LOCAL & GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 10, 5 October 1937, Page 6

LOCAL & GENERAL

Whitebait Season. The whitebait seasop. has a little over a inonth. to go before it closes on November 14. Frices were higb during the early part of the season (which opened 011 July 1) but during the last few weeks iucreasing suppiies have been coming to hand and quantities have been on sale at more reasonable prices. Whitebait fishing is aljvays an erratic business, for even in tbe best stagos of a season largo quantities of fish may come forward oue day and only small quantities the next. ' Novei Feature. A novel feature at the evening performance at the Cosy Theatre, Hastings, on Saturday was a. stage appearance of the winners in the juvenile amateur trials ivliichi are being held each Saturday. The successful contestants on Saturday were tlie Happy Quartet, four Maori boys, who sapg several numbers unaccompanied, and the audience on Saturday night thoroughly apprcciated this unexpected interlude. The quartet consisted of ltangi Happy, lta Parahi, Paddy Lturu and Spadie OrehaWa, and wero traiued by Mr. Jack Happy. Crioketers' Return. The metnbers of the New Zealand cricket team. which has now completed its tour of Great Britian, have sailed from London. The team is due to arrivo in Adelaide on Saturday, October 30, but tlie match against South Australia will not begin until November 5, by which time th© players should have regained their land legs and liad the four or five days' practice which is always nocessary after a long sea voyage. The match against Victoria, in Melbourne, is duc to begin on November 10, and tli© game against New South Wales at Sydney on November 23. The steamer will, if necessary, be delayed a couple of hours. The te..:-i should arrive in Wellington' on the i..o.ning of November 20.

A Plough Team Of Bullocks. A ploughing contractor near Morrins- ! ville h: ; made use of six working bulf locks as a team to draw a double- | furrow plough over 50 aeres of hillside land. The unusuql spectacle of bujlocks liitched to a plough lias aroused considerable interest dlnong by-passers. but tliere is no doubt tliat tlie contractor has got good results on country wliere it would have been difficult to have worked a four-korse team. These bullocks hau been used to hauiing jogs out of tlie bush near Te Hoe, and hau ncver been in a plough before. Beside his bullock team the contractor has a tliree-liorse team drawing a hillside plough. Although the country is very steep, he has ploughed up 50 acres in 18 days. On flat country he estimates ihe bullock team would plough tw«» acres a day. Passchendaelo Battlc. The New Zealand Division began tlie main phase of its engagement in the Battle of Passchendale 20 years ago yesterday. Tlie division' s share in t'm battle culminated in the disastrous fighting of October 12, 1917, in which severe losses were suffered, with magnificent heroism in the face of overwiielming odds. With tho Australians, the New Zealanders were in the centro of the line in the advance of October 4, which was marked with considerable success. The Dominion's division took and held Gravenstefel Ridge, after fighting which was only a foretaste of what was to come eight days later, when an attack was launched on Bellevue Spur. The division had to fiounder to battle positions in tbe darkness j through deep mud, wliicli also Ilam- ! pered tlie artillery and rendercd its ' bombardment lneffectivo.

Tunnels In Italy v Amazement at tlie extent to which tunnelling has been" necessary in railway constpuctiou in parts of Northern Italy w.as expressed by Mr. P. McGee, field officer of the Lands Department, Queensland, who passed through Auckland by the Monterey. On one section of the line, while skirting tlie coast from the French border around the Gulf of Genoa, he said, the train in whicli he yas travelling passed through 90 tunnels in one day, the longest being between seven and eight miles in length. The ruggedness of the coastline at this part was dne to the fact that tlie mountain ranges came down to the sea'. Many engineering problems wero thus created in railway and road building. Mr. McGee was a meinber of a party of 80 Australians who travelled through the countries of VVestern Europe duriug the month which followed th© Ooroiiation. The Threepenny Blts. Tlie new threepenny bits recently minted in England do not seem to be circulating as they should, according to tlie authorities. This is probably due to the attractive character of these twelve-sided, gold-looking coins with their witty thrift design. One prefers, almost unconsciously, to part with coppers. Certainlv the Mint cannot be held responsible for a shortage, for since the first was struck in April more than 20,000,000 of them have been put into circulation. So infrequently are they sfi'i that shoppers who receive one in change often inquire what it is under tho impression that a foreign coin has been received. Bus conductors confess they are not often given one of the new bits, and skopkeepers rarely find tbem passed over tlie cbunter. Suppiies irt the banks are limited, but the coins are available if asked for, and some customers commonly take away several pounds' worth. But, readily as the banks pay them out, they do nOt get them back again. Big as appears the number produced, it amounts after all to no more than one of the new pieces for every two memhors of the population, so tliat they are «nfficicnt]y uncommon for people to koep in their jiockets. Anyway, they oan't all have reached Aberdeen yet.