NEWS IN BRIEF.

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 285, 1 September 1942, Page 5

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Home Guard Call-up

Six hundred calling-up notices for the Home Guard were issued to reservists liable for such duty in the Wellington area yesterday. The call-up was made in the Wellington military district only. Postmen’s Drive. A postmen’s drive for the All Purposes Patriotic Fund in Dunedin on Saturday realized over £l3OO, all in silver coins.—P.A.

Rugby Airmen. In a Rugby football match in Wellington at the weekend, a team from the Roval New Zealand Air Force beat a fifteen from the Air Training Corps (Wellington wing) by 20 points to 6.

Death From Injuries. Major David Clive Crozier, aged 39, died in Christchurch yesterday, following a car crash on Saturday. He was driving alone in Hagley Avenue when his car struck a telegraph post. Major Crozier was district mechanical and technical transport officer. —P.A. Imported Periodicals. Advice has been received by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce from the Collector of Customs at Christchurch that additional licences granted for. the import of books, etc., from the Uniteu Kingdom and Australia, may be used for the import of periodicals and magazines. Bequest to Redemptorists. Under the will of Miss Sarah Fuller, who died in Christchurch on June 29, her net residuary estate, estimated at approximately £5OOO, is bequeathed to the Redemptorist Order, Hawker Street, Wellington, for the purpose of the mission work of the order in New Zealand. —P.A. Christmas Dinners. The decision that the allowance . for •each man in eamp throughout New Zealand for Christmas dinners this year should be 1/6, the amounts to be recovered from the provincial patriotic councils on a quota basis, was made at the last meeting of the Canterbury Provincial Patriotic Council, at which the national secretary, Mr. G. A. Hayden, was present.

Unlawfully on Racecourse. Before Mr. Freeman, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Te Aroha. yesterday, Henry Baker, a farmer, was charged with having been on the Paeroa racecourse while prohibited from such gatherings. The reason for the prohibition was stated by the police to have been defendant's attendance at a two-up school in HamiL ton which was raided. He was fined £5 and 10/- costs. A Silent Carillon.

Though the structure' of the carillon tower in Buckle Street, Wellington, was not damaged by the recent earthquakes, one of the largest bells—that in memory of troops from the Hutt Valley—was slightly displaced, and the mechanism of the electrical player was disturbed enough to warrant a complete overhaul. That is why the carillon has not been heard for the last two months.

Airmail from War Prisoners. People in 'Wellington with officer prisoner-of-war relatives in Germany are receiving letters from them by airmail. So far as is known, this privilege has not been extended to non-conimissioued officers or privates. One of the letters received last week was dated June 4, so that letters travelling by air take only half the time they do when dispatched in the ordinary way. Warren of Air-raid Shelters. Not far from the centre of the business section of Wellington has been completed a veritable warren of air-raid shelters with solid brick and concrete walls ami concrete roofs, all with convenient entrances on to a much-used public street, and each one separate from the other, with most of them on different levels. There are 17 shelters in all, of varying size and capacity, but the whole of them can accommodate and seat 880 peop.e. The shelters are supplied with conveniences.

Birds’((Double Nests. • The strange “double nests of thrushes are discussed in the current issue of “I orest and Bird” in which it is affirmed that a second nest is built on top of one whic-i has for some reason been abandoned. The writer says: “These so-called double nests’ have given rise to the rather romantic theory that the thrush is a socia. bird and that two different pairs of birds are nesting together. The mistake lies in endowing the bird with the attribute ol being sociable or gregarious, but ben nesting, or at any other time, the songthrush is neither.

Race Winnings Stolen. . A man who was given two . winnin„ tickets to collect totalizator dividends at the Trentham racecourse failed to return to the jockeys’ room and kept the £lb 17/6 involved. He pleaded guilty to theft when he appeared before Mr. Stout, S M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday, and was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence it called on within 12 months. A condition was that he should make restitution. Accused was Ronald Douglas Burgess, labourer, aged 36. He was represented by Mr. G. Joseph.

Ordeal by Fire and Water. A cock sparrow was recently found lying on its back in a pool of water, states a correspondent of the Forest and Bird Protection Society. It was rescued from this predicament and placed in a box bv the fire. After a little while it had regained its usual sprighthness and began to hop about. But it hopped into the fire I Once more it was rescued and again placed in the box. It was not long before it was hopping about again and soon flew out of the window none the worse for its experiences with lire ami ■water.

Aviaries and Bird Slaughter. A member of the Avicultural Society (London), in an article contributed to the New Zealand Forest and Bird, discusses the whole subject.of aviaries, indoor and outdoor, in relation to the breeding of native birds in captivity tor release. He says: “Every well-informed aviculturist knows that birds bred in ai iaries, or even wild birds which have been in captvity for any length of time, aie denatured. They have lost their natural awareness, sense of direction, power to locate food and water, and soon tall victims to cats, rats, stoats, weasels and the like.”

Warm Temperatures for August. Sunday, August 30, will be remembered in Wellington, as one of the most beautiful days of the year. From sunrise to sunset, Old Sol blazed away from a ski of the clearest azure, and as only whispering zephyrs moved in the golden haze, many parts of the harbour were like freshly-polished mirror. Such were the conditions that bathers were noticed u some of the bays. In Evans Bay w bite there was a fair gathering ot haidy swimmers, someone thought ot taking temperatures. The thermometer used registered 50 degrees in the water, and climbed up to 90 degrees Fahr, iu the tull blaze ot the sun.

Search for Seed Potatoes. Applicants for seed potatoes seemed to be working on the idea that they would not receive the full amount applied for. said a weary constable at one ot Wellington’s police stations last iii.lit. The average weight applied tor on the forms he had signed during the afternoon —and he had been hard at it all the time, he said—would work out at about 21 pounds. Applicants seemed to be under a misapprehension that forms were provided at the police stations. Ibis was not so, and as* stations were not well enough supplied with paper to provide it, applications were being taade on all sorts of scraps. On some of them, the constable said, not enough room was left tor him' to sign at the bottom, and he bad to write along the margin.

Small But Important. . . The importance of microscopical animals and plants to the welfare of man i<s stressed in an article in . I'orest and Bird ” A striking illustration ot what is meant is to be found in the biotic chain which ends in the production of 1 eruvian guano. Vast numbers ot cormorants (shags) and other birds feed on the aimost unbelievable quantities of fish Present along the coast of Peru and nest on islands off the coast, thus producing the guano. But the fish require food, so the larger varieties feed upon the lesser and the lesser on the lesser still, and so. till masses of minute fish feed on the microscopical diatoms which in their turn feel on decayed matter brought near tne sinface by the 100-mile-wide cold Humboldt current. If the decayed matter failed for some reason the diatoms would starve and then the whole vast biotic structure would fall and the thousands upon thousands ot shags now present would starve, leaving perhaps a remnant which would be looked on as rare birds.