LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1939, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

All Blacks’ Tour. The All Blacks will leave Wellington for the tour of South Africa by the Dominion Monarch on May 15 next, and will return to New Zealand on October 12. This was decided by the council of the New Zealand Rugby Union at a meeting in Wellington yesterday. Badminton Match Postponed. The members of the Featherston Badminton Club, who were to have played a friendly match with St Matthew's Badminton Club on Monday evening next, have postponed the match until the following Monday. St. Matthew’s Concert. A concert is to be given in the Opera House next Thursday, August 17. by the pupils of St. Matthew’s School. An exceptionally entertaining programme is to be presented and patrons are assured of a most enjoyable evening. The concert is timed to commence at 7.45 o’clock and seats may be reserved at the Arts & Crafts. Chinese and English. A Chinese caused some amusement in the Auckland Police Court, when charged before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., with having opium in his possession. The charge was read and accused was asked how he pleaded. He did not reply, but shook his head. DetectiveSergeant P. Nalder, who prosecuted said accused had been in New ‘Zealand some time and could speak English. The magistrate then asked accused if he knew English, to which accused replied, “No.” Accused then went on to say in English that another man had put the opium in his pocket.

Signing the Pledge. “Ministers will get a bad shock if they ask the young people to sign the pledge, I think,” said the Rev J. D. Smith, discussing the formation of a total abstinence society, as recommended by the Assembly, at a meeting of the Auckland Presbytery. Mr Smith said that one minister had made the request, but not a single person would sign, and he himself had also had poor response from his congregation. He urged that ministers should try it and see, and said that it would bring home to the Church how much it had slipped in the matter.

Electricity in Hospitals. The use and purchasing of electricity for hospital purposes will be the subject of an address to be given at a meeting of the No 2 group of the New Zealand Hospital Officers’ Association at Palmerston North on September ,1 by Mr Norman Lee, managing-secre-tary of the Wairarapa Hospital Board. Mr Lee has had considerable experience in the use of electricity for hospitals, as the Masterton Hospital use*; it for heating, lighting, cooking, domestic hot water, sterilising and laundry purposes. A discussion will follow Mr Lee’s address.

The First White Settler. In 1839 Port Nicholson had a European population of one, says a bulletin issued by the National Historical Committee. A Scots sailor, Joe Robinson, lived near the Hutt River mouth. The Wesleyan missionaries, Hobbs and Bumby, found him building a boat to get away to the whaling settlement at Akaroa. Joe Robinson had only a hand saw and some iron barrel hoops to put his craft together; he was laboriously melting down the hoops to make nails, and was so engaged when the white settlers landed at Petone Beach. He now had a better use for his craft, ferrying passengers to Wellington or up the Hutt River for half-a-crown a trip. Birds Killed by Storm.

The bodies of a large number of dove-coloured petrel, known as the whale bird, litter the west coast beaches near Auckland. In the recent westerly gales these birds were blown from a great distance out at sea to the coast. In such circumstances the whale bird quickly succumbs to exhaustion or dies from being battered in the surf. Two whale birds were found alive but exhausted. One was at Piha and the other at Muriwai. Another was found near Frankton Junction in the process of being devoured by a hawk. That it had been blown so far inland is evidence of the strength of the wind against which it was, unable to struggle. Another unusual visitor identified by the Auckland War Memorial Museum was a cape pigeon, which is another species of petrel, and which was blown by a gale to the beach at Piha. When found it was still alive, but it died soon after. The cape pigeon is about a foot in length, and is mottled black and white. It is about double the size of a whale bird, and is found in Antarctic waters and near some of the islands in southern latitudes. Whalers are familiar with it, for after a “kill” it swarms round the scene for refuse.