LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 July 1938, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Boy Scouts. At the annual meeting of the St Matthew’s Scout Group in the Den on Tuesday evening next, commencing at 7 o’clock, there will be considerable business of an interesting character to be dealt with. Indoor Basketball.

Further inter-house indoor basketball games were played at the Masterton Y.M.C.A. this week. The results are as follow:—Faulknor’s (B. Faulknor 5, N. Faulknor 4, C. Faulknor 5, S. Faulknor 4) 18 beat Reliance (B. Bodie 2, F. Bodie 1, W. Reynolds 6) 9. C. Smith, Ltd. (D. Leete 4, B. Mason 8, Allen 5, Handy 2) 19 beat Hamill’s (C. Greagor 1, Hatton 2) 3. Band Concert.

The Masterton Municipal Band will, weather permitting, give an open-air concert in the Park on Sunday next, commencing at 2.30 p.m. The programme will be as follows: —March, “Delmonico” (Douglas): fox trot, “Ten Pretty Girls” (Groz and Kennedy); fox trot, “The Slave Market” (Halsey); hymn, “Nearer, My God, to Thee” Carr. Scotney); intermezzo, “Napoli” (Ham); march, “The Royal Trophy” (Rimmer); march, “Knellar Hall” (Greenwood).

Table Tennis Match. In an inter-house table tennis contest in the Y.M.C.A. Hall last night, the challengers, W.F.C.A., Ltd., were defeated by C. Smith, Ltd., by 16 games to 8. The details are as follow: —Ladies’ singles: C. Smith, Ltd., 3 games; W.F.C.A., Ltd., 3 games. Men’s singles: C. Smith, Ltd., 4 games; W.F.C.A., Ltd., 2 games. Ladies’ doubles: C. Smith, Ltd., 2 games; W.F.C.A., Ltd., 1 game. Men’s doubles: C. Smith, Ltd., 2 games; W.F.C.A., Ltd., 1 game. Combined doubles: C. Smith, Ltd., 5 games; W.F.C.A., Ltd,, 1 game. An enjoyable supper was provided by the ladies of both teams.

Popularity of Winter Sports. Bookings this season through the Tourist Department by persons intending to take part in winter sports at the National Park have eclipsed all previous figures and inquiry for accommodation for the purpose is keen up to the end of September. It has been a good snow winter, and as ski-ers have had excellent conditions for the sport in the National Park there has been very little inquiry for accommodation at the South Island winter sports resorts. Billiards and Snooker.

The Y.M.C.A. Cup competition for billiards and snooker was advanced a further stage last evening, when Daniell’s scored a win over the Post Office team. The details are as follow, Post Office players being mentioned first in every case:—Billiards: H. Marsh lost to J. Dew; H. Worthington lost to F. Watson; J. Dunbar beat W. Reid; L. J. Thomson lost to H. Slight; W. J. Miller lost to S. Allan. Snooker: H. Marsh lost to J. Dew; H. Worthington beat F. Watson; J. Dunbar lost to W. Reid; L. J. Thomson beat H. Slight; W. J. Miller lost to S. Allan. Vocational Guidance.

A request, on behalf of Miss M. H. R. McWhirter, girls’ vocational guidance officer, and himself for permission to visit the primary schools of the Wellington district was made to the Wellington Education Board at its meeting yesterday by Mr A. A. Kirk, vocational, guidance officer attached to the Wei-' lington Youth Centre. The main purpose of the visits, the letter stated, was to give short talks to the pupils who are leaving the primary schools at the end of the current year, for the purpose of advising them of the organisation of the centre, of stressing the value of continued' education, and of. introducing the vocational guidance officers. Mr G. M. Henderson said that the parents should be notified in order that they could be present. The request was agreed to.

Mystery Ships. Some of the methods of disguising Q or mystery ships in the Great War was described by Commander R. O. Nisbet, R.N.R., at the Creditmen’s Club luncheon at Auckland. In one of the actions in which he had taken part, the Q ship was flying under Norwegian colours, with a Norwegian ensign and name and the .flag of that country painted, not on the sides of the ship, but on large boards, which could be fitted and- detached from the sides in a very short time. Thus a ship could without difficulty be Norwegian on one side and Spanish on the other. The Norwegian colours were found fairly satisfactory protection by Q ships, but on this occasion the disguise was not effective, and a torpedo struck the engineroom.

Golden Gate Bridge. Some interesting information on the Golden Gate bridge at San Francisco is contained in a letter from Mr J. R. McKenzie, of Christchurch, to the Christchurch Rotary Club, which he represented at the Rotary Convention there last- month. “We drove over the Golden Gate bridge, which is a wonderful construction, taking six lines of motor vehicles abreast, and two for pedestrians,” Mr McKenzie writes. “The bridge rises eight feet in a day with the expansion and contraction of the steel. Its span is five times as large as the Sydney Harbour bridge and recently on a windy day it was nine feet out of alignment, but the engineers have allowed for a safety margin of 15 feet. The Oakland-Bay bridge is eight miles long and is a double-decker—one for motor traffic and the other for trams and trains.” Pheasant Mortality.

Suggested reasons for mortality among pheasant chicks on the Wellington Acclimatisation Society’s game farm at Paraparaumu last season were made by Mr Cussen, poultry expert to the Department of Agriculture, as a result of a visit to the game farm. After inspecting the incubator house Mr Cussen said the house was satisfactory but needed a little more ventilation. The incubators were good and suitable, but spaces round the doors should be blocked to prevent draughts. He considered that the dying of chickens in the shell was due to improper regulation of moisture and air, and those that did hatch were foredoomed, through weak constitutions resulting from defective incubation. The expert expressed general agreement with the feeding of the birds, and described the stock birds as a magnificent lot, the best he had seen. He said the location and layout of pens and buildings were ideal; it was a very fine farm.