PEOPLE AND PLACES auditions for the maori cast of the New Zealand Opera Company's forthcoming production of ‘Porgy and Bess’, held throughout the country, produced a very high standard of candidates from whom to select the 35 singers needed. The photograph above was taken during the auditions at Rotorua. Mr John Thompson, at the piano, is the resident producer of the N.Z. Opera Company, and Mr Ulric Williams, on the far left, is general manager. Among those who came along to listen was Mr Ernie Leonard, Rotorua's public relations officer (third from left). In the opera the part of Porgy is to be taken by Inia te Wiata, and the part of Sportin' Life will probably be taken by Howard Morrison. back in june 1961, a hand grenade with the pin out landed by accident in a neighbouring instruction bay in Burnham Military Camp. It hit a wall, bounced on to the chest of Sergeant L. T. Williams (see photo right), and then on to a table. With an unknown number of seconds separating them from almost certain death. Sergeant Williams swung to the two soldiers he was instructing, tackled them to the floor towards the doorway, and landed himself on top of them. A moment later the grenade exploded. Sergeant Williams who is from Masterton, still has a few pieces of it in his body, but