NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3693, 20 September 1927, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

“The Chinese are born gamblers,” stated Mrs. C. S. McKellar, an Australian journalist at present in Gisborne, in giving some of her impressions of the Chinese people. She stated that shopping in the East was not done in the ordinary way it was conducted here. For instance, she said, one would never dream of passing over the money for a small purchase, but would toss the shopkeeper whether he was paid double the money for the article or whether he got nothing.

Teachers in the back blocks districts of New Zealand are often subject to hardships, but the trials undergone by one lady teacher in the Auckland district are exceptionally severe. To reach her district the teacher leaves Auckland by coastal steamer during the afternoon. Generally a safe landing is made by dusk but sometimes darkness necessitates a particularly precarious one. From the beach four miles have to be traversed over roads at present impassable even for horse traffic. The nearest friends are 22 miles away, so a distance of 44 miles has to be traversed during the week-end if the teacher wishes to visit them.

A wonderful new hapuka ground has recently been discovered in Cook Strait, at a distance of about a mile from Tory Channel. On Wednesday a- Picton launch secured a catch of 190 splendid fish, as Italian fishermen from Wellington were also operating on the ground, it is estimated that fully 2000 hapuka wore caught in one day. “I think it is the home of all the hapuka,” said a well-known fisherman, “and when it has been cleaned out there will be no more hapuka in the Strait. If fishing over tlie ground continues on the basis of Wednesday’s haul it will in all probability be but a short time before the ground is “cleaned up.” The matter seems to be one for the Marine Department’s attention.