NEWS AND NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1938, Page 7

NEWS AND NOTES

VARIOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST. Used to Thrills. Lieutenant Fraser Mclntosh, who clambered unhurt through the window of a wrecked railway carriage at Temuka, is quite accustomed to thrills. Not only was he badly wounded and gassed in France, but in recent years he has figured in six motor accidents, in one of which he was seriously injured. While the carriage in which he was sitting sped back to Temuka and disaster, Mr Mclntosh read a book. He thought it strange that the train should be returning whence it came, but past experience has apparently taught him to take life calmly. Friends said that this is his seventh accident and that "he has two more lives to go.” A Sea Elephant Ashore. A large sea elephant was a visitor to St. Kilda, Dunedin, the other day, and after lying in the sun for most of the day it disappeared into the sea again shortly after sunset. It first emerged from the water about 11.15 a.m., appearing through the surf close to where the proprietor of a private hotel at St. Kilda was taking his baby son for a paddle. The sea elephant was bleeding at the mouth and had nine wounds on its body. It was obviously in pain and went slowly up the dry sand to lie in the sun, where it was a centre of attraction during the day for hundreds of children and adults. It measured 16 feet over all and wgs about 12 feet in girth. In the late afternoon it showed definite signs of reviving, and at 6.45 it turned again seawards.

“A Dangerous Instrument.” The radio debates sub-committee of the New Zealand University Students’ Association recently asked the Director of Broadcasting, Professor Shelley’, for the removal of some of the limitations on subjects for debates over the air. In his reply the director, according to “Canta,” was at pains to impress on a deputation which interviewed him what "a very dangerous instrument the microphone was.” He suggested that a list of proposed subjects should be submitted to him, and he would mark those he thought might be dangerous. It was mentioned that the Government was party to a Geneva Convention which prevented anything being broadcast which would be offensive to any other country; debates on principles, however, would be allowed, such as the relative merits of democracy and dictatorship. This, it was considered by the committee. amounted almost to a prohibition of all debates on international affairs.