaua in August has been continued in Australia. The Mako, which broke adrift twice during the tow from Auckland to Sydney, had to put back to Sydney last week with engine trouble when steaming to Salamaua, the capital of New Guinea. She has been purchased by W. and R. Carpenter, Limited, of Sydney, for service in New Guinea.

Young Violinist Praised? “It must be obvious to anyone that his natural gifts are very great indeed, and I have no hesitation in saying that he is the most gifted youngster I have ever heard,” said Dr J. C. Bradshaw, Professor of Music at Canterbury University College, when paying a tribute to Alan Loveday, the young Palmerston North violinist, after the latter had played three numbers at the Christchurch Rotary Club’s luncheon. Dr Bradshaw said that.he was confident that any support given to the boy would be fully justified. A Birthday Custom.

In accordance- with long established custom members of Rotary Clubs observe their fellow members’ birthdays with musical honours. At the Napier Club’s luncheon the birthday of the president and another member were honoured in this manner. The absence of —e piano, however, caused a slight diversion in the ranks of the singers, and while one section bravely attempted the Rotary birthday song, the others broke out with “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” a tribute with which they were more familiar. The result was a clashing of two songs which were never meant to be sung together. Gradually the din died away, and the members made a fresh start with the second tune;

Godwits Arrive.

Thousands of godwits have arrived at Parengarenga, near North Cape, during the past few days after their long migratory flight from Siberia. Many of these birds were reported the other day to be resting on the harbour at Parengarenga. Godwits migrate annually from Siberia, and arrive in New Zealand in the spring. This year, according to observers, they are about a fortnight later than usual. The birds alight at Parengarenga to obtain food from the mudflats, and later scatter throughout the Dominion. About the middle of March they assemble again at Parengarenga, and after feeding take off on their long journey north. Gift to Museum. A collection of native stone axes discovered in New Guinea by'Dr F. K. G. Mullerried, of Mexico, during a recent geological survey carried out by him in search of oil, will soon come into the possession of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The gift was announced to the authorities by Dr Mullerried in Auckland when he arrived from Sydney by the Niagara. He said the axes differed from the majority of other native implements, and geology proved that they were not as ancient as many found in other lands, supporting the theory that New Guinea was a comparatively young country. The axes were invariably found where native habitations stood originally. Exhibition Visitors. The 'Wellington City Corporation is negotiating with the Wellington Show Association, it is understood, for the conversion and use of the Winter Show building and grounds at John Street as a gigantic caravanserai to accommodate centennial exhibition visitors to Wellington. By providing sleeping quarters in. the buiding for some 700 to 1000 people, and using the grounds as a motor camp' for several hundred more, it is expected that this scheme will play a large part in putting up the flood of visitors who will come to Wellington in 1939-40, to see the exhibition and other outstanding' events of the centennial. Other buildings in the city are to be converted into similar but smaller hostels, and other motor camps are to be established on the outskirts of the city. Scare For Audience. A mild sensation was caused during the Napier Primary Schools Festival in the Napier Municipal Theatre when a colour medium used on the spotlight burst into flame. By a strange coincidence the incident occurred during the presentation of a mystery play, "The Secret Room,” which has as its eerie setting a room in which the ghosts of centuries are supposed to have congregated. With the audience consisting of a large proportion of children, keyed up to a tense pitch, the mishap to the spotlight. equipment came at an unfortunate moment, and for an instant there was a danger of an outbreak of panic, a number of people quickly leaving the theatre. The action of a member of the audience in calling to those in the theatre to remain seated, however, prevented the situation from assuming a serious complexion. As it happened, there was actually no cause for alarm owing to the fact that the spotroom is entirely fire-proof.