NEWS AND NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1938, Page 11

NEWS AND NOTES

VARIOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST. Women Wait for Hours. Christchurch people show a rare enthusiasm for community singing, says a southern paper. In the drenching rain and biting cold a queue of women lined up outside the doors of the Civic Theatre as early as nine o’clock to be, certain of a good seat for the sing which was timed to start at noon. The previous week some were waiting at the doors at 8.30, shivering in one of the hardest frosts of the winter. Old River Steamer. Following the publication in the “Wanganui Chronicle” of an article “Steamboat Round the Bend,” dealing with early days of navigation on the Wanganui River, an old resident has forwarded information of the fate of one of the oldest steamers, the Wairere. The steel hull of the vessel lies on the mud of the river bank near Hatrick’s Foundry, while the boiler was purchased by the Government and is used as an incinerator for the Wanganui Post Office. It is a familiar object in the vacant section behind the offices near Ridgway Street.

Looking for Snow. Rumours that a fall of snow would occur in Northland greatly intrigued one small boy at Hikurangi (says the “Northern Advocate”). Vainly he watched the sky, but the best it could produce was something extra large in the way of raindrops. During a spell of sunshine, he wandered around the backyard and suddenly rushed indoors, a white powder held in his cupped hands. “Snow,” he shouted, in high glee. But his mother disillusioned him. It was washing soda she had spilled in the vicinity of the copper!

Century of Coins. The cynical Jacques, of “As You Like It,” would have philosophised pleasurably over the handful of pennies that a Papanui resident received recently in change from the tram conductor. Arranged in chronological order, the coins covered a period of just on a century. The first showed Queen Victoria as a girl of under 20, newly come to the throne; the second showed her as the matronly Queen of later years; the third bore the head of bluff King Edward VII.; th fourth that of King George V.; and the fifth was one of King George Vl.’s newly-minted coins. Later, the coins of the four generations of monarchs formed part of the purchase pric of a King Edward VIII. stamp.

Skilled Labour Scarce. A statement that a timber mill which he opened at Motuhora might have to be closed because of a shortage of skilled labour was made in Gisborne by Mr F. W. Peddle. Mr Peddle explained that he kept operations going at heavy financial cost to himself, and unless labour problems were solved in the near future he would have to shut down, a step he was reluctant to take. It would mean loss of employment to approximately 20 men. Skilled labour was not obtainable for the mill. He had applied to the State Placement Service, which had made inquiries throughout the Dominion without success. Frosted Lambs.

It is very seldom that fat lambs in South Canterbury are rejected on account of being frost-bitten, but (the “Timaru Herald” says) such has been the case with a number of lambs killed at the local freezing works during the last two or three days. Nearly all the lambs have come off country well inland, and of fairly high altitude. From one line of 132 prime lambs from the Fairlie district, 37 were rejected, while from a smaller line from a southern locality of South Canterbury there was a rejection of more than 20 per cent. From some smaller lots there were some odd rejects.

A Traveller’s Bicycle. “The young fellows may beat me on a short stretch, but let them try me out on a 50-mile run and I’ll be more than up with them. I’ve travelled more than 8000 miles on this in the last 12 months, and I know what it can do,” said Mr Albert E. Copeland, when he arrived by the Wanganella from Sydney at Auckland., ‘This” was a bicycle of unusual and radical design that he was carrying with him as luggage. A plasterer by trade, Mr Copeland has used it as his means of locomotion over vast stretches of Australia. The machine bears the same relation to the ordinary cycle as, say, a dachshund dog to an Alsatian. It is the first of its kind to be seen in New Zealand, Peculiar to Australia.

An amusing story of the precocity of a 13-year-old Canadian schoolboy was told by the Australian Trade Commissioner (Mr C. E. Critchley) to members of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. Mr Critchley said that while on a visit to a school in Canada he asked a class to tell him which animal was peculiai - to Australia. He expected a reply that this was the kangaroo, and was somewhat astonished when he was told that it was the elephant. “I quickly replied that the elephont did not come from Australia,” said Mr Critchley, “but I got another shock when the boy told me that that was what made the elephant peculiar.”

Attack on Hoardings. An interesting outline of the work of the Outdoor Circle of Honolulu —the equivalent of the Wellington Beautifying Society—was given, in an interview in Wellington, by Mrs Charles T. Wilder, an official of the circle, and a member of the party of American tourists which is touring New Zealand under the auspices of the South Island Travel Association. “The removal of all bill-boards and hoardings from Honolulu was one of the circle’s greatest triumphs,” said Mrs Wilder. “This was the result of 12 years’ hard work and only ended when the society bought out the billboard business. The society has a membership of about 500 women. It aims at stopping people from putting advertisements on the outside of their buildings and discourages roof advertising.”

Giant Skeleton. Embedded in the face of a cliff on a hillside high above the Waipara River, in North Canterbury, is the skeleton of a gigantic marine creature of prehistoric times, states the "Press.” Its vertebrae and ribs, petrified and harder than the surrounding rock, can be traced for a distance of nearly 30 feet, and on one slab of stone is the outline of its flipper, like the bones of a great hand more than two feet long. These remains. discovered by Mr F. W. Inwood, of Christchurch, during a shooting expedition, have aroused the interest of geologists, for the Waipara region is famous for its fossil remains of prehistoric sea creatures. Many petrified bones —saurian remains—have been found from time to time there, but nothing so large as this has hitherto come to light. The remains are believed to be those of a prehistoric whale.