In pursuanee of the Railway Department's policy regarding Instruction Classes for Apprentices employed at Railway Workshops, a commencement was made on 26th July of what is probably the first apprentice class to start under the Department's scheme. The members of the first class to start at 8 a.m. on 26th July were Apprentices C. A. McDowell, R. F. Marriott, J. F. Olsen, A. E. Davies and B. T. Maedonald. Mr. D. J. Sherriff is Apprentice Instructor and the classes are being held in the meantime in the Hillside Railway Social Hall. All the apprentices are eager to learn and appreciate the Department's effort to improve their knowledge. The scheme promises to be of great future benefit, both to the lads who are being taught a trade and to the Department which will reap the reward of more efficient service.

A Mammoth Tree

One of the largest trees in the world—if not the largest—is in the bush at Waihou, Hokianga, New Zealand. It is a kauri tree, the vast trunk of which rises to a height of 75 feet before being broken by the first branch, and measures 22 feet in diameter, or approximately one chain in girth. It is estimated that the tree contains over 195,000 feet of timber, sufficient to build three double storied houses of 20 rooms each from floor to ceiling. This remarkable tree should be zealously guarded from destruction, and preserved to show future generations what the lordly kauri was at its best. From a marketable point of view it would be impossible to fell it, much less to break it down, for no mill possesses saws large enough to tackle it. Its age is estimated at 2,000 years at least, and carefully conserved, it should have another thousand years before it.

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Discretion of speech is more than eloquence. —Bacon.