Auckland Notes

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 22, 9 December 1932, Page 19

Auckland Notes

By

Neutron

TPHOSE who go down to the sea in ships certainly do see wonders in the great waters. Frank Bullen, ‘in. his "Cachalot," voyaging came-on some strange sights; but nothing to: compare with "Old Wire Whiskers’ " sea battie experience graphically told from 1YA on Saturday. It all seemed almost incredible, and yet as he’ told it one felt the speaker was ‘merely describing details.of an extraordinary sea horror he had ectually seen. He was, he said, skipper of a schooner that had been up to.the Gilberts and was:coming south. They were becalmed for three’ days, aud when 100. miles from land, saw a crocodile basking on top of the water, and then scutter away when a hungry shark. made a dash for it. On che third day of the calm they. could see occasionally, the tops of coconut palms to The north, plumes on the crest of one*of the world’s greatest submarine mountains-for a.mile from its coral shore the sea depth was 5200 fathoms. Jiere in the gloomy depths of’ ocean cavern the giant octopi breed, but, as the calm continued and the skipper went off to his bunk for a quiet "caulk," he wasn’t thinking-of the octopus ‘family, great or small. % % * HOWEVER, the speaker went on, he was sharply roused by the native bo’sun’s shout: "Come quick, Ariki. Plenty deyil-fish!"’ The skipper dashed out, to see about a square mile of boiling. water, Everywhere in this patch giant feelers were thrusting into the air, some to a height of 10 feet, then the huge’ bodies of thé giant octopi came above the: surface. It was that rarest of sea sights, an octopus school. They swarmed around till the small vessel was in the very centre of them, and the fascinated crew noted that the arms at their base were as thick as a man’s body. One huge arm clawed at the vessel’s deck, but quickly withdrew as if it did not like the fecl of the dry wood. Then-"Good God, sir, look astern," the mate called. -A school of ferocious sperm whales-there must have been 200 of 60 to 80 feet each in Jlength-plunged at the host of devil fish, tearing at them and devour ing them with incredible fer ‘ocity.

"THE whales were not the only things after food that hot and windless dal, "Old Wire Whiskers" went | on. Shoals of sharks and "killers" attacked the big sperms and occasionally fell foul of an enraged octopus. The watchers of that grim sea drama saw a 10 or 12-foot shark held high aloft in the tentacles of a monster of the great depths. A big buil whale, cut of€ from the rest: of the- whales, put up a splendid fight against .a host of "killers," ‘but the odds were too heavy for him. The octopi knew no fear, but gradually realised they. were beaten and slowly sank to the cavernous gloom where only the sperm whales conld follow. The "killers" disappeared, and _ the skipper put out a boat to inspect the battlefield. They found a dead sperm choked by a giant octopus, dead, too, half in and half out of the whale’s mouth, with feelers still gripping behind the whale’s head. "I think better we go," a native sailor said when a huge "killer" with a nasty look in his

on a. wee eye sidled alongside the, small boat. As they rowed back they saw there were thousands, perhaps millions, of .seabirds feasting on the remains of o¢topi and the bodies of dead whales. "That was the end of the greatest battle I have ever seen in all my voyaging of of the Seven Seas,"’. the speaker concluded. It was firs t-hand, personalexperience material, very well ‘told, that gripped from.the first. moment-. one of the best for a long time. a: * * A PLANNED offensive for Dastern markets for our produce was again the theme of Mr. Edwards Cortis’s lecture from 1YA on Monday. Taxation in Britain was -too.high for land to remain unproductive, he said, and the Old Country was being forced into land development schemes. We.. in New Zealand had to face the fact that shortly -Britain’s farm production would be doubled... -The speaker urged the formation of export leagues, and offered a definite programme for these. Undoubtedly it would be a fine thing, if, as a result of these talks, and the logic of cir¢umstances, schemes were evolved for pushing our products in the East, where our annual sales total is £500,000, against Australia’s £21,000,000. You might call these. talks a "Wake Up, New Zealand" series. * Ped ss.

I ENJOYED Captain R. Hi. Neil’s talk on "The Arabs" from’ 1YA, but not so well as the first, in which there was.a little more of the personal note. So many books have been written around or have dealt with the birth of Islam, that if must be very difficult to tell anything fresh. Mahomet was, of course, one of the really significant fig: ures of history, and there is:so much of extraordinary interest. about the man and his movements and the notable figures he gathered round him, that it is almost impossible to compress the great men and -the great events.of a stirring period into fifteen minutes. Ba at x R. G. A. THOMAS came to the rescue on Monday with a talk on British inns and taverns. The recorded programme that illustrated these would have been dull and insipid without the lecturer’s interesting and often quite plausible introductions. If we -are to haye such a preponderance of records from 1YA, they go down more easily when pleasantly brought-forward as illustrations of some topic of which each’ is a part. And in addition to sugar-coating the pill, it is an aid -to imagination, too, trying to figure out how exactly some do fit in. "om % x MANY of the gardening talks from ~ YA are not very. interesting. They are often too vague and too cataloguey. However, Mr. Worley’s talk on Health in the Garden was one out of the box. One of his tips, that birds dislike bright blue in the garden, gave a neighbour his first strawberries of the season. He’d about given up hope, and as a last resort to. stop the birds getting everything and laughing at him, tried some rows of blue streamers. He’s now laughing and the birds have gone oft to plague someone who _ hasn’t i wireless set.