NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 July 1924, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL.

CONFETTI COUNTING.” LONDON, A Lay 10,

Of the many intricate jobs done by women in a new ticket office just opened by the London General Omnibus Company, Limited, at High-road, Chiswick, AY., “confetti counting” is surely the strangest.

When, as occurs every day, a chock is wattled on the number of tickets sold during a particular omnibus journey, the conductor’s punch is opened liv a girl and tlie tiny snippets of paper, browns, reds, greens, blues, and whites, are poured on tt table. The girl, helped by a metal "finger.” builds up little heaps of confetti ali the same colour, from which it is easy to calculate bow many penny “ride'." •for example, have been sold. Other girls act as signallers and

"shunters” for the roller-ways that convey the tickets fresh from the printers to it girl —o<) yitrils away waiting to stack them. Other {tills, who refuse the aid of ladders given them, clamber to the top of Sfl high shelves many times a day where a reserve ot three hundred million tickets is kept.

To the new ticket office a fleet of motor-vans firings S.t'Od conductors tin boxes every night. M Alls COMINd SKA BEK. LONDON'. May. Id. At midnight on August 22nd. the planet- Mars will be as near to the earth as it can be, only 01,500.000 miles away. It- is 100 years since it wits so near.

Dr (Tonunclin, assistant astronomei :it Greenwich Observatory, said yesterday that the position of the planet will not he very favourable for observation in this country, as it will lie low down in the sky. lie added: Nothing startling is to be expected from the observations, Ihe season on Mars will not be a very good one, and the “canals” will not be very strongly marked. Mars has definite seasons in its year, which covers (iSi of our da \s. In its spring there have been seen green patches which are brown in its autumn. They might be vegetation. In its winter the planet is usually covered with a misty veil. The red colour of Mars is supposed to be caused bv sandy deserts of that colour. Yesterday Mars was 79.500,000 miles from the earth or .(n.ftilO.OOO miles farther than it. will lie on Aug. 22nd. .VI G HTINCS ALK BIIOADCA ST. LONDON. May 20.

Late last night wireless listeners-in wove llirilled by a sour of tbe nightingale, whitli was broadcast from a wood at Oxted, deep in the heart of Surrey, and hoard by about 1,000.000 people. A moment before tbe music rang out clearly. listeners-in heard a human voice Innuounting. “Venus is rising in tbe west and the moon is coming up as well. Imagine, if you ean. this wood in tlie centre of Surrey, and listen!” Instantly the voice of a far-away nightingale floated to the cars—exquisitely pure and sweet, now in tender monosyllables of magical music, now- liigli and joyously Joint. Outside the garden from which the song was broadcast a crowd of about SO people were kept at a distance by a policeman. "When Miss Beatrice Harrison softly played a few bars from Elgar’s ’Cello Concerto a bird took up the challenge at once and a wonderful duet followed. Miss Harrison moved softly and quietly about tbe grounds with her instrument finding tbe right spot to challenge the birds "to further efforts. A quiet nightingale, which had two eggs in a nest in a bush, was the second best performer, but in all 8 or 9 songsters were heard by those in the grounds. Many London people who do not possess receiving sets wero able to bear the wonderful music by telephone connection to tho houses of friends who have loud-speakei.s, while at a number of places groups of people sat in gardens and listened to loud-speak-ers reproducing tlie song. This seemed so realistic that the birds might have l»een on a tree branch above their heads. Tlie song went on from 10.40 p.in. till 11, when Mr E. Kay Robinson explained that nightingales will respond to any notes that are like the four soft notes with which they begin their song.

The music was then heard again and went on until 11.15, after which it was announced that tlio nightingale) will bo broadcast again next week.