General News

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 288, 6 December 1933, Page 6

General News

A sum of £1384 toward the cost of • new ketch, to bc culled the “I’atteson,” to work in the southern area of Alelanesia, has so far been received by tho Melanesian Mission Trust Board, There remains £Bl6 to bc obtained to make up the £2200 required. Rescue at Takapuna. A pair-oar skiff with three members of the St. George’s Rowing Llul», Messrs. D. Lawford, 11. Brown and T. Rickards (cox), swamped off Takapuna Beach during the recent week-end, states the Auckland Star. The three men clung to the boat. Their predicament was seen by members of the Takapuna Surf Club, two of whom swam out to give help, while other members launched a boat. Two mon in a dinghy also went out to give assistance. The swamped craft was towed in to the beach. As a thank-offering the rowing men made a contribution of 10s to the Surf Club’s funds. Deer in Southland. Red deer arc very plentiful at present and are coming quite ciase to civilisation in Southland. One morning recently Air. H. D. Norman, a farmer at Tuatapere, on the fringe, of the fiordland national park, when coming from his cow-byre, saw six red deer calmly trotting round a paddock about 100 yards from his home. He immedi- 4 atcly sent word to the neighbours, and a drive was organised, the stalkeis being successful in securing three of the deer. Welcome Bain in South. According to a Taranaki traveller, Oamaru and South Canterbury were saved by the recent drenching they experienced. If copious rain had not cOmo at the time it did the crops would have been spoiled and the districts again handicapped by drought conditions. North Canterbury had also experienced good rains and was looking at its best, but South Alarlborough was in a bad state owing to the absence of good rains for nearly four years. Captive Wild Fig. A wild sow contentedly feeding her litter in a sty at Lincoln College, Canterbury, was one of the chicl attractions during a visit of Farmers’ Union members to the college. The sow was caught in the W’aiau district when she was very small, and sent to Lincoln for experimental purposes. Although she showed a certain amount of wanness when people approached her, she was at no time very worried about being the centre of so much interest, bhe Had with her a litter of ten by a large while boar. In conformation she was a typical wild pig, high in the shoulder and narrow, with a long, thin nose, and a greyish coat with a few black spots. IShe was of the type known to the back-country men as a “Captain Cooker.”

The Sleepy Set. The Rev. Tom Dent, a New Zealand Alethodist missionary in the bolomun Islands, who is returning to the Dominion next year, tells a story of the keenness of uae of his native helpers named Abel. This teacher is stationed at Maiovo, and was visiting Mr. Dent. He made a request lor a tennis ball, and this rather surprised the missionary, who said: “Way, have your people started playing tennis?” ’’Oh, no,” said Abel, “out it is this way. The people of my village are very dark-minded as yet, and that means 1 have to preach longer sermons than is usual, in order to get anything 1 suy home to their minus and hearts. A short sermon would be lost on my congregation. I have to repeat myself two or three times before any tiling sinks 111, and in the meantime a lew of tho congiegation fall asleep. 1 want a tennis ball to throw at them in order to wake them, so that they shall not miss . what 1 am saying, and that they may get some good.” Air. Dent suggested that perhaps a coconut would do, but Abel thought that might be too drastic. He did not want to kill them, but if he could keep them awake he might do them good. Mr. Dent said that fortunately lie did not have a tenuis ball, and so Abel had to return and carry out his task of awakening his people in a double sense as best he could.

Just Missed. To the long list of those who have at one time or another had the tote windows slammed down just as they were about to ask for a ticket on a horse which proved to be a winner, or who arrived too late at lho course, has to bo added Airs. ALurdoch Binitli, owner of Bellkynan, who paid a solid twofigure dividend in the Melrose Handicap, the opening event at the Takapuna meeting on Saturday. Airs. Smith, who intended to have £2 each way on her mare, only arrived at the vehicular ferry in her tar in, as she thought, ample time. However, motor-cars and racehorses aie equally uncertain propositions, and when the cars began to go aboard the cargo boat something went wrong with the self-starter of Airs. Smith’s car, and by the time tho trouble was fixed there was no room on the boat for Mrs. Smith’s car. She had then to await the next boat, and she arrived on the racecourse after ih« totalisator had closed, but in time 10 seen the race and her horse, Beilkyrian, win handsomely, leas ing Airs. Smith with the £4 she intended to invest on the mare. But for the delay the lady owner would have been richcd to the amount of £77 10s. The moral is: Remember there is always an earlier boat than the one you catch. The End of a Song. Incidents on boaid the sailing ship Dunedin on which he came out to New Zealand in 1882 were recalled by Air. D. AlcLaren at the annual smoke concert of tho Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Marine and Power Engineers on Saturday night. He told tho gathering of a concert given by the crew, among whom was a big Scoteth sailor, very shy. After a good deal of pressure had been exerted this sailor was induced to step forward and give a song. “Well, he got to the fifty-fourth verse,” said Air. McLaren amidst laughter, “and at this point an effort was made to stop him, but they couldn’t slop him. The boatswain, a big man called ‘Jumbo,’ finally proceeded to take action, and he had to step into tho ring and fell the big sailor before the song ended.” (Laujhtor.) _________