Local And General

Chronicle (Levin), 29 December 1949, Page 4

Local And General

; Lucky Christmas. ; Christmas was lucky for * at j least foux New Zealanders who ' won hig prizes i'n an. overseas ! consuitation. ' First prize pf ! £10,000 went to "3 Carpenters, No. : 45, Broadway, Stratford," and the ; second to "J. G., Morrinsville." ; Other New Zealanders collected ; £790 among them. | Whales Sighted. ; Six whales have been sighted ; off Tiritiri Island, Hauraki Gulf, | in, the last few days, toy the light- ' house keeper on the island. Ap- ! parently disporting themselves on I a submerged shelf to the north ; and east of the island, the whales, ; which, were about a quarter of a • mile from the island, eould be : seen and heard clearly. They ap- ' peared to be about 30 feet long. I These are the first whaies the [ keeper had seen during his three ; years on the islancUr- | ' t V •* Model Of Harlwur» , ■. Two honours students at the Ardmore School of Engineering ; have built a scale model of Auck- ; land Harbour, accurate in every de- ; tail, in which the currents and ; the rise and fall of the tide are > reproduced. A year's work has : gone into thp model and the I mechanism which produces the ! tides. First trials in which a ; float was released from the posi- ! tion of Western Whar'f, proved ; most satisfactory, the float fol- - lowing the same course as did one - released by the Harbour Board in ! 1915- The students, Messrs W. G. Alexander and. D. A. Tanner, will ; use the model to gather material ; for their theses. 1 Run Of Bad Luck. ; Jo-Dee, the baby elephant who ; broke her left hind leg recently at Oamaru and has been conval- ■ escing ih Dunedin has now broken ' the other hind leg. An X-ray I taken at the weekend with the 1 public hospital's mobile plant : showed that there was a clear crack across the right hind leg just above the knee, and this leg has now been put into a plaster cast. Christmas has been no ' pleasant interlude for Jo-Dee, as : her broken legs have had to be

! dressed every four hours and presI sure sores on the leg have been | causing her some pain. Dressings ; have taken the full efforts of flve ; people. Medal For Missionary. ; A New Zealander, the Reverend ; A. W. Silvester, of the Methodist ; Foreign Mission, has been awarded ; the American Medal for Merit for ' outstanding services at Vella , Lavella, Solomon Islands, during : 1943. His assistance to the Ameri- ; can armed forces enabled them to ; obtain an advanced position in II enemy territory, and his knowI; ledge of the terrain and natives !' gained the respect of American ; officers in charge of operations in the Solomons. In addition to ;! these services, Mr. Silvester rescued 30 stranded airmen and prel vented their falling into enemy !; hands, and was aissociated with ;j the rescue of survivors of the American cruiser Helena. !; Air Traffic Record. The heaviest air traflic ever j! handled at , Paraparaumu airport ; i was . experienced :on ThUrsday, ;! Friday and Saturday of last week ! when. an augmented. service was !; kept , fully occupied. On 'both !; Friday and Saturday there were !' 35 arrivals and departures of aircraft compared with. n.ormal daily number of 24. Between 800 a,nd ;! 900 passengers passed through the ; airport on each of the three days and the freight service was also !; augmented. National Airways has !; arranged to handle an equivalent jl" volurne of returning traffic at the {! end of. the Christmas holldays. ; OSicials reported yesterday that : traffic was gradually returning to norma! so that the ctaft have a slight respite. . , , , , .