LOCAL & GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 May 1939, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL

First Rain for Three Weeks. Following a sunny clay on Saturday, the weather suddenly broke in Wanganui early yesterday and rain showers continued till the afternoon, when the weather- cleared. The rain was the first experienced for three weeks. Debating Club. The Masterton Y.M.C.A. proposes to add to its winter activities by the formation of a Men’s Debating Club. Persons interested are invited to get in touch with the secretary, who will explain all the details. Motor Cyclist Injured. A motor cyclist, Norman Gee Dong, received a broken finger and cuts about his legs as the result of a collision with a motor-car at the corner of Walton’s Avenue and High Street yesterday. Circular Saw Accident. While cutting wood with a circular saw at Mangatainoka, three miles from Pahiatua, Mr Wilfred Hall, a wellknown farmer, caught his left hand in the machine. He was taken to the Pahiatua Hospital, where it was found necessary to amputate four fingers. Well-Grown Carrots.

Some fine examples of carrots, grown by Mr F. Bartholomew,, of Tinui, are at present on view in the window of the W.F.C.A. Ltd. seed department. One carrot weighs as much as 3{lb. and several others touched the scales at about 21b. Dominion 7 Badminton Tourney.

A proposal to hold the 1940 national championship tournament in Wellington was adopted at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Badminton Federation on Saturday afternoon. It was' stated that the game was making amazing progress throughout the Dominion, and that the playing membership was now nearly 6000.. In a supplement to the annual report it was stated that during the off season the executive had given considerable thought to arrangements for overseas tours as well as to plans for activities in the centennial year. Farmers and Medical Service.

Disapproval of the “unfair and mistaken” policy of the Government concerning the services of the medical profession is expressed in a motion carried at a meeting of the Feilding branch of the Farmers’ Union. The resolution will be forwarded as a remit to the interprovincial conference of the union to be held in Masterton this week. It expresses the opinion that the proposals submitted by the representatives of the British Medical Association in New Zealand were in the best interests of the medical service and the public generally. Rats and Mice Invade Homes.

With the advent of cold weather, large numbers of rats and mice have invaded houses in several Wellington suburbs. They are reported to be causing a nuisance in Roseneath and Hataitai and Oriental Bay, and also in parts of the Hutt Valley. Rats are also unusually plentiful this winter. The long dry autumn proved unusually favourable for the breeding and foraging activities of these vermin, which to a greater extent spend the warmer part of the year out of doors. The cold weather of winter drives them indoors in search of warmth and food, lets easily obtainable in the open than before. Vienna Boys’ Choir.

Boys desiring to be admitted to the Vienna Boys’ Choir, which is to give a concert in Masterton on Friday next, have to apply at the early age of seven years. So eagerly are these appointments sought after that thousands of boys every year apply for admission. Of these applicants, some hundreds are chosen, and the fortunate ones immediately begin a year’s preparatory course. All the usual school subjects are, of course, included in the curriculum in addition to music, both theoretical and practical, but in the first year their musical studies are mostly confined to singing and voice production. At the end of the first year, the second stage of selection begins and for two years the process continues until finally only 15 or 20 boys may remain out of the hundreds first chosen, and the thousands who applied. These 15 or 20 are then finally admitted to the choir. That severe process of elimination has resulted in the production of many famous musicians, who, as boys have been members of this Imperial Choir. To mention only a few, Hans Richter, Felix Mottl and Clement Krauss, received their first musical education in the choir, Mozart, Haydn and Franz Schubert were in their boyhood also members, and a tablet on the walls of the National Library at Vienna recalls the date on which Schubert sang for the last time among the Viennese choir boys.