NEWS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY.

Successful Street Collection. Yesterday's street collection on behalf of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children resulted in about £111 being received, a total which is very satisfactory when the weather conditions are taken into consideration. Returns from suburban districts have yet to be received. A Maori's Letter. Inquiries among the Maoris of several districts from Otaki to Taranaki by a Palmerston North resident who desired to purchase sets of poi balls for friends abroad, have so far failed to produce results (states the "Manawatu Times"). On Monday he received a letter in Maori to this effect: "The summer bloom on the raupo leaf from which to make the poi is not yet. My effort will endure long after the patience of your spirit fails. Hope while I seek, oh, my friend." City Council and North Shore Water. At the meeting of the North Shore Water Board yesterday the City Council notified the board of the withdrawal of its offer to supply water from Waitakere at the break-pressure tank at 6d per 1000 gallons. ' The letter stated that the offer must be withdrawn in consequence of the decision reached by the council on September 1 to increase the charge for water to all local bodies. The chairman of the board, Mr. E. Aldridge, stated that they could do nothing in the matter, as the question of a major supply was in abeyance. Mr. J. W. Williamson agreed, saying: "There is no need to worry about it just now." Not Going Back to Horses. The big grocery establishments in Christchurch do not intend to follow the example of similar businesses in Sydney and Melbourne and _go back to horses for the delivery work, states the "Christchurch Times." "In my opinion it would be a retrograde step," said one manager when interviewed by a reporter. The manager of probably the first firm to employ motor vehicles in Christchurch, about twenty years ago, said: "They gave us a lot of trouble in those early days, what with our being unable to get spare parts and so on, but the modern vehicle has reached such a stage of reliability and can carry out the work so speedily that I don't think there is any likelihood of horses replacing them again." This firm got rid of their last horse about eight years ago. Handling Tramway Traffic. A demonstration of the more effective handling of the crowds which come from Carlaw Pnrk may be looked forward to by those who wiuiess the Rugby League game on Saturday next between North Auckland and South Auckland. Instead of having to scramble into tramcars on the steep slope of Parnell Rise, those people who desire to travel by trams will for the first time bo able to make use of the new siding which is approaching completion in Stanley Street. At a cost of £2500, or thereabouts, 14 chains of track have been laid during the past month as part of the extensions authorised by the ratepayers in approving of the £025,000 loan, and all that now remains to be done is to adjust the overhead wires which are to provide power for the cars. The new siding will be a great convenience to people who patronise various athletic grounds in that locality. Telegrams in Code.

The new regulations which have been brought about by the alterations to the international telegraph regulations affecting telegrams in code, will come into force on Tuesday next. According to the new definition, code language is composed either of artificial or of real words not used with the meaning normally assigned to. them in the language to which they belong, and consequently not forming intelligible phrases in one or more of the languages authorised for telegraphic correspondence in plain language. There may be a mixture of real words, as defined, and artificial words. The new regulations are fully explained in a bulletin issued from the General Post Office, Wellington. While the ten-letter code system is maintained, the test of pronounceability "is abandoned, and instead stipulations regarding vowels are imposed. In addition to the alterations in the ten-letter code, a five-letter code system at a reduced rate is being introduced. Deep-sea Fish in the Harbour. Busy shipping and the popular advent of motor craft seem to have gradually reduced the visitation of deep-sea fish into Auckland Harbour, where shoals of porpoises, a few sharks and whales were not uncommon sights in days gone by. About 1910 a very large school of porpoises attracted notice in the Upper Harbour between Island Bay and Birkdale. Whales, and their smaller Rpecies, blackfish, at one time were frequently seen in the harbour, a favourite location for them being about the reef at Point Chevalier, where they were in the habit of scraping barnacles off on the rocks. One became stranded on the ebb tide in 1891, and seven or eight years later a whale was stranded at the mouth of the Paremoremo Creek, opposite Whenuapai. Its odoriferous qualities gave the residents thereabouts a good deal of misgiving, especially when it floated from one point to another in the vicinity, and then became unapproachable as far as oil extraction possibilities were concerned. A Doggy Definition. The alteration of the definition of a limit dog, in the new rules issued by the New Zealand Kennel Club, was really intended to bar "pothunters" from keeping their dogs "limit" (says the "New Zealand Smallholder," which has now a section for dog fanciers). The present rule is for dogs which have not won a first prize in an open class and not more than three firsts in limit classes. The old rule simply stated: "For dogs which have not won more than two first prizes in open classes," the result of this rule being that an exhibitor could, if he wished, keep his dog a "limit" for all time in order, perhaps, to win more easily special prizes awarded to limit dogs. The do£ could even bo a champion and still be a limit dog. The limit class is simply a graduate to the open class, and originally intended to give a chance to young dogs that were not quite ready to win in absolute open competi;ion. Many thought it was not quite "sporting" for an exhibitor to keep a really good dog "limit" for the sake, perhaps, of annexing a more valuable trophy. The practice, of course, has not been common—in fact, there have only been a few isolated cases; but it was really to put an end to ;hese, one gathers, that caused the Auckland delegates at the annual meeting of the N.Z.K.C. to have the rule amended. Selwyn's Last Services. _ The Rev. Cecil Watson, vicar of St. Paul's, writes:—The following extract from Boreham's •Life of G. A. Selwyn" settles definitely .the place of Selwyn's last service before leaving New Zealand, and will prove of interest to many; 'After a long and painful series of valedictory functions, the Bishop at last left New Zealand on Dctober 20, 1868. All shops were closed on that ;ad day, and the streets were thronged with :rowds of people, eager for a last glimpse of the Bishop. The Church of St. Paul, Auckland, was mcked to the point of suffocation, and multi;udes, disappointed, were turned from the doors. Is the Bishop, with his wife and son, and Bishop Abraham, made their way towards the wharf ■hey were besieged for final handshakes and last food-byes. A towering triumphal car, tastefully lecorated, had been specially constructed. Aloft i seat had been prepared for 'Mother' (Mrs. Sel,vyn), whilst the othei-3 were grouped around and jeneath her. This ponderous conveyance was Iragged, first by four horses, and then, the horses >eing removed, by the people themselves. At ;he wharf there was the usual bustle and agita;ion attendant upon a steamer's departure. Then i shout from the bridge, a whistle here, the ;asting off of a cable there, and the great ship itood out to sea. A snowstorm of waving handcerchiefs was all that could be recognised by ;hosc on deck, as they fastened their last lingerng gaze upon the vanishing wharves."