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Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 30

Old men, young men, carpenters, painters, plumbers, clerks, bricklayers, exfarmers, and labourers, to a total of nearly 200, assembled in the Ashburton County Council yard at 7 o’clock the other morn* ing to obtain transport to their respective jobs under the No. 5 scheme. Over a’ dozen motor cars, motor lorries, and motor trucks were necessary to take the men out to the wood-cutting and gorsegrubbing which the County Council has provided as a relief measure; and after the men had been crowded into the lorries and cars, together with scores of grubbers and slashers, there was not much room left. Though the morning was so cold, the men were very cheerful, and as each load left there -was a salvo of farewells from those remaining. Such scenes are witnessed in the yard every Monday and Tuesday morning. On other days there are fewer men, as the two-day workers are absent and only married men remain. Mutton-birders who returned recently to the mainland from the islands off the southern coast brought back the interesting news that the mysterious hakawai was frequently heard this season (reports the Bluff correspondent of the Southland Times). As usual the bird was not sighted, though several people watched for it. Hakawais seemed particularly plentiful on Solomon’s. Big Sofith Cape, and Poutama Islands, a group covering a scope of several miles; and on these places the weird sound was generally heard early on moonlight nights. The noise begins with a booming at a great height, and this increases in volume as the descent is made till the air vibrates with it. At the end the sound changes to a noise such as is made by the chain on a small craft when the anchor is let go.