LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 196, 28 May 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Canterbury branch of the Royal Life-Saving Society has awarded intermediate certificates to lsobel Horsburgh, Doreen. Welsh and Shirley Prebble, of the Ashburton High School.

The Ashburton Trotting Club has received advice from the Railway Department that .excursion fares between Ashburton and Christchurch will be issued for the morning train next Monday, when the Sapling Stakes meeting will be held at Addington. The train will include extra carriages for patrons going to the meeting.

A record: of the name and address and the next of kin of every soldier who leaves Ashburton Count- during the present war is to he kept at the Ashburton Soldiers’ Club, according to a statement, made at the soldiers’ reunion last night. It is believed this will greatly assist the work of the Association for the new returned men later on.

Demonstrations of phases of training are to be given at Papakura. Trejitham, and Burnham camps by a model platoon consisting of regulai personnel. The platoon has been proparing at Trentham. The demonstration will include drill, weapon, training, physical and recreational training, field craft, anti-gas training, light machinegun work, and anti-aircraft defence with rifles and light machine-gUns. , '

Carried more than a quarter of a mile, from Rangitoto Channel (Auckland), salt spray which Was driven on to the Devon port cricket giround during an Association football match recently showed the force of the wind. After the game, between North Shore and Eastern Suburbs, players found their faces were covered with the sprayed salt. Windscreens on a number of motor-ears pa,rked near the ground were also coated.

“The apparent antipathy of the pub ; lie toward orchestral concerts is a matter requiring careful consideration; and investigation,” stated the annual report of the 'Napier Orchestral Society. Continuing, the report stated: “The orchestra naturally strives to place good music before the public, but if the type of programme rendered makes it manifest that such, a standard is not appreciated, then it would seem desirable to make some alteration.”

Customers who wish to do business with a young Dunedin printer are finding that this is impossible, states the “Otago Daily Times.” The young man has' “closed up shop” for the duration of the war, and on the door he has left a blunt message for all intending clients to show th at there is a more important and serious business to be done, a job for his country and Empire. The placard on the door reads: “Going, to see Hitler; will attend to business when I return.”

A year ago the Ashburton Returned Soldiers’ Association set out to reach a membership of 300 in the year ahead, auid it was announced at the annual re-union last night that the total then was 293. The. president (Mr E. M. Gabites) appealed to members to bring in others, urging the needs of the Association in difficult days ahead, especially those times when men would be returning’from the .front and might be in need of assistance in many directions.

The recent Encyclical of the Pope on the errors of “racism” —in which he announced his intention of consecrating many more, native bishops was emthusiastioaly received by negro Catholics in America, states “Zealandia,” the Catholic newspaper. Following the Encyclical comes the announcement that in the New York suburb of Harlem the Academy of All Saints, the oldest and best-known girls’ school in the. United States, is to become g university for young coloured girls.

To hpar a councillor declare that there was too much money in some of the accounts, came as a refreshing interlude at a meeting of the Kairanga County Council, especially when the general cry among local bodies is that they never have enough to carry out what they would like to do and ratepayers continually complain about the burden of rates, states an exchange. The cash at the bank at the end of the year was shown at £13,650, some of which was reported to have been placed on fixed deposit since March 31. Mr W. G. Shannon urged that the council should have its own offices, and said the investment woflld he a good one as property was advancing in value in Palmerston North.

Drastic steps are to be taken by the Australian Federal Government against “the Black Hand” Secret Society. This organisation is of Continental origin . It works in the United States and in Italy. Moving the second'reading of an Amending Immigration Bill in the Federal Senate, the Minister of the Interior, Senator Foil, said that the Bill was designed to,increase the Federal Government’s power to deport members of the “Black Hand” and othei undesirable aliens. “From time to time,” Senator Foil said, “aliens extort money or attempt to extort monej from their countrymen by threatening to burn down a heme or a cane crop — methods that we cannot tolerate. Only a handful of aliens have given trouble in the past, and we are determined to prevent anything in the nature of a gang rising its ugly head.” The Bill provides for the deportation of any alien convicted of attempted extortion or any other criminal offencei that incurs a sentence of a. year’s imprisonment.

Impressionable filmgoers the W’orld over have marvelled at the famous call of “Tarznn,” and more than one has tried to imitate it. Aucklanders at? a whole, however, seem unaware that in their midst there lives a man who can put the fictional figure to shame when it comes to the use of the vocal chords. He. is the foreman on the Government building, work on which is proceeding apace in Jean Batten Place. As regular as clockwork at noon nad at 4.30 p.m. a weird noise like a small siren with a piece of grit in the pipes floats over thei area around the building. It is the foreman calling to his men to cease work. Of a peculiar, undulating pitch, it rises above the din set up by the workers’ instruments, and can be heard in many of the city offices in the vicinity. It is probably difficult to' make out the word or words—it is merely a formless sound—hut the men, their ears delicately attuned to the noise, never fail to wrench themselves away from their labours as soon as the first notes arc heard,

The first express train for the south to-day was delayed for nearly an hour owing to the ferry-steamer being late.

Collections for the Sick and Wounded Fund in Tinwald had this morning reached the excellent total of £2OO. This, with the amount provided for the previous fund, makes the district’s patriotic contribution in cash just over £4OO.

Masses of chrysanthemum blooms from the greatly admired collection in his grounds have been presented by Mr H. Black, of Windermere, to the Hinds Red Cross Society foe sale for patriotic purposes. Some of the blooms will be sold at a concert at Hinds to-morrow evening and the balance will be sold in the streets of Ashburton on Friday.

The use of bicycles by school children in certain circumstances was condemned by* members of the Southland Education Board last week. It was stated that many children .withim a block or two of the schools regularly cycled to school, whereas it would be much better from a health point of view if they walked. There was also the added clanger of accidents when a large number of children were cycling in the one locality.

From the number of licences fpr the shooting of imported game sold in the Ashburton district it seems that there are numerous sportsmen wiho are interested in going after chukor and Californian quail which are located iii the back country. It is understood that chukor are present in as great •numbers as in the past, and though they are difficult birds to locate and to shoot, they will no doubt provide good sport.

A man who was carrying a baby in his arms as he rode along. Cass Street late yesterday afternoon got into, difficulties when the front wheel of the bicycle he was riding wobbled, apparently after striking a rough patch on the street surface. He had been riding with his hands off the handle-bars, and he was lucky in not having a bad fall. As it was he finished up leaning over the handles, with the baby clutched perilously in his hands.

Films of interest to those concerned with physical training will be shown in Ashburton at am early date, the MidCanterbury branch of t'h>e Teachers’ Institute last evening issuing an invitato Mr IP. A. Smitheds (Superintendent of Physical Training for the Education Department) to come to Ashburton and screen films which he has acquired. As the subject is of such wide interest, the Institute proposes to invite to the screening teachers from all primary and secondary schools, coaches of sports clubs and others concerned.

Business in Sydney and Melbourne appeared bright and prosperous and all the stores seemed to be busy, said Mr V. J. Larner, of Auckland, on his return from a trip to Australia. Some business men he spoke to admitted that they had had a better year than the previous one. Australia was producing goods of fine quality, Mr Larner said. They were retailed at reasonable prices and the standard was up to that of imported articles. iPrimarj industries were also doing well.

“It has been a habit in seme quarters in the past to refer somewhat patronisingly to the Victorian era,” said Mr W. Downie Stewart, when preferring at the Victoria League’s “at home” at Dunedin, to the fact that the league had been formed to commemorate the' great reign of Queen Victoria. “On an occasion like this we may well recall the halcyon days of that time,” Mr Stewart added, “for in spite of all the derogatory remarks that have been heard about Victorianism, what would we not give to be back in that reign of peace, prosperity, and progress.”-

“Wo honestly believe that there is no possible chance of the returned men of this war being treated as the men of the last war were treated in the early days after the Armistice, when they were trying to get back into civilian life,” said the president of the Ashburton Returned Soldiers’ Association (Mr E. M. Gabites) last night. The Association was well organised and ready to assist the men wherever it could. He appealed to members to report eases of returned men going into hospital and deferred to the part the Association could play in helping such men and their families.

A protest against the omission from the Dominion Centennial Pictorial Survey of the history of New Zealand of all reference to education is to be lodged with the authorities by the Mid-Canterbury branch of the Teachers’ Institute. It was stated at a, meeting of the branch last evening that the review included most of the activities of people in this country, even taking in sports and racing;, but there was no mention of education, the history of which would, in the opinion of the members, have made a, valuable contribution to the survey. It was agreed that the attention of the authorities should he drawn to the oversight. “I am becoming more and more convinced that practically all our troubles have ‘deforestation’ more or less dominant in their ancestry,” said Dr. G. F. V. Anson (chairman of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society) who is leaving on active service, in his farewell message in the society’s annual report. “It is no good blinking at the matter —it has to be faced sooner or later. It profits none to ascribe the blame to this cause or to that, or to draw the ‘red deer across the, trail.’ We and our forbears are all to blame in that we have been slow to see the writing on the wall. Deforestation must stop and reafforestation must be prosecuted to the limit of our resources. One cannot help wondering whether it would not have nrofited our Dominion more had the vast sums of money spent lately on roads and railways been diverted to reclothing our hillsides.”

The terms of enlistment of firemen for home service in the Royal New Zealand Air Force was the) subject of a question by Fireman C. Wing (Ashburton) at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Provincial Fire Brigades’ Association at Temuka. Fireman Wing said that applications 'had been invited by advertisement, and in reply he had received' a form designed for overseas service. It seemed rather irregular that this should he so, as it would appear that many might join under a misapprehension. The secretary of the United Fire Brigdes’ Association (Mr T\ J. Watts) said that positions for firemen in home service had been vacant for a long time, hut recently there had been a flood of applications. No fireman eligible for military service would now be accepted. The forms Which were being forwarded were for overseas service.