LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 269, 27 August 1935, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Ashburton High School Board this morning made a donation of one guinea to the funds of the Workers Educational Association.

A Marlborough County ratepayer who owed rates amounting tc 3s 3d uas sued for the amount at the Blenheim Magistrate’s Court last week. the County Council got judgment for the sum claimed, plus three times the amount in costs.

Nine cases of notifiable diseases were reported in the Canterbury and West Coast health district last week. There was one case of tuberculosis on the West Coast, seven in Canterbury, and one case of scarlet fever in Canterbury. There was one death from tuberculosis on the W est Coast and one in Canterbury.

Fire broke out in the rubbish jiit in the Ashburton Domain just before noon to-day. Light refuse burnt most of the day', but the Domain staff kept the outbreak within the dump. The grass surrounding the area is very green, and this prevented the spread of the flames.

Another “mystery hike” to the Mount Somers district has been arranged for next Sunday, and Hampers from Ashburton, Christchurch, and Tiniaru will take part. 1 his particular tramp is over entirely new country, and is considered to be one of the finest yet planned. Fine views can be, obtained of Mount Somers, Winterslow, Alford and Hutt and the limestone eaves and petrified gully will be traversed; The distance is eleven miles, and a more strenuous tramp at the foot of Mount Somers is also available.

“Ashburton seems to bo the milch cow for the Government and we are always passed by,” said a member of the Ashburton High School Board of Governors this morning, when protesting that the Minister of Education had visited several less important schools in the Province recently hut had not visited the Ashburton schools. “When the late Mr R. J. Seddon was opening the High School here, he said that they should have as a motto, 'Ask, and you shall receive.’ We have been asking and asking,” added the Board member, “and we have received very little.” He went on to say that tlie Board had permitted the Government to use the school farm for many years, at very little cost, and that it had been the only experimental farm in the Dominion that had made a profit for the Government. Another member stated that two Cabinet ministers (the Hon. A. Hamilton and the Hon. J. G. Ccbbe) had visited Ashburton recently, so that Ashburton had not been neglected altogether.

Aii excellent sample of kapok lias been grown on Mr T. S. Ferguson’s farm at Pyes Pa, near Tuaranga. The plant was grown in a sheltered position facing north, and it has 5 a total of 78 ripe pods. The pods are sin long, but in their green state they were about 9in in length. The silky fibre is a splendid sample. The plant came from Australia.

Few people would imagine that an ordinary ppnny could be pressed into a narrow sheet of metal foil more than 15 in. in length. However, an Auckland youth who placed a penny in a jeweller’s hand press obtained a strip of foil lojin .long and about an inch wide in the centre, tapering toward the ends. The foil was very flexible, and possessed the brilliance of a new coin.

Great fortitude was displayed by Mrs G. W. Foote, of Ruawai, who took part in the annual North Auckland ladies’ golf tournament at Whangarei. In the morning Mrs Foote cut a finger of her right hand so severely that the injury required surgical attention. After stitches had been inserted, Mrs Foote took' her opponent to- the 19th hole before her match was won.

“It will be a good day for the school when there is a recreation ground near enough for proper practice for football and when we can afford a sufficient area of asphalt for a proper basketball court,” said Mr S. G. Macfarlane (headmaster) in his report to the Ashburton East School Committee meeting last evening. “Both games are much handicapped in present circumstances,” he added.

“What New Zealand wants,” said Dr. C. E. Beeby, in an address on “Research in Education” to the Wellington Rotary Club, “is a national philosphy of education, in which New Zealand will be regarded as New Zealand and not as an appendage of England. Russia has such a philosphy; so has Germany and Japan, and there is no reason why New Zealand should not have one.”

“There is very little unemployment on the West Coast, South Island, just now, practically none,” stated the Hon. S. G. Smith, in Invercargill. “Indeed, I am told it is very difficult tc get good, able-bodied working men for jobs. Why, in Hokitika, where we could have employed 100 men on building an airport, we could obtain only five.” The explanation of this seeming freedom from the unemployed problem is that many of the miners and others who would under ordinary circumstances be ranked among the unemployed seek an outlet in goldmining in their slack time, and some of them arc reported as doing extremely well on the beaches and in mining claims.

A modern hotel, with 100 bedrooms, on one of the most central sites in the city, is envisaged by a group of Dunedin business men. It is understood that proposals have been made that the site at present occupied by the telegraph office should be taken over as aeon as the telegraph branch of the Post and Telegraph Department moves to its headquarters in the new post office. Under the present plans, the old building would be demolished and in its place a large hotel on the most modern lines would be erected. Tentative sketch plans of the building have been drawn up, arid it is stated that the cost of the proposed structure would be about £IOO,OOO.

Tiie quarterly meeting of the Star of Ashburton Lodge, U.A.0.D., was held last evening, the A.D. (Bro. R. M. Chambers) presiding. The Lodge passed a motion of sympathy with the relatives of the late Bro. W. Paterson. The Bards reported on visits to sick members, and sick pay was passed. One candidate was initiated. Two maternity claims were passed for payment. An invitation to attend a mock wedding Avas received from the Success of Ashburton Lodge and was accejAed. Bro. E. Parkin, P.D.P., presented a P.A. jewel to the District President (Bro. A. Garriock). It was left in the secretary’s hands to arrange for a lecture by one of the Lodge medical officers for next Lodge night. At the close of the Lodge, supper was handed round.

Though its. roll number is only 21, the Lynnfcrd School, about 12 miles from has decided to issue a magazine, “The Lynnford Lizard,” covering the work and activities (real and imaginary) of the pupils. The first number has been produced, and it is a creditable volume of 34 pages, 8i inches by 5J inches. The cover design was from the pen of Norman (Davison, a Standard V. pupil. In the magazine there are 32 illustrations, the work of pupils in all classes, even to Primer 1. The remainder of the booklet is devoted to stories told by the smaller children and written down by older pupils. The letterpress has been typed, and the whole production made by the use of a duplicator. The stories told are highly amusing, and the children apparently have had their own way in the preparation of the pages.

Ninety-six years ago on Saturday last, Mrs R. C. Hamerton, of Central Terrace, Kelburn, Wellington, was born in the Parish of Colyton, on the borders of Devon and Dorsetshire. Nearly three years later she landed with her parents. Major and Mrs Parris, of New Plymouth, from the barque Blenheim. Mrs Hamerton is the sole survivor of the passengers by that ship. She is still bright-eyed and active, and ready to talk of the difficult days in the Taranaki of her youth, or to discuss current news with interest and vivacity. Her husband was Lieutenant Hamerton, who was wounded in the Battle of Waireka in 1860, when for the first time in history the colonial voluntary troops entered battle. As Civil Commissioner for Native Affairs, her father had been intimately concerned with the negotiations over Native lands which led to the catastrophe of the war. He ultimately became Public Trustee at Wellington .

Opinions strongly against the disposal of the Monowai generating station to the Goven|nent, and against the acceptance of the Government’s terms for the supply of additional power, were presented to the Southland Electric Power Board yesterday. The board’s secretary and chief engineer, who examined the position in detail, were supported in their findings by independent investigators. The board unanimously decided against both the disposal of the generating station to the Government and the acceptance of the Government’s terms for the supply of additional power. The Government offered to pay the hoard £435,000 in New Zealand currency for the works, and to supply power to the board at £6 7s 6d a kilowatt of the half-yearly annual maximum demand on the 11.000-volt busbars of the hoard’s sub-'statiens at Gore, Winton and Invercargill.

A very enjoyable radio dance evening arranged by Mesdames M. Keeley and K. S. McEachen on behalf of the entertainment ” committee of the Hampstead jubilee was held in the Hampstead* Hall last evening. There was a good attendance, and the radio music was much enjoyed. After supper Miss J. Anderton and Mr M. Thompson played extras, and Mr R. Keeley was M.O.

Good progress is being made in the preparation of the first shipment of tobacco leaf fi’om Nelson to England under the Government guarantee. This season’s export will be made up of the surplus leaf over the growers’ contracts with Dominion manufacturers. Provision has been made for a much greater export next year, when it will be necessary for growers wishing to participate in the scheme to grow leaf 'for expert independent of what they are producing for New- Zealand companies.

“The definitely educational side of this movement has gone,” said a member of the Ashburton High, School Board of Governors this morning when the Board was considering a request for a donation from the Workers’ Educational Association. “Their activities nowadays,” he added, “are more like social evenings held at private houses where they have play readings, and readings >from Shakespeare and that sort of thing.” Members were agreed that these pursuits were of educational value, but that the movement had got away from the ideals on which it was founded many years ago.

To find his infant son endeavouring to hammer off the cap of a cartridge which was the size of a cigar was the experience of a Paeroa shopkeeper. The cartridge was half an inch in diameter and ljin long, and the bullet was an inch long. The boy had found it in the garden, and was sitting on the ground holding it with his foot and using a hammer and chisel on the cap when discovered. 1 , On the bullet being removed, the black powder was found to be in good order. The father did not dare investigate whether the cap was still good.

“Taking the handwriting of children by and large, I am heartily ashamed of it.” This comment was passed by Mr E. F. Hemingway (chairman of the Wanganui Education Board) when addressing a meeting of school committee delegates in Palmerston North. A committee member had asked Mr Hemingway whether,-as an old teacher and chairman of the Education Board, he thought the use of pads instead of slates was conducive to good writing. He replied that the matter was outside the jurisdiction of the board, but he agreed there was nothing like the attention paid to handwriting in the schools to-day that there was years ago. The majority of present-day children seemed to write frightfully. Some of the best writers, he had noticed, were Maoris. • •