NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Aorangi Due on Monday. The Chief Postmaster advißes that the Royal Mail motorship Aorangi, which left Sydney on Thursday afternoon, is due at Auckland on Monday morning with 335 bags of English, Eastern and Australian mails. The passenger list is of average dimensions. Successful Open-air Entertainment. A satisfactory public response is expected to result from the appeal in aid of the Auckland Girls' Athletic Association for the provision of sports grounds at Remuera. About 500 girls gave an interesting display of drill and games on the Civic Square site last evening, hundreds of people assembling to watch. The Ponsonby Boys' Band played selections, and the outdoor drill exhibition —the first of its kind to be given in the heart of the city—proved very successful. The street collection, under the patronage of the Mayoress (Mrs. A. D. Campbell) was continued to-day, buttons being sold in all the principal thoroughfares. The Strawberry Season. The high winds which have prevailed of late have had a detrimental effect upon the strawberry beds at Birkenhead, Takapuna, Mount Roskill and other districts near Auckland, where the delectable fruit is grown. No serious damage has been done, however, and there is every reason to anticipate a satisfactory crop in the coming summer. The actual date at which the earliest strawberries may be expected is always uncertain, for it is not until a few days before the bloom is set that even the expert grower can predict the dimensions of the crop. A fortnight ago a few chips of hothouse-grown strawberries were offered for sale at the Auckland market, but the fruit was not of first-class quality. Evidently the attempt to raise strawberries out of season was on this occasion something of a failure. A Facetious Student. By a judicious and amusing play upon words one of the Sydney University law students who took part in the inter-'varsity debate at the Auckland University College last evening showed himself highly skilled in this method of public appeal. His open g remark, that the modern woman was certainly more ambitious and had more in view than her grandmother, brought much laughter, and was followed by the suggestion that, although she put on a lot of "dog,"°6he would still be "catty." Continuing, he said it used to be considered that a stitch in time saved nine, but now it made a dress; and, further, although men went about with their socks as full of holes as ever, women didn't give a "darn." He also referred to the decline in cooking, but everything else woman touched she made a "hash" of. "Stranger Than Fiction." Coincidences of fact may sometimes be stranger thnn those of fiction. Two men, unknown to one another, lived in the same Kew Zealand town. Each of them possessed the same surname and the same two Christian names. One telephoned a minister to arrange for his marriage. The other later saw the minister's brother and arranged for his marriage. Both had selected the same church, the same day, and the same hour for the ceremonies. The diary entry for the first bridegroom to apply was erroneously credited to the second, and it was not until too late that it was discovered there were two persons. So a double wedding was held. Then it was found that each party had selected the same catering establishment. Here, too, there had been I confusion. When the guests arrived they were met with the problem of making one breakfast go as far as two. This experience was related to New Plymouth Rotarians by the Rev. John Paterson, of Wanganui. Sign of Stormy Weather. Several specimens of the Booty albatross (phoebeteria fulginosa) were observed wheeling over the Waitemata Harbour to-day, and their presence aroused considerable interest amongst passengers on the ferry steamers. It is an unfailing sign of stormy weather when these "winged children of the sea" come close to land, and the conditions which prevailed on the harbour to-day made it easy to realise how rough the wind must have been on the open ocean. There are about 15 species of albatross, ranging from the wandering albatross of the Southern Ocean (which may measure lift from tip to tip of its outstretched wings) to the smaller variety, often known by the name of mollyhawk. Owing to their great weight, and the specialisation of their wings for gliding and soaring, albatrosses cannot rise off a perfectly flat surface except in a very strong wind, though they can launch themselves off the crest of a wave. Sailors in the old windjammer days used to capture the birds and have them running about on the decks. A big French ship that came into Auckland some years ago looked like a barnyard, having about a dozen big albatrosses aboard. Unwary visitors who suffered from the big hooked bills realised what excellent "watchdogs" the birds made. Value of Swimming. "I am afraid that some of the city councillors think that we do a lot of squealing, but really our sole object in going to them is to make suggestions as to how they may popularise the sport of swimming," remarked Mr. J. J. Enwright, president of the Auckland Centre of the New Zealand Swimming Association, when discussing the action of city ratepayers in rejecting the loan proposals for the filtration of the baths at Parnell and Shelly Beach. Asked how he thought the present difficulty might be overcome, Mr. Enwright said that if the council could not see their way clear to provide filtration, the best plan would be to lease the baths. It would then be necessary for the lessee to provide filtration before the baths could be opened. Speaking on swimming generally, Mr. Enwright mentioned that the Government grant for the whole of New Zealand was only £200 per annum, and Auckland's share could not be made to go very far. A big percentage of the people had no idea of the valuable work done by swimming enthusiasts in teaching school children to take care of themselves in the water. Life-saving was also taught, and it was impossible to estimate the number of lives that were saved as the result of these efforts. People who did not actually swim themselves had their children who did, and it was really in their interests to have adequate bathing facilities in Auckland. The Lost Airmen. A possible explanation for the origin of the rumour that the bodies of the aviators, Lieutenant Moncrieff and Captain Hood, had been found on the West Coast ranges is made by a Nelson business man. He writes to the "Evening Mail" as follows: "When on the West Coast at the back of Karamea a short while back I met a retired sea captain from Wellington who was there on the special mission of searching for the missing airmen. In conversation he asked me a number of questions re the country between Collingwood and Karamea, and stated he was a spiritualist and that at a seance held in Wellington definite informatior had been received that the airmen had lost their way and had crashed in the ranges 120 miles due west of Wellington. This had been worked put, and the position located in the range directly at the back of Karamea, which is, by the way, very little distance from where the Southern Cross first sighted land on the recent flight. He had already made a couple of trips back into the ranges with parties he had organised searching for the airmen, and was then preparing to go out again. He was absolutely convinced the information was correct, and said he intended to keep on searching till he found them. I have since heard that the ex-mariner has been ' out with several other parties searching the snow- > line, and possibly reports of these expeditions may have given rise to the rumour." _