NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 37, 14 February 1939, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

Pigeon Alights on Ship. A homing pigeon, white in colou with a grey neck, has reached th residence of Mrs. M. Crisp, Paru Bay, near Whangarei. Secured to on leg by a rubber band was the mes sage, “Landed on the Endeavour liv miles off the coast. Fed ani watered.” H.M.S. Endeavour is en gaged in a survey o f New Zealan coastal waters. New Biology Block. The new biology block, which ha been erected for the Auckland Un; versity College at a cost of £37.001 will be officially opened by the Minis ter of Education, the Hon. P. Fraser on the afternoon of Monday, Febru ary 27. The zoology and botany de partments, w hit h wei e form< . much overcrowded in the old scienc building at the corner of Symond. Street and Alfred Street, have nov been transferred to the new building which embodies the most moden ideas of design for its purpose. Music on World Cruise. Wherever she goes, the Americar schooner-yacht Navigator, which ar rived at Auckland, from San Pedro oi Friday, has music. In addition to th( transmitting and receiving apparatus which has kept the vessel in constant touch with San Francisco throughout the transpacific voyage, the yach possesses a receiving set operating or the broadcast band. One of the speak ers is cunningly concealed in the saloon. while another portable speaker can be placed on deck to provide music for the helmsman and the watch on deck during a voyage. N.Z. Currency Returned. The return of a New Zealand Reserve Bank £5 note to Mr. J. L. Leslie of Christchurch, by his mother in England, who says that she cannot cash it, seems to bear out the truth in

the assertions of many travellers re- ■ cently that they were experiencing 1 difficulties in changing New Zealand j money, says The Press, Christchurch. ■ Mr. Leslie said that he had been in the habit of sending small remittances) to England for some time, but this ■ was the first occasion that a banknote had been returned. Mrs. Leslie had made great efforts to change the £5 into English currency, but even the t Bank of Nev. Zealand had refused to | handle the note. Radio Beacons. Work on the radio beacons which' are being installed at Cuvier Island and Moko Hinau is progressing . rapidly and the Government lighthouse steamer Matai, which returned from Cuvier Island on Friday, has landed the last of the necessary equipment there. Work is also progressing with the electrification of lights at 1 various points, and these will be of; great assistance to navigation in the : gulf, said the master of the Matai. Captain J. W. Burgess. Shipment of Donkeys. A cargo of an unusual type even for the port of Auckland arrived when a shipment of 15 donkeys from Ponui Island was landed by the motor-vessel Baroona. Numbers of donkeys abound in practically a wild state at Ponui, which is in the Tamaki Strait, near Waiheke Island, but they are only rarely sent to the mainland. Numbers from a consignment about a year ago went to the Auckland Zoo as attractions for children. The task of catching the donkeys invariably results in •xciting exhibitions of wrestling at Ponui Island as the animals, which become tame very quickly, are at first very restive. The 15 donkeys brought by the Baroona had quietened by the time the vessel was berthed and were ! loaded into railway trucks for the journey to Woodville. It is expected that two or three cargoes of the ani- < mals will be brought from Ponui in, the near future, the exports resulting : in the bulk of the donkeys being! cleared from the island.

.’lnch-travelled Letter. A letter addressed to Mr. R. Feaver ■ of Manugatapere, near Whangarei . and despatched from England by th( ill-fated air-liner Calpurnia, travellec three times between Britain and New Zealand before it reached its address When mail salvaged after the Calpurnia crashed arrived in New Zealand, Mr. Feaver’s letter had appar ently lost its envelope and it ultimately reached a Taranaki resident ir an official envelope. The recipient realising that a mistake had beer made, returned the letter to the sender in England. After its thirc journey across the world it reached Mr. Feaver a few days ago. Poor Apple Season. j Apple exports from Gisborne are . the I son which is just commencing. Crop? generally throughout New Zea lane are not heavy and growers anticipate I that a considerable proportion of the j quantities usually exported may be i required for the market in the Do | minion. The first of the export apples are expected to leave Gisborne I this week and packing should comI mence to-day for this shipment, whic h | will comprise 400 cases of Cox’s I Orange Pippins. . Forty Years’ Service. I Forty years of service as secretary 1 of the Gisborne Co-operative Building I Society by Mr. A. G. Beere, who re- ■ cently retired and with his wife ini tends to settle in Australia, were ack- | nowledged in farewell presentations Iby the directors and members. On ; behalf of members. Mr. C. H. AmI bridge presented Mr. Beere with a 'substantial cheque and on behalf of ] the directors handed him a canteen of cutlery. Ho said the success the • society enjoyed was largely due to : Mr. Beere’s conscientious service and i the societv deeply regretted severing

I relations with him. j Physical Fitness and Food. I “If the average man is lacking in : the knowledge of anything he is col- . ossally ignorant of what constitutes I good food,” said Dr. R. G. Shackleton, i when proposals for Physical Fitness ! Week were being considered at a i public meeting at Waimatc. It was I Dr. Shackleton’s opinion that is ari ranging displays of sports and physical exercise the meeting was “start- , ing at thhe wrong end.” Before perLons could participate in sport they 'had to have healthy bodies, he said, ‘and by far the most important factor in that was food. Just as clean drains j and pure water were now established facts in everyday life, so people would have to be taught, the value of nutrition. Advertising New Zealand. That New Zealand is well advertis- ' ed in New’ South Wales was an opinion expressed in a private letter received from Mrs. R. E. Champtaloup, i of Auckland, who spent a week touri ing by road in New Sou’h Wa;~s before embarking at Sydney for England recently. Mr. and Mrs. Champtaloup travelled extensively in the Blue Mountains districts and in every hotel at which they stayed overnight they observed coloured illustrations of New Zealand tourists resorts. Mrs. Champtaloup stated that these pictures attracted attention and she frequently overheard guests at the hotels expressing the desire to visit the DomiiMon. Ruse That Failed. An audacious attempt to decoy a girl assistant away from a tobacconist’s shop on the pretext that she was wanted by her employer at his other shop occurred in Wellington recently. Rushing into the shop, a young man told the girl that the assistant in the other shop was having trouble and that he would mind the shop while she went to assist her. The girl refused, even after the man purported to have a telephone conversation with

_ a her employer, and he then left the | shop. Later, it was discovered that ( neither the employer nor the other • girl knew anything of the man and) j that his story was false. i ]