NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 May 1929, Page 7

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

ARMCHAIR BUSES. The omnibus with the armchair seat, has arrived. As an experiment th ■ London General Omnibus Company has fitted in some of its latest vehicles double seats with curved-in backs, upholstered in plush and higher than usual, providing r.estful support for the traveller. “The improved accommodation is being tested in a number of omnibuses at first, and if it is a success it will be extended,” said an official of the L.G.O.C. GROUP TEACHING OF THE PIANO. Already very popular in the United States, where tens of thousands of school children arc learning the elements of piano playing by means of it, the group or class teat-ling method is now making good progress in Canada. School authorities are increasingly favourable to the idea, and at both AlcGill University, where group teaching of the piano has been made an optional subject for students, and the University of Montreal, where classes of teachers of the method are being trained, the principle has been endorsed in the most encouraging iashion. WHERE MEN WORK FOR FIVE FISH HOOKS A DAY. An island oh which an able-bodied young man is satisfied with five fish hooks for a day’s work is described in a Colonial report just issued. This spot is Ren noil Island, one of the least known of the Pacific Islands, which was recently the subject of a geological survey. The inhabitants of tiie island are estimated to number at least 700 and are still untouched by white influence. They are described as “abjectly poor” and practically vegetarians. OWL’S HOMIXG INSTINCT. An owl’s 60 miles flight with clipped wings is the subject of an interesting article in a recent edition o!f “Nature.” Tbe writer, Mr Ernest Warren, of tbe Natal Aluseum, Pietermaritzburg, says that at tlie age of seven months the owl was taken from its home at a farm in Ashburton (Natal) in a closed box by motor car to another farmstead, 60 miles away. “In its new quarters,” writes Air Warren, “the bird remained for four days, and then disappeared. Eight days later nt 6 iv.in.— it was found in its shelter at the original limine, and in a perfectly placid condition,”