LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 28, 13 November 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Outdoor relief administered by the Ashburton Hospital Board continues to l)o small, the amount paid out in the last month being only £8 15s ,3d.

•Special hymns prepared for the church anniversary were sung at a special young people’s service at the Baring Square Methodist Church yesterday morning. The service was conducted by the Rev. Angus Mcßean. A Solo was sung by Miss Pearl Addis and Miss O. Watts played the organ accompaniments.

■ A large black marlin swordfish was seen from a launch to the Whangavota harbour the other day. The fish followed the boat for a long time before swimming off. The same boat crew afew days previously came upon a big thresher shark engaged in a fight with a fish they could not identify in the vicinity of Stephenson Island, off Whangaroa,

Many cases have occurred in which two or three, men from one family are offering their services in the Maori Battalion. The record of one family, however, is outstanding, no fewer than 10 members having enrolled for service. This is the Te Han family, of Muriwai, Auckland, which was represented by four sons in the Maori Pioneer Battalion in 1014-18. One son was killed in action, and of the threc-i who returned two survive. Both have volunteered again, and with them aro brothers or nephews.

Only the prompt action of a bus driver saved a small child from serious injury at a stop in Wheturangi road, Auckland. The bus was slowing down when the child, breaking away from his guardian, inside the vehicle, ran to the door. Just as lie was falling off the step the driver grabbed him with his free hand. The bus was travelling about 20 miles an hour, and bad the child fallen be would probably have been severely injured. Whether the driver acted on the spur of the moment of whether he was used to such occurrences is-unknown , but those who witnessed the incident congratulated him upon his action.

The Ashburton Nurses’ Chapel Fund, started some time ago wiith the object of building a chapel at the hospital for the use of nurses and patients, has reached, a total of £55. It is intended to make the chapel 18 feet by 43 feet, and* the cost is estimated at between £BOO and £950. The fund is to be a standing one, the money collected after the chapel is in use to be used for maintenance. If the chapel has not been built within the next 15 years, the funds in hand rare to be used to form and maintain, a nurses’ library. Advice to this effect was received by the Hospital Board . this morning, when a letter from the Nurses’ Christian Union committee was read.

More than 35,700 persons visited the, Centennial Exhibition on Saturday. The evening crowd was the biggest and gayest that Rongotai has welcomed at any one time. In the morning the Governor-General, Lox*d Galway, opened Playland and with Lady Galway and Government House children tried out the principal rides and sidoshows. Lord Galway’s son, the Hon. Simon Monckton-Arundel!, celebrated his tenth ibirthday there. Saturday’s official attendance figure issued by the exhibition authorities was 35,759. The total of attendances so far is 104,555, which is a daily average of 26,100, considerably greater than the average attendance at the Dunedin exhibition.

Wliat looks like snow has remained in the steep gullies on the higher slopes of thei Tararua Ranges since the heavy falls of last July, states the Levin correspondent of the “Evening Rost.” Actually, however, it is not snow, but granular ice. The heavy weight of the winter snow and the trickle of water during the day time, melting the surface snow, caused the bottom layers to granulate and become a. solid mass. Thesei masses of ice are some hundreds of feet long, and in places 30 or more feet wide, and from 10 to 12 feet deep. The white patches, uthieh are still visible, are really incipient glaciers, and if a cold summer was experienced would remain until another winter came round.

What person living in town would dream of motoring 100 miles to the pictures, asks the “Taranaki Herald.” It is safe to assume that, so fair from driving that distance merely to see a film, no city dweller would go that far for scarcely any evening’s entertainment. Yet country dwellers think differently. To drive that far for one night’s amusement is thought nothing of*. Some people living in a timber mill camp away at the back of beyond informed casual visitors that they were going to the pictures that night. They went every Wednesday. Gazing round the* countryside and seeing nothing hut tussocks and hush, the visitors felt justifed in asking where the theatre was. “In Taumarunui,” came the answer. That town was 50 miles away.

Wet canteens for military camps were favoured by Mrs N. Adams, Dominion president of the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union, speaking at a reception by the North Taranaki provincial council of the Women’s Division at New Plymouth. Speaking as the wife of a camp commandant in the last war, Mrs Adams expressed the opinion that if there were canteens in camps there would not be so much drunkenness. The canteens would be under military control and the amount of beer that was sold would be strictly controlled. The profits derived from the sale of beer would be handed back to the men in the form of a canteen fund. “If a man is going to fight for you, surely you will trust him to have a glass of beer,” concluded Mrs Adams.

There cannot be many living in New Zealand to-day who can recall the days of the terrible smallpox epidemic of London, when the town criers patrolled the streets calling on householders to bring forth their dead. Mrs Bmily Jane Bassett, of Masterton, who on Monday celebrated her ninety-fifth birthday, still has vivid memories of those terrible days. She was born in Regent Street. London, in 1844. She recalls that during the epidemic marble counters were installed in her parents’ shop: money was placed on these in payment for pasties, and allowed to become cold before being handled by the shopkeeper, who thought by this means to avoid all .risk of infection. In spite of her great age, Mrs Bassett, who has been a resident of Wairnrapa for 71 years, retains her faculties to an astonishing degree. Her family appears to afford some corroboration of the theory that longevity is hereditary, as her sister in London has just attained the age of 92 years.

Owing to the discoloured state of the water following the recent freshes, conditions in the Ashburton County rivers were not very favourable for angling during the week-end. Few reports of good-sized bags were received. Little whitebait was running in the Rangitata.

Nearly 700 tomato plants in the garden at the Ashburton Public Hospital were cut down by a severe frost this morning. This is the second time the garden has suffered from frosting this spring. Delicate plants and walnuts are said to have suffered in other parts of the town and in the County. There was ice on pools in the Methven district this morning.

The fact that the London office of the Drapery and General Importing Company of New Zealand, Ltd. {the D.1.C.) was now situated in a small Hertfordshire village was communicated to shareholders in the company by the chairman of directors (Mi: P. L. Halsted) at the annual meeting at Dunedin. That was in conformity with the action of other large concerns, including the National Rank of Ne w Zealand, Mr Halsted mentioned.

Two infantry platoons and a. motor cycle platoon of O Company Ist Battalion, Canterbury Regiment carried out tactical exercises at Wakanui Beach yesterday morning. The platoons visited the farm of Mr H. Brown, Seaview, in the afternoon, when Lewis gun shooting was held. Captain H. Keenan, of Christchurch,, officer commanding the company, was present during the day, and complimented the platoons on their efficiency.

For the second time in the last few months, the grass thermometer in the Ashburton Domain has been broken. The instrument was intact yesterday, hut was found broken when the weather readings were taken this morning. A number of stones were found on the grass in the enclosure where the instrument was placed, indicating that the damage was not the result of an accident.

White wild hoars are rare, and a cross between black and white rarer still. Both types were shot by a party of pig hunters at Whangamomona recently. says 'the “Taranaki Herald.” One was a slate colour, and Messrs K. and E. Meuli, who 'were members of the party, said that it was the first time they had seen a wild pig of that colour. During the four days of the hunting trip more than 60 pigs were destroyed and some fine specimens were included.

The fact- that for a period not exceeding his leave from Ashburton he had volunteered for the emergency medical service iinder the Ministry of Health was conveyed to the Ashburton Hospital Board to-day in a letter from the Medical Superintendent (Dr. A. J. Mason), who is in London on 12 months’ leave. Dr. Mason stated that lie had been appointed :a surgical specialist in Sector X of the London area, and Mrs Mason had been apppinted radiologist in the same Sector.

Production of the Winton district daily factories is still in advance of last season. For the month of October, 198.952 gallons of milk were received from 237 suppliers as against 182,616 gallons from 226 suppliers in 1938, an increase of 16,336 gallons, or approximately 9 pey cent. The aggregate payout increased accordingly from. £4186 7s lOd to £4734 7s 3d, a gain of £547 19s sd. The cheese, output was 88 tons as compared with 79 in 1938, while the total tonnage since the beginning of the season is higher by 15£ per cent, when compared with the corresponding period last year.

Entries for the John Bell Memorial Scholarship close in Ashburton next Friday. Candidates for the scholarship must be under 14 at the md of the year, and to: qualify must j>ass an examination in English, arithmetic and elementary agriculture. The holder must attend the Ashburton High School during the two years’ tenure of his scholarship, on the undertaking that lie wjll, if possible, continuei his studies in agricultural science for two years after the expiry of the scholarship. One entry has so far been received by the secretary (Mr G. V. Tujrby) from whom particulars of the scholarship: may bo obtained.

A resident of St. Kilda struck a peck of troubles on Friday (says the “Otago Daily Times”). He was taking his midday meal peacefully when he happened to look out of the window, and was surprised to see two of his canaries flying around in the yard. He dashed out of the house to try to recapture them, when he discovered that the roof of his aviary had been blown away by the heavy wind and that his 16 canaries were at liberty. His budgerigars were, however, apparently too frightened to move and had remained in the aviary. The St. Kilda resident, before trying to recapture his canaries, took the precaution to place the two family cats under a box, and then set about the heart-breaking task of trying to catch the escaped canaries. Ho caught two only, and on coming back to the yard found that his fox terrier, evidently also afraid of what the cats might do, had snapped his chain, got undor the box, and as the heated resident graphically out it, had “cleaned up the cats.” Two of the canaries were caught, the dog bore distinct evidence of a sanguinary encounter and what has happened to the cats is not yet known. It is thought that they may be in hiding under the house. In the meantime 14 canaries are flying about the borough of St. Kilda.