Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 55, 10 March 1944, Page 4

Local and General

Water Walkers Seagulls on the river during the Hood underwent the novel experience. of :ictn;illy walking on the water. This, however, was not as difficult as it sounds. They merely turned into the wind with wings outspread and used their feet on the surface of the water like' paddles, but it was quite a novel .sight to see. dozens doing this at the same time. Submerged Rock According to a report from the. Harbourmaster, (".apt. Carey, it 'will be. impossible to do anything further towards removing the submerged rock which has made its appearance in the centre of the Whakatane harbour bar, until the water, has cleared sufficiently from the mud brought down by the llood to allow the engineer to carry out an inspection. Drum Trouble A lucky escape, for some, unknown cycle owner occurred on Tuesday at the wharf when a drum which was being loaded onto the ship got out of control, and rolled over the edge of the wharf 011 to the rear wheel of a bike leaning- against the. side. Fortunately no damage was done, but had it struck on a different angle, the drum could easily have, done .serious damage- lo the cycle. Idle and Disorderly At the sitting of the J.P.'s court on Thursday, Alfred Li 11 wood was chargcd with being idle and disorderly. It was proved that lie has been hanging around the town ami sleeping in the buses, and on the wharf. The bench decided to convict and order him to come up for sentence if called upon within six months on condition that he leave the town within 2-1 hours and take up suitable work in the country. Cadet Training' The first part of the training laifcl out in an extensive new syllabus for High School cadets was carried, out on Tuesday afternoon, when each cadet was given some shots out of ;d Bren light, machine gun. The new syllabus of training covers wide scope, and should make military drill much more interesting to the youthful mind than previously when it consisted mainly of parade ground work. Debt Cases Judgment for plaintiff was entered before Mr E. L. Walton, S.M., at the sitting of the Whakatane Court last Tuesday: McLean Motors v [Van Symons £6 13s Gd, costs :52s (kl; Hamill Bros v H. Fox, £!) 1 .Is 7d, costs £2 17s 8d; Pattersons Home Furnishers Ltd v Reginald John Toomey, £5 1 f>s, costs 25s f>d; Whakatane Hardware Ltd v F. T. Martin, £3 13s, costs 25s (id. Judgment summons Charles Shalfoon v Charles Wharton,. £20 7s lid, payment forthwith in default 20 days. Gymn Club Signs that an added interest is being taken in the local gymnasium club can be seen by the fact that new members arc. turning up constantly and the roll has grown considerably since the beginning of the season. Both boys and girls are eligible for membership, and the club is practicing hard for the display which they are to put on at their forthcoming dance. The last one they held, was a good success, and helped the club along considerably, and the next, should be equally as good as the last. False Alarms Since the llood, many and varied have been the false alarms due to . logs floating out at sea, which were . thought to be boats which had . broken away and been lost after the rise of the river. Several times, people at the Heads have been taken in in this fashion through "spotting" through telescopes and binoculars what they thought were small craft, and many of them have actually been led, for quite some, distance * out towards a floating object before discovering that, it was not I what they had thought. ( Influx of Eels Quite a number of very small eels, several inches long and about as thick as a bootlace have made their appearance in the gutters along the main street and small boys, both Maori and Pakeha have been employing themselves 'by catching them and holding them captive in j match boxes which are very proudly exhibited to passers-by. Some pedestrians pass by without a second glance but the majority of them step over and inspect the contents of the proffered ba\ with very evident curiosity.