The Caledonian Club had again the honour of providing the winner of the champion of champions competition in the person of Mr Walter Foster. Mr Foster had previously demonstrated his ability by annexing the singles championship of the Dominion Bowling Association in 1913. In this year’s competition he met and defeated some of the finest singles players in the city.
Hydro tunnel deaths from gas
Levin, July 3: Two men on shift in the Arapeti No 2 tunnel last night, A.B. Maxwell, tunnel foreman, and B. Butler, pump attendant, did not appear when expected, and the men on duty at the sub-station became uneasy. Three men, T. and J. Graham and W. Birss, then went in to investigate. They got in a distance of 20 chains, but could get no further owing to the presence of gas fumes. They then came out, put on gumboots, and joined Mr Millar (engineer) and F. Birss. All five went into the tunnel. They did not reappear, and the sub-station attendant, C. Trigg entered the tunnel and found the men all overcome, and too far gone to do anything. He managed to get out and give the alarm. The camp was roused, and rescue parties brought the men out, the fumes being very thick. Artificial respiration was tried for 90 minutes, and failed to produce any response. A breakdown in the power station on the Shannon side threw the electric fans in the Arapeti tunnel out of gear, and the fumes from the engine working the pumps accumulated in the workings and created deadly carbon monoxide and dioxide gases.
Capping Concerts sold out
The circle and stall seats for the four nights of the Capping Carnival were practically all sold out yesterday by 2 o’clock. Mr R. Bennell, manager of the Bristol Company, had the organisation for selling the tickets well worked out. He was ably assisted by Messrs Leitch, Porritt, Grater and Thomson, of the university, and everything went off without a hitch. At 2:15pm on Sunday two anxious prospective youths who desired to book seats had taken up their position at the Bristol doors. By a quarter to seven the queue had increased to 125 and Mr Bennell decided to allow the people to be accommodated for the night in the concert room of the Bristol Company. At a quarter to 10 the street was clear of the people, 260 odd being placed in the concert room. A few more came along in the early morning, and they too went upstairs to the room. The people had brought rugs, cushions etc with them, and they slept or talked away the hours till the morning. As each person came onto the stairs leading to the concert room he or she was given a numbered coupon showing the order of admittance. Once in the concert room the people had to stay there. The door was not banged, barred and bolted, but if a person went out and stayed out for any time his numbered coupon was cancelled. The women, however, were allowed to go home at midnight, provided they returned at seven next morning. Just before eight yesterday morning coupon holders one, two, and three were called on. They proceeded abreast down a different staircase to the ticket office and secured their tickets. Four, five and six followed, and so on till the 364 coupon holders had secured their tickets. Then the ordinary ticket purchasers came in from the street, and by 2pm the theatre had been practically booked up for the season. The last ticket sold was numbered 2284. It should be mentioned that four rows of the seats in the stalls are held for nurses, etc, and that Thursday night is kept for what is termed the professors’ night. The pit tickets will be sold each night at the theatre box office. There is no reserve for this part of the house.
Rabbits strip island
Despite the evident presence of stoats and the fact that, for want of other food, the bark had been eaten off every stick of broom for two feet up, 64 rabbits were secured on a small island in the river near Glenore by a couple of local youths. This by no means represented the whole rabbit population of the island, which was eaten bare of every vestige of vegetation, resulting in the rabbits becoming arboreal in their habits in their search for food. Numbers were seen lying about, having been killed by stoats. The rabbits, though poor in condition, were in fine fur.
— ODT, 4.7.1922
