General News

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 150, 27 June 1934, Page 6

General News

Rotary’s Subscription The sum of £2OOO has t»een sub* scribed by members of the Palmerston North Rotary Club towards the establishment of a Crippled Children’s {Society in the Alanawatu district. Thia sum, donated by means of an insurance scheme, will be placed in trust on behalf of the nascent society. For some months past the club i*<s been sponsoring such a movement, in cooperation with tho whole Rotary movement in the Dominion. Recently a committee was appointed to investigate the position, and at the annual meeting on Monday its conclusions were presented. Tins in Thousands A statement made by the president of the Wellington Horticultural Society, Mis. Knox Gilmer, as to the great importance of preserving tho native bush, was heartily endorsed by Mr. Lon AlcKenzie when speaking at the annual mooting of tho soercty. He said that he had just returned from a visit to Havelock North and that he saw not hundreds but thousands ot tuis in that district. It was a crying shame, he thought, that there were not painted mound Wellington numbers of gums—red, pink, and white. Tuis would come in large numbers to feed on the honey in the flowers. During a recent visit to Europe he had heard the nightingale, but he did not think that bird or any other possessed the beautiful rich note of the tut. Fighting Fnebiight A move to have the light against lircblight carried ou over a more extensive area m the Christcnurch district was made al a meeting of the Canterbury Fruitgiowers’ Association, when it was decided to rorward a remit to the' Dominion conrerence to be held in Wellington on {September 12. The chairman, Air. F. W. b’isson, said that the present area was just around Christchurch, but in districts Ilfcc Hals- < well and Tai Tapu places were rceKing with the disease. if the remit could be put into effect men would be employed to go out into the extended area and deal with hawthorn. Other members agreed that there was still much tv be dune in combating lireblight. The remit was approved. Magistrate Suggests a “Toss-up ’ A jocular suggestion that a prolonged case he was Hearing in tne Magistrate’s Court in Christchurch might be settled by tossing a coin was | u* forward by Mr. H. A. \oung, b.M. Atter proceedings had taken some time and seemed likely to occupy a good deal more, one of the counsel said the case might b e shortened if the magistrate visited a house, painting work on which was causing the dispute. “What about tossing up?” replied Mr. Young, laughing. ( G’uusci agreed that such a bourse might serve, but the mutter then dropped and the heaiing continued. At a later stage the magistrate said that it. might have been much better if umpires had been engaged on the case, but counsel assured him that circumstances hud made such a scheme impossible.

A Gallipoli Pilgrimage Uouncll has been formed in Australia, with the object of landing a large parry of Australians and New Zealanders on the Gallipoli Peninsula on Anzac Day, April 25. Tho party will leave Sydney on March 23 ami* will spend two days on Gallipoli, April 25 ami 26. The secretary of the council, Air. E. S. Aluway, of Melbourne, states that tho tour will occupy ten weeks, and he is hopeful that a large number of New Zealand people will join the AustiaDans in commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the landing. By s’wciar arrangement with the Lmpc'fcal War Graves Commission, the party will bo conducted over the whole of the Anzac battlefield, and a dawn service will be held on the beach. Arter leaving Gallipoli the party will be taken to Constantinople before beginning a six-day tour of the battlefields and war cemeteries of Palestine, and provision has been made lor visits to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Cairo. “The pilgrimage,” said Air. Alurray, ’’is open to all —returned soldiers and others — special arrangements having been made for relatives of those who fought, in both theatres of war. Lectures will bo delivered c-n the way, so that those in the party will know the history of tho campaigns and the story of the cemeteries.” An Elephant Fish Something of a rarity In southern waters and certainly strange enough in appearance to arouse curicsity, a fish of the species known as the elephant jish attracted much attention when it was exhibited in a shop window in Invercargill last week. Over 3ft. 6m. in length, die fish has a largo head, with eyes placed high, a domed forehead, and an elongated nose not unlike the trunk of an elephant. The markings on the side of the face further strengthen the resemblance to an elephant. The “trunk” is bent towards the mouth at a sharp angle, and is flattened at the end into a kind of tongue, which is covered with tiny holes, and appears to be used for absorbing minute articles of food, such as insects. The mouth is large, but has no teth. There are two sets of fins at the sides, the front ones being about JOin. long and the rear ones about 4in., a long tail coming to a fine point like a whip lash, and sharp fins on the back. The markings and shades of colour on the skin, which Is mostly a bright silvery grey, are rather striking. A peculiar feature of tne fish’#, structure is that it has no bones, only an clastic gristle, which can be easily cut. This specimen was caught nt Bluff. Elephant fish are fairly common in the north, but are seldom seen in southern waters.