NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3921, 21 March 1929, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

iWild pig hunting- is a sport which has been revived in the Thames district. In live trips one Thames •party secured 25 pigs. Katana still has a wonderful influence over the Maoris and obtains as much labour as is necessary by merely asking for it. -The Zeelian mine at Thames started operations last week (with a (mid to deal with 50 tons of ore a day. Timber royalties, once a large item in the Thames County Council’s accounts, had sunk to £213 in the 1028 balance-sheet. Visiting teachers from overseas have been much interested in the changes hi school architecture that are taking place in New Zealand. An alleged joke by on another in the days of the old sailing ships has been brought to mind by an old resident of Ashburton by the cabled accounts of the amazing masquerade by a woman in London, who has been known for six years as an Army captain. The story opens at sea over 50 years ago on an emigrant ship bound for Australia. I’t w'as some time after the ship had been at sea that there was

a commotion on board, .and inquiries led to the knowledge that a member of the crew had been found to be a woman. S'he was given female attire, and being an educated woman, became the school teacher for the remainder of the voyage. It (transpired later that the woman had run away from her husband and had been smuggled on board as a member of the crew by the skipper of another vessel. What is regarded in professional circles as a feat involving no little amount of skill and courage was performed at the Melbourne Hospital on February 11 (says the Age). On January 30 Albert Robert Howard, 15 years of age, was fouln'cl unconscious ,at a country centre with a pearifle bullet in the brain. The lad was hastened to the Melbourne Hospital, and for days was unconscious. Recently he has been semi-conscious, but detectives .engaged on 'ascertaining how the lad received his injuries have been unable to interview him. On February .the hospital Officials decided, that it was imperative that the bullet should be removed, and a most delicate operation was performied, the skull being opened at a point to con'cide with the position of the bullet as shown on the X-ray plate. With the greatest care the bullet was extracted, the operation disclosing that the bullet, hvhen fired, entered to the rear, and rebounded a short distance into the brain. As a result of the operation the life of the injured lad will probably be s'aved. About October last we had evidence of Australian dust being carried across by the winds to New Zealand and deposited on our mountain tops, states a contributor to the Christchurch Press. I sbw a striking example of this recently while at the Franz Josef glacier in South Westland. The gracier itself shows traces of the dust at its lower end, but the head snowfield haJs a liberal coating of a deep chocolate colour. This snowfield is one of the largest in temperate zones and certainly ong of the most beautiful in Alpine regions. ‘The effect of the blue of the huge crevasses and .schrunds showing in the choco-late-coloured neve was remarkable. Crossing the snoxvfield to Graham’s Saddle we found the dust colour not so marked on the Canterbury side, but all the high peaks .on the west were very deeply coated, distance making the colour appear pink. One curious effect of this dust on the ■snow and ice is that it apparently keeps off the rays of the sun and prevents .melting, for we found on returning across the snowfield in the late afternoon of ,a hot day •that where we expected very soft going the surface was quite firm. The Graham brothers say that new snow falling on this dust does not remove it, for the chocolate colour is there when the snow deposited on it melts off, so that the effect of the dust storm may last for some years.