Brothers buy home for school

The Redcastle homestead, a mile or two to the north of Oamaru, has been acquired by the Christian Brothers as a boarding and day school for the diocese of Otago and Southland. It is understood that the school will be opened early in the new year. The main college will be a three-storeyed structure in brick. To permit facilities for open-air sleeping and classrooms, large balconies will surround the building, supported by heavy columns. When the new buildings are erected and the grounds altered to suit the changed conditions, the Redcastle College will be one of the best-appointed and most attractive in the Dominion. It will employ a large staff of teachers and servants, and will be a valuable addition to the educational institutions with which Oamaru is already richly endowed.

Rest-house must pay rates 

At the monthly meeting of the Clutha County Council on Tuesday an application was received asking for the remission of the rates on the land at Owaka, on which a rest-house had been built for the convenience of the women and children of the district. He submitted that it was a charitable institution, and as such should he exempted.

Cr Maginness said he was not in favour of remitting any rates. This institution, the speaker maintained, was not a public one at all. Very stringent rules had been drawn up by the trustee for the conduct of the institution, including that no resident of the township was to be allowed inside. It was for the people round about Owaka only. He would move that the request be refused.

The motion was seconded by Cr Wilson, and carried without dissent.

Children’s hour a winner

The children’s session, although inaugurated only last Monday, is already proving a popular and eagerly looked-for feature of station 4YA’s broadcasting service. At the first session, Aunt Diana asked her listeners to write and tell her what they would like to hear most, and from the number of replies received at the station during the week, it would appear that not only the youngsters, but the grown-ups as well, are intrigued by the idea of the juvenile hour.

Parallel parking

The cross wharf at Dunedin is only a small affair as wharves go, and although vessels of 500 to 3000 tons gross register are berthed there week in and week out, it is seldom that two steamers are wedged into such a small compass. Yesterday, however, visitors to the wharf saw two Red Funnel steamers — the Wingatui and Kamo — occupying the loading berth. The actual length of the wharf is about 580 feet. The Wingatui has a length of 312ft, and the Kamo 229ft, so that 541ft of the wharf was taken up by the vessels’ hulls. It was rather a close fit. 

Rugby’s mascot

To admit being unacquainted with Skookum is to display a lamentable ignorance of the doings in the world of Rugby Union, and those who attend the leading Rugby fixture every Saturday should, if they have not already done so, make Skookum an acquaintance. 

For the benefit of such as have not been officially introduced to him, it may be stated that Skookum is the guardian, chum and all-round handy dog of a prominent Rugby Union official, and he is not at all averse to proclaiming the fact to all and sundry. — ODT, 2.7.1926