THE OPOTIKI NEWS Wednesday May 24, 1939. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 186, 24 May 1939, Page 2

THE OPOTIKI NEWS Wednesday May 24, 1939. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Temperatures, North Island' temperatures, at 9 o’clock yesterday morning were: Auckland 55 degrees. Tauranga,-and Opotiki 50, East Cape 54, 'Gisborne 48, Napier 47, and Wellington 49. Shipping. The m.si. Otiinai arrived off the Opotiki bar this morning, and succeeding in entering the river but ran aground owing to the very difficult channel. It is hoped, to get the vessel off'on the next tide. Young Farmers’ Tour, A tour by eastern Bay of Plenty young farmers’ clubs to have taken place early next month has been cancelled. The party was to have visited Wairoa on June 9 and Gisborne on the following day, after a tour of the Waikato, King Country, Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay. ‘‘Manufacturing” catapults. Six boys “manufacturing” catapults on a large, scale were surprised in their apparently well-organised activities when a police constable visited their “headquarters” in the Ashburton river-bcdl. The constable found the lads very busy, some, making handles and others cutting rubber thongs. Finished weapons and others in the course of being made were com ffscated before their use could prove a nuisance to the townspeople. Kiwi on West Coast. The presence oi a kiwi in bush pc a hillside at .Baker’s Creek, on tlio Barrytcwn-Gieymouth road, has been established beyond doubt. The area has only recently been declared a scenic reserve, and it. is possible that it shelters- more than one kiwi. Kiwis arc as rare on the West Coast as in other parts cl' tlio Dominion, and at Christmas time last year, the taxidermist of the Canterbury Museum, Mr. P. J. O’Brien, who made a fruitless search in an area- south of Boss lor a kiwi whose presence there had been reported. State Steel Works. An early start on the State steel works, for the establishment c-f which 4:5,000, OCO has been set aside, was forecast by the .Minister of Public Works, the-Hon. B. Semple, in an address at West Spry don. “Me will be building a steelworks in this Dominion very shortly.” the .Minister said, "and J. hope it will compare with anything iii the worlds.” Questioned after the meeting, Mr. Semple said the surveys at Onekaka of the ore available were still being carried out, and they were very promising. No decision ,'iad yet been made, be said, as to the site of the works. Radiclogist Post. A decision to advertise the post of medical radiologist at t-he Cook Hospital as soon as Ministerial approval was given, was made by the Cook Hospital" Board at its monthly meeting on Monday afternoon. Two letters from tho hospital boards of neighbouring districts, Opotiki and M aiapu, were received, intimating that they would co-operate with the Cook' Hospital Board to the extent that they would encourage patients in cases of a suitable nature to seek the assistance of the Cook Hospital for radiological treatment. Both beards asked for an assurance that they were not considered to be under any obligation to make any financial payment to the Cook Hospital Board. Can Birds Count? A reliable observer, writing to the Forest and Bird Protection Society from the Foxton district, says that a grey duck, built its nest some 20ft. from the- ground in a macrocarpa. Flc-ven ducklings were successfully hatched, .and the puzzle was: How would the young birds reach the ground-? Sonic people assert that the parent bird carries the young ducklings de-wn on its back. By good fortune. however, ■ the process was observed. The mother duck took-up her stand at t-he foot ol the tree and began calling her young, which one after another leaped) from the nest and with the aid of their undeveloped wings, landed gently alongside their mother. Number 11, however, refused to leave the nest, despite the mother’s incessant calling.. She evidently well knew that 11- had to be accounted for. and continued her appeals. At last number 1] took courage and jumped'. Immediately the duck took her family to a nearby drain.