The numbers taking part and the pieces chosen do not alone make a successful competition, but this year the number of houses who were 'in the running' was higher than before. A musical and worthwhile performance was achieved by more teams and Queen's (who won), Temple and Rise were only separated by four marks. Mr. Reginald Pease had come over from Rossall to judge the competition and his penetrating comments and constructive suggestions were of great value to the performers in this, and the planners of future, competition programmes. He rated the Queen's duet by Nicolai (Hardman, clarinet, and P. Hunt, French Horn) highest with the Rise piano solo ('La Cathedrale engloutie' played by C. F. Foster) and the Temple Minuet (Lawson, clarinet, Dawes, 'cello and Kitching, piano) a close equal second. It was good to see that plenty of the pianists played their solos from memory. Some went through the ritual of putting the copy on the music rest and then played right through without looking at it once. F.W.
THE BRITISH SHIP ADOPTION SOCIETY The "Clan Fergusson's" Voyage 2— our first with this ship—took her from Glasgow and Birkenhead to the usual ports of South Africa and Mozambique, but with calls at St. Helena and Ascension on the homeward passage. The ship sailed from Birkenhead on 13th September and the passage to Durban was marked by two spells of bad weather, one from the Scillies to south of Gibraltar, the other from south of the Equator to within 100 miles of Cape Town. After Durban, the next port of call was Lourenco Marques, followed by Beira, where there was a delay of 15 days waiting for a berth. The same ports were visited, and Cape Town in addition, on the homeward run, the "Clan Fergusson" leaving this last port with over 10,000 tons of cargo and down to her marks. The cargoloading plan shows the usual variety of commodities : chrome ore, maize, vermiculite, orange juice and copper ingots from Lourenco Marques; parquet flooring, ground nuts, hides and cassava roots from Beira; hominy chop, maize meal, whale meat meal and oilcake from Durban; fish meal and sillimanite ore from Cape Town. The cargo for St. Helena consisted of provisions, wire netting, animal feeds, paraffin, lubricating oil and petrol. The ship anchored within halfa-mile of Jamestown, but Capt. Graham was unable to get ashore. He p one could get a good idea of the town. Pracwrites: "From the shi tically on the waterfront is St. James's Church. One can see steep winding roads. Ladder Hill, also on the waterfront, is noted for the ladder which extends from top to bottom. There are 699 steps. A lot of the younger people leave the island to seek work elsewhere, as, all in all, there are few prospects staying at home." Hemp is the chief export. The Governor, his wife and the Education Officer were passengers, and there were also nine deck passengers—workers seeking employment at the U.S. base at Ascension. The cargo for Ascension was only 8 tons of stores and vegetables, and the ship stayed only two hours. The anchorage, mile from the beach, is strictly limited owing to the cables laid from the island, and heavy rollers come in, making the ship roll considerably. Again, there was no chance to land, but Capt. Graham noted some fine sandy beaches and beautifully clear vivid blue water—but with plenty of sharks. 19
