LOCAL AND GENERAL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 87, 3 December 1931, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

High School Shooting The annual eompetition for the shooting champronship of the Rotorua ' High School was held yesterday at '• the school grounds. The winner of the eompetition proved . to be Cadet 0, A. Frost, with a total of 162 out of a possible of 180. Cadet D, McNab was runner-up with a total ' of 160. Practises were fired as follows: Two group practises, two application practises, 10 rounds rapid'ih 90 seconds, and 10 rounds snap, three seconds per shot. Closed Since Earthquake. : The Westport Primary School brick 'building is almost ready for re-oc-cupation after having been out of ' .commission for many months, says the Westport "Times." The damage the building suffered during the earth- ■ quake in 1929 was so extensive that ; it was considered the building was ; unsafe for occupation as a school, | and a decision was made to demolish . it and build a new wooden struet- ' , ure at an estimated cost of approximately £4000. Owing to the necessity for economy in expenditure, however, ahd also beeause of insistence in cer- [ tain quarters that the structure could . ; be quite satisfactorily' strengthened, another thorougb inspection was ; made, with the result that it was de- • cided to carry out structural repairs to make the school earthquake resisting. Souihland Grass in England. Flattering references are often made to the beautiful lawns of England and the excellent turf of such famous grounds as Lord's and Wimbledon, : It is interesting to note that the turf j on such sporting grounds eonsist of 60 per cent. of Chewings fescue' exported from Southland. In all tem.perate zone countries this grass has • won great fa\"our for sporting purposes. Wild Sanctuary In North Auckland there is a little | known lake off the Waikohe MangaI kahia u-oad — "Kereru or Tauto.ro Lake it xs called. It is (writes Mr. Jam.es j Cowan. ia the New Zealand Railways I Magazine) the most lovely, lonely, wild sanctuary imaginable, a bushgirt lake of .profound cairn, with a : round wooded islet rising from its centre, an cncient burial isle. Wild pigeons winnow the air from side to side by the tapu waters; tui and hell- , bird chant in the groves; the bush is j one of the earliest places visited by j th far-flying shining cuckoo, the pini- ! wharauroa, on its coming in the spring of the year. For centuries this has been a burial place of iNgapuhi I chiefs. The dead were ferried across | to the holy site hy a tohunga in a j small eanoe, A elassic place, spiritj haunted, steeped in mounrful beauty."

I Clumsv Joke. _ j An old Maori woman from Rangij otu says the jumble of seven Maori | words used to form the name of a locality in the Otaki electorate is a clumsy joke on the part of an official. It forms the sentence, "Whaka hoki ! mai te Maiora i Rangitane" (return | to the palisades of the Rangitane poople). , Extraordinary Luck. ' , A rather humorous incident took ! place in Opotiki on * Friday evening. r Two natives who had evidently just i proceeding homeward in an ancient- | model Ford when one of the front - i tyres peeled off. The occupants, de- " } cidin'g that in their present state the i | task of replacing the tyre was a little beyond them, threw the tyre in the ^ . rear and proceeded merrily on their ; ! way. Their course now be came a little more erratic and another halt i i was called, the other front tyre hav- | decided to leave the rim. Two pakehas j were called to the rescue, and in reI placing one tyre noticed that the j front wheels were facing in different j directions. With more good luck than good management the natives had driven their car about a mile with j a bolt missing from the steering | gear. j j ! Another Wonder Bowler. i ! The Barambah native settlement in ; j Queensland has produced another ab- J ; original fast bowler to rival the spee- ; j tacular Eddie Gilbert, who has been j jbowling well against the South Afri-'j j cans. The new discovery is P. Stanj ley, who tied up the railway team j in the Longreach eompetition a fortnight ago. Stanley took six wickets j I for 10 runs in the first innings, and j j the whole team for 23 runs in the ' second. i • 1

Smperior Shooting If an experiment with pheasants and quail, which is being carried out at the Greenpark hatcheries by the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, proves a success, it is claimed that Canterbury sportsmen will have available, in five years, shooting Superior to that in any part of the Dominion.