Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 266, 3 February 1941, Page 4

Local and General

Patriotic Budgerigar. Trained since he was two weeks old, a green and gold budgerigar owned by a Springvale resident has developed into a good talker. He is known as. "Jerry." and his extensive vocabulary includes the following which he says with emphasis: "To H—with a bad .man! ' Jerry is now 11 months old and gives his name and address dis-

tinctly

Unique Signet Ring. An Auckland girl is the proud possessor of a unique signet ring received from her soldier uncle serving with the Second Eche'on in England. There is a story attached to it. When a Messe-schmltt ICO cashed close to the house where some New Zealand soldiers have billeted, they lost no iifne inValvaging parls of the metal;, The ring a souvenir of the German plane, is the work of a London jeweller, and resembles platinum in appearance.

News From Fiji. Many local residents will be interested to learn of "Bunny" Usher, who is with the Bank of New Zealand at Suva, and who has been met by a number of Whakatano troops serving in Fiji. "Jungle" Best writes to a friend—"Bunny" Usher has joined the list oj' local celebrities over here. Keith Morpeth saw the old devil yesterday the essence of saiorial splendour in a suit of while ducks, and believe me he Avas a real breakup. The boys met him later and he entertained them Avith an impromptu one-man mannequin parade. He is in his element here and his usual (iveheur swim will no doubt develop into an all-day effort." In his letter "Jungle" stales that the bath-

ing is splendid in Fiji—the~e is no surf at the earai> reefs, but. the

warmth of the water allows them

to stay in Cor hours. ' We fire thankful that our route marches sometimes take us near I lit* beae'i," lie "because marching in tliis

writes',

'km-'; is Hie pc-spiricst business imag'nahlc." Continuing lie reports tlmt the boys recently went on launch trips to see coral islands <)but were rather disappointed fo find these laid out with well kept lawns had expected In' find the islands in the natural state.

Black Lambs

Two pens of black lambs were offered at a lamb fair held at Tuakau last week. This was most unusual, many people attending the fair not being able to recollect having seen a pen of black lambs before. One of the pens contained I.'} wether lambs and the other pen 10 wether and ewe lambs mixed. Bath pens sold to good competition and brought prices well up to those paid for the white-wool lambs.

The Victoria Cross

r l he Victoria Cross, a medal instituted as a reward for deed's of exceptional merit, was originated by Queen Victoria on January 20. 185'). when she expressed the desire that "this decoration should be highly

prized and sought after by the officers and men of her naval and mili'ary forces." At that time the London Gazette announced the deeds which merit the award. "It is on dainedi that the cross shall only be awarded to those officers and men who have served us in the presence of the enemy and shall have then performed some signal act of valour or devotion to their country.'' During the Great AVar 15 New Zea!and soldiers were recipients of the V.C.

Brilliant Week-end. For the first time for many weeks Whakatane experienced brilliant sun shine throughout the. week-end and >ummer pastimes were extremely popular, so much so that the impression was gained that many people were intent to make up for Jrtil lime. Cricketers were delighted to get in their first match since the resumption of the fixtures a»ftcr the holidays, while tennis, croquet and howling were equally well supported. As usual when conditions rue good the beaches attracted iarg? numbers of picnickers, Ohope being H:e choice of many. After having •'softened'' sowiawhat dii ing the pasl iew weeks when the weather demanded the wearing of rather more c'olhing than is umiil at this time <>f the year, seme found tine sunshine rather 100 bright and are nurs:ng burnt skins to-day.

A Long Wait

A jubilant individual was striding along the Strand on Friday and stopping to speak lo a passer-by-was overheard to remark: "Well I have a State House at last—after two and a half years waiting."

Home Guard Expenses

At its monthly meeting held last week the Opoiiki Borough Council decided to contribute its share, £3 :ss*, to the" expenses of the Bay of Plenty Home Guard, the headquarters of which arc at Rotorua.

Sunday's Cricket,

On Sunday the Central eleven defeated Paroa, on the first innings, while the P. and-T. team proved too strong for Taneatua, and claimed an outright win. Details of play will appear in our next issue.

Boy Breaks Leg. Rex Churcher,

Rex Churcher, aged 11 years, of Taneatua, was admitted to the local hospital last week having sustained a fracture of one leg. The accident 'occurred on January 28, when the lad fell while roller skating and both bones of the right leg were broken. He 'is reported to be doing well. Fire at the Heads. A fairly large blaze on the sandbank at the Heads caused consider-' able interest last night, attracting notice at about 5) p.m. and several cars were to be seen travelling in that direction to satisfy couriosity. From the road it could be seen that a number of people were feeding the fire and standing in the light of the (lames. Gars in Collision. A collision took place on the main Whakatane-Awakeri road yesterday afternoon, but fortunately no personal injury rerulted although the vehicles involved were considerably damaged. One car was driven by Mr Ceo. FiavelL of Awakeri, , ftvho had with him Mrs Flavell and other members of his family. All escaped with nothing more serious than slight cuts, bruises and shock.

Guard to Parade,

The Hume Guard training having

commenced in earnest, a notice in this issue details the various platoons for Thursday's programme. Providing the weather is fine the Engineers, Mounteus, Infantry and Transport at ths Domain, while- the Signallers, Medical, Civil and new recruits are to report at the Winter Show Building. If the evening happens to be wet ail units are to parade at tlie Show Building.

No 40-Hour Week,

"Everyone is busy working and doing something to help the war effort," writes a middle-aged woman in Lancashire in a letter to a relative in Hamilton. She says she starts work :it 8 a.m. and works till 9 p.m. for five days each week. Her job is buttoning and finishing khaki drill shorts—work that is very trying to the eyes. Thousands of other women are doing as much,-or more, all over Great Britain. The writer has at home, to (see to in her spare time, a blind mother and

maimed sister.

F'lTiing at Ohope,

Line fishermen at Ohope are still enjoying excellent results, and yesterday a number of fair sized schnapper were landed, -in one instance four fish being brought in on a line together. The fishermen bait about ten hooks on each line and then one of the party swims out beyond the farthest line of breakers and drops the sinker. In one instance ihe swimmer had barely reached the shore on his return when the line was pulled In with a sehnapper hooked. One party, which used three lines, landed eighteen fish over the Saturday and Sunday.