NEWS AND NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 July 1939, Page 5

NEWS AND NOTES

VARIOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST. Japanese Swords. A display of Japanese swords, sword furnishings, and other Japanese objects has been arranged at the Canterbury Museum by the acting-cura-tor (Mr R. S. Duff). It shows examples of the long sword wielded with two hands and used in fighting, and the shorter, ceremonial sword, one of the uses of which was to commit hari-kiri. The short dirks and skewers. fitted into the scabbards, are also shown An interesting part of the display is that of the finely wrought sword guards, each individually made by a skilled craftsman and highly pr.zed. The sword: wore carried by the Samurai, the warrior caste of Japan, and it is interesting to note that in 1877 the 2.000,000 of them then in Japan handed in their swords under an edict forbidding them to carry them. These swords flooded the curiosity shops of the world.

Rivals in Bird-feeding. The elderly man who regularly feeds the birds in Albert Park, Auckland, is encountering competition from several other men and a woman, who .come daily to the park with crumbs for the sparrow’s and starlings. Once the centre of attraction for people resting on the park benches, he now finds his audience divided. One competitor comes to the centre of the park shortly after breakfast, and another has selected a spot near the university grounds, where he throws bread to the birds in the afternoon. The man who originally started the bird-taming habit, however, continues his good work near, the library end' of the park. The attention of spectators is often distracted from the birdfeeding by yet another elderly man, who walks through the park at noon playing a violin. Frostfish Discovered. Frosty nights in the Bay of Plenty have brought reports of the finding of frostfish on the beaches past Ohiwa Harbour and at Ohope. Several fish were picked up before dawn on the Ohope Beach the other morning. Councillor in Uniform. For some time on a recent evening the Heathcote County Council at its monthly meeting wondered what had happened to Councillors J. F. Cracroft Wilson and F. W. Freeman. They had not appeared to take their seats. In time Councillor Freeman arrived. He apologised and said he had been detained at an after-dinner engagement. He said there were several such parties being held in the city, and probably Councillor Cracoft Wilson was attending one too. About a quarter of an hour later Councillor Cracroft Wilson i arrived. He was in the uniform of a lieutenant of the Royal Field Artillery, j He apologised for being late. The' chairman. Councillor C. Flavell, said ■ councillors would excuse Councillor Cracroft Wilson’s lateness, because ob- 1 viously he had been “on duty,”

Rock Painting Defaced. Reports that the rock paintings in the Waitaki Valley were being seriously defaced by visitors were made to Mr R. S. Duff, acting-curator of the Canterbury Museum, by Mr M. S. Gibbs,’ of Christchurch, who had inspected the drawings recently. Mr Gibbs told a reporter that he found that many of the drawings had been defaced by names carved into the rock. The drawings cover a face of cliff about 50 feet long, and about five feet deep. Mr Gibbs said that some paintings had been removed by cutting out the rock to a depth of five to six niches. Others were marked with names carved into the rock. He suggested that the paintings, which were alongside the road, could easily be guarded by a strong fence of wire netting.

Ambulance Training. The record figure of 486 new members within a week was reached by the St John Ambulance Association. All these have begun their training in either first-aid or home nursing at one of the 15 district classes in Auckland city and suburbs, and lecturers have commented upon the close attention being given by those taking one or both courses.

The Best Harbour. High praise for Port Nicholson, which he considers the most magnificent harbour in Australia or New Zealand, is expressed by an American journalist, Mr Webb Waldron, who visited the Dominion last summer. Writing in a recent issue of an American magazine, he describes impressions of his tour. Wellington, he says, lies in a nest of strange, stark tawny hills enclosing its astounding blue harbour while far across Cook Strait float in the sky the jagged snowcrestcd Alps of the South Island. “Almost all the harbours ‘down under' —Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Auckalnd, Wellington, Dunedin —are magnificent, but of all of them I give the crown to Wellington.” Supreme Court Facilities. | A request to Mr Justice Ostler to] bring to the attention of the Justice I Department the need for better facilities for jurymen at the Auckland Supreme Court was made by the fore-1 man of a jury, Mr S. S. (Veen, at j the conclusion of a case heard the! other day. Mr Green said there was a lack of adequate seating for waiting I jurymen, who were forced to stand j among witnesses, which was not in the best interests of all concerned. Furthermore, there was no place where hats and coats could be deposited and even in the rooms where the juries met to consider cases there was not a peg on which to hang a hat. His Hon-, our said he was glad his attention had been drawn to the matter and ho; would pass on the jury’s complain/ : and recommendation for better facilities to the head of the Justice Dopa"' ment. An adtu c 'ablo pl'n' n' by Mr W. R Shaw. a -'omb " ' - .St John Ambulance Brigade. Haw.'ra , is to bo included in the equipment of the Auckland mobile ambulance unit. The invention c-mp “'■ an ment of the principle involved in the | Thomas splint, which has bem cd by the military Red Cr~s= for v.w | purposes. One of the disadvantages r.f lhe Thomas splint is that the ring T the top of the splint is fixed. The aim of Mr Shaw was In find a means of combating the disadvanlaffe of 1!v Thomas so Ji’it and his solution to the problem was an mepanfling m?.-J ern- ] trading ring at 'he top of the splint | adjustable to all rwes <f legs.