Cadet Magazine 06 1956

THE S.J.A.B. CADET

Jottings

A monthly news link published for the Hawke’s Bay St. John Ambulance Cadets.

Vol.3   1956

H.B. Representatives

The representatives to the Dominion Championships to be held at Auckland in August are as pictured.

This team has had recent successes and so here’s hoping for their chances in Auckland.

The boys have been together for two years now, and so have had plenty of training together.

And last but not least we must mention their patient trainers and their suffering patient and emergency who has been under the torture of much sticking plaster, plasticene[plasticine], paint and putty etc. which are used in many fake injuries.

The trainer of the team is Cadet Officer N. Richards who is assisted by Cadet Superintendant [Superintendent] Burfield.

Mr. Richards will be the team chaperone, coach and guardian at Auckland where they will probably be billeted. It is also believed that they will travel both ways by bus.

Best of luck boys, and try and bring back New Zealand honours with you.

Photos –
R. BAXTER (leader)
R. HICKMAN (No. 3.)
T. MARTIN (No. 2)
J. MORGAN (No. 4)
I. MASON

HASTINGS

NURSING

Congratulations to P. Heffernan, N. Lee, M. Waterhouse, G. Draper, R. Beeson, R. Frew, B. Bloomfield, for passing their preliminary First Aid. And also congratulations to the boys team for winning their elimination contest.

Sister Lasenby is taking a Home Nursing class for a period of one month on theory work.

Attendances have dropped slightly but I think this is due to the colder weather and flue[‘flu], and I hope to see more cadets along in the future.

Miss R. Drummond is now equipped with a new costume which makes all our personnel uniformed.

Act. Cdt. Sup. Miss J. Glover.

AMBULANCE

I am happy to state that the club is now under way, the first nights attendance being eighteen, which was really more than we expected, but the more the merrier. Your club committee has authorised the purchasing of another darts board and a set of darts as this game seems to be in full demand. Mr. Beckett has very generously given us a ball board game and I’m sure this will be popular.

Our division numbers are growing which is good to see. The church. parade was fairly well attended although I would have liked to see the whole division present.

Best of Luck.
Cdt. Sup. Mr Burfield.

Contribute often and freely![1]

Takapau

COMBINED DIVISION

Attendance at the weekly parades of the Division continue to be very good despite the prevalence of the ’flu.

At a recent parade three members were examined for their Preliminary First Aid Certificates and all three were successful; several of the girl members are now awaiting their examinations in the near future. It is proposed to hold a Social evening of which more details later.

Visitors from other Divisions will be most welcome.

Cadets here are still awaiting their uniform issue.

Cdt. Sup. R. Boswell.

THE ELIMINATIONS

On behalf of the Hastings Cadet Ambulance Teams and Officers, I would like to thank the Napier Divisions for their hospitality shown us in the recent elimination competition. Special thanks to Miss Tait and her helpers for putting on such a wonderful afternoon tea. The results of the competition were very pleasing to the officer who trained the winning team. The results were as follows:-
Hastings   1st.
Waipukurau   2nd.
Taradale   3rd.

The Hastings boys will now represent Hawke’s Bay – East Coast at the Dominion Championships in August. Special thanks also to the parents of the boys for allowing them so much time with St. John work.

Cdt. Off. N. Richards.

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New St. John Ambulance Building for Hastings

The proposed new St. John Ambulance building in Hastings, a plan of which is shown above, will have a frontage in Southland Road of 62 feet. The total floor area is 5600 square feet. The building will contain, in addition to the hall, a lecture-room, administrative office, medical stores, kitchen and locker-rooms. The hall itself will be 67 feet long by 46 feet wide with stage and anterooms in addition.

Our ENGRAVER

Here you see a photograph of Corporal Ray Baxter to whom we are greatly indebted. For it is to him that we owe the success of this magazine, he has been responsible for reproducing our photos and sketches. Ray spends much time and care on these “blocks” and could not be doing a better job, in fact, there is hardly anyone who could equal his work and keeness [keenness] for the magazine.

READERS ADVERTISMENTS [ADVERTISEMENTS]

FOR SALE: One stamp album and quite a few stamps. What offers? Write “STAMPS” C/- The Cadet Jottings.

ADDRESS for all contributions, advertisements donations queries and small snapshots concerning St. John is to found elsewhere in this issue.

WANTED: Used stamps of all kinds, for the Lepers. The depot for these is C/- The editor.

Space in this mag. for adds. is sold at the cost of a donation in postage stamps. This is open to all readers who want to Buy Sell or Giveaway. etc.

There was a boy from St. John,
Whose uniform he began to put on
And as he was tall,
And his uniform small,
He could not get the bloomin’ thing on.

2/6 Price [Prize] to M.M. for this limerick.
(You too may donate prizes if you wish)

THE AIR JET

It is interesting to note that this item of news was found by a contributor when he was glancing through an old weekly newspaper published in 1923.

A plan to abolish the propellors on aeroplanes is the subject now of laboratory research.

Air compressed and mixed with fuel in a combustion chamber would be projected through a nozzle at the rear of the aeroplane and the reaction to its discharge would drive the machine through the air. Though it is calculated that high speed might possibly be obtained through this method of jet compulsion, the mechanism would be heavy, and experiments so far show that the consumption of fuel would be in excess of that required for ordinary propeller drive.

A youngster whom I was tutoring in physics didn’t seem to comprehend the concept of weight at all- especially when I tried to convince him that a pound of feathers was exactly as heavy as a pound of iron. I finally gave up when he said. “You stand down in the courtyard and I’ll drop a pound of feathers on your head, from the second floor. Then I’ll drop a pound of iron. After that, if you say they weigh the same, I’ll believe you”   N.G.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

It has come to the attention of the (mis)management that employees have been dying on the job and either neglecting or refusing to fall over. This practice must cease forthwith and hereafter. Any employee found dead in an upright position will immediately be dropped from the payroll.

In future, if a foreman notices that any employees have not moved for a period of two hours it will be duty to investigate as it is almost impossible to distinguish between death and natural movement of some employees.

Foremen are advised to make careful investigation. Holding a pay envelope in front of a suspected corpse is considered a reliable test. There have been cases, however, where natural instinct has become so deeply engrained that the corpse has made a spasmodic clutch even after rigor mortis has set in…

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The editor wishes to acknowledge contributions in this issue from: M.M., N.R., J.G., N.G., R.B., As well as from Ray Baxter.

Thank you to those cadets, and thank you to the other cadets who have given contributions, but owing to limited space in this issue they have not been published.

Our influence depends not so much on what we KNOW, or even upon what we do, as to what we ARE.

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“Hoi’ Waiter there’s a fly in my soup”
‘Don’t worry sir It won’t drink much.

Superintendants and Contributors are reminded that all divisional reports and items etc. are to be in the hands of the editor by the 18^th of each month.
J. Morgan
511E Queen St.
HASTINGS

“Teacher (to new boy) – “What’s your name, my boy?”
New boy – “Willy Broon”.
Teacher – “Always say ‘sir’ when you are speaking to a master. Now what’s your name?”
New Boy – “Sir Willy Broon”.

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Chemist – “I say, Mr. Brown, that meat you sold me yesterday didn’t taste very good”
Brown (the Butcher) – “Then we’re quits, for that medicine you gave me tasted something awful.”

Ed – “Can you telephone from a submarine?”
Mr. Bousfield “Of course anybody can tell a phone from a submarine.”

Contribute often and freely!

I AM A PEARL DIVER

The weeks of my first voyage passed swiftly – too swiftly; I revelled in every minute, fair weather or foul. I was really alive at last. I had proved what I had always felt in my bones: that the sea was my natural element.

Since early years I had been a first-class swimmer, and latterly I had been more than a little proud to find that I possessed uncommon powers of endurance in the water. Not only could I swim several miles with ease, but I had a knack of keeping under water longer than any of my school-chums.

But I must come to the point and tell you how I came to be a pearldiver.

It was when I arrived in Australia that I met an extraordinary character. I will call him “Sharky Jake.

He was a big burly fellow, with a very wide mouth and large teeth, several of which were broken off at the middle. He had grey-black hair, like an enormous shaving brush, and his ears stuck out like wings. But his eyes were his queerest feature. They had just such a wicked glint in them as you may see in those of a man-eating shark.

However, Sharky had his good points, and he certainly fascinated me.

He talked to me for hours about the roving life he had led, telling me stories of the wildest kinds of adventures in savage places.

One night his talk was all about pearl-fishing, and he told me of how he had competed with natives who dived to a deapth [depth] of a dozen fathoms – 72 feet. This happened, he said, in the Torres Straits, at the top of Australia. He ended by suggesting that he and I should try our luck there together. Thrilled to the marrow, I agreed at once.

A month later I was in a pearling lugger on my way to the “Fishing ground,” ready and eager for my first dive. The pearl fisher in charge of the lugger was vrey [very] chary of taking me when I confessed I had no experience of the work, but after much persuasion he consented to give me a trial.

To descend in a diving-suit was out of the question, for I had no training in the use of the apparatus. There was nothing for it but to “skin” or naked dive with half a dozen lithe bodied, brown skinned young men who were already experts.

How well I remember that initiation into the delight – and the terror – of plunging like some gaint[giant] fish deep down down, down… Descending the first few fathoms was an easy matter, but after that the effort required to continue the dive became more and more strenouous [strenuous]. A sharp pain stabbed in my lungs. How desperately I wanted to breath [breathe]! Soon I could struggle on no longer, and with the bitterness of defeat in my heart I turned and shot to the surface of the sunlit sea.

[To be continued]

The only way to have happiness as a permanent guest is to keep your doors open to the helpless.

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