Local & General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 18, 3 February 1948, Page 4

Local & General

Bountiful Season Record crops of apples, plums and nectarines are reported from all parts of the Thames Valley this season and in most orchards large quantities are going to waste due to the fact that most householders have little sugar for jam-making and preserving.

Unpleasant Company Wading in the shallow water one calm evening l'ecently looking for flatfish, an Ohope resident saw no fewer than a dozen stingray between the creek near the end of the road through the settlement and the Western end of the beach. Though he has a reputation for timidity, a stingray can inflict fatal injuries.

Quick Trip Mrs Howie, the wife of Dr Craig Howie, of Taumarunui, left Scotland on Thursday of, last week by aeroplane with her two children for New Zealand. They arrived 3J days later at Auckland. They had an hour’s spell at New York and half an hour at San Francisco, with a longer break at Honolulu. The plane landed at Auckland right on time at 2 p.m. on Monday. Honey Flavours To Order

Bees fed with special syrup and pollen produce honey of any desired flavour or colour' for Californian bee-man E. C. Close. From electrically heated glass hives, Close produced honey with strawberry, lemon chocolate and mint flavours, each type appropriately coloured. He is patenting his “special syrup-pollen mix.”

Corvette Recommissioned The Corvette Arabis is to be recommissioned in the Royal New Zealand Navy on January 27. The ship, which has been in reserve since the last German minefields were cleared from the Hauraki Gulf 18 months ago, is being refitted at the Devonport. naval dockyard and, after seagoing trials, she will rejoin her sister-ship Arbutus in an active role on the station..

A Deadly Serve When a 13-year-old boy was playing tennis at Oakura, Taranaki, the other day he faulted with the first ball of a service, and it disappeared at the back of the court. Neither he nor the others who searched could find it; but the ball was a new one, so next day they returned diligently to the quest. They found the ball in a bird’s nest half way up a six-foot hedge. In the nest were two dead birds and one broken egg.

Thumper Gets Groper Something new in fish stories was told recently at Te Awanga beach Hawke’s Bay, by a well-known Clifton rabbiter. While riding his horse close to the shore, the rabbiter sighted a large shoal of fish a few yards from the beach being chased by a big groper. Seizing a spade which he was carrying, he plunged into the surf, dealt the pursuer, a heavy blow on the head, knocked it unconscious and dragged it on to the beach. He then straddled his catch across his horse and took it back to his quarters.

Pawnbroker’s Sign? In the middle of an old tram . track on the Hutt River, a party of trampers recently found a largo iron ball about six inches in diameter. Considerable discussion took place as to whether it was an old cannon ball or whether it was possibly the remains of a ball and _ chain used by some prisoner who had worked on the track many years ‘* ago. It seemed unlikely that it was a cannon ball, as it had a hole right through the centre, and the possibility of its been used to prevent a prisoner escaping seemed, to be ruled out because of its great ; weight. ;