NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 July 1929, Page 8

NEWS AND NOTES.

BAPTISED ON EM DEN

Two jjjirls, one four years old and tile other an infant in arms, were baptised on board the German warship Emdeu as she lay alongside the Western wharf, Auckland. The captain's cabin was used, and a temporary altar was arranged, with two candles and the German ensign on tho tables. Outside the cabin severa of tho ship’s band played a hymn tune, after which the chaplain performed the ceremony according to the rites of the German Protestant Church, and gave a short address in which lie admonished the parents to bring the children up to lie real citizens ol the country in which tliej lived, at the same time not forgetting the noble traditions of the German elmreli. After this interesting ceremony the parents of the children were presented with souvenirs of the occasion, and were given hatbands bearing the name of the ship for tinchildren.

FREAK PHEASANT. A striking exhibit in tho Franklin court-at the Auckland Winter Exhibition is a pure, white stuffed pheasant, an extremely rare bird which periodically makes its appearance when the sporting resources or Franklin County are displayed. Pheasants of pure white plumage in New Zealand are exceptional, although albino birds are occasionally seen. At an Auckland Winter Exhibition nearly twenty years ago Winxngarei had a court, and managed to stage a pheasant which was. with the exception of a few grey leathers, nearly an equal to the Franklin curiosity. In its living days it was well known in the Whakaptira district, and for several seasons sportsmen pursued it in vain. Up at Kailiu, in Hobson County, a hotelkeeper, who has a museum on the premises as a hobby, also possesses a freak pheasant. The stuffed bird measures 4ft from the tip of. the beak to the end of the tail. It was shot near Kailiu.

GERMANS IMPRESSED. BY MAORIS.

Nothing else in. Now Zealand has interested many of tho Eindon’s cadets so much as their experiences in Rotorua and Wairakei. They were fascinated, as many others have been, by the thermal phenomena, and they found keen delight in their Contact with the Maoris. In watching the screening of a Maori film they were deeply impressed by the symbolical dances and tribal ceremonial, and later they found that the Maori girls of Rotorua are equally .proficient in modern dancing. Many of the cadets will boar home souvenirs of Rotorua, but the interest of some of them goes further. One Auckland family, on asking a cadet to play what lie liked on the piano, was astonished when his first choice was a Maori s'ong, which he played and sang from memory. NEW USE FOR N.Z. TIMBER. “We are looking for a lighter timber, and are. now using New Zealand kauri for centre-pieces, and other suitable New Zealand timber for inlays in the making of tennis racquets ami other racquets,” said a representative of an English firm which caters for sports material He passed through Auckland by the Makura on the way to Vancouver. He added that Australian timbers had proved to he unsuitable for the firm’s requirements. The visitor considered that there was a big future for many of the New Zealand members, which wore at present used on onlv a small scale.