LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 210, 13 June 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mrs J. Palmer, of Rakaia, fell in the township the other day and broke her leg. She was admitted to the Ashburton Public Hospital.

Six Ashburton County men will go into camp with the Third Echelon at Burnham to-morrow. They will leave by the 3.37 p.m. express for the north.

After hearing a report by Mr R. Bramley, the executive of the Ashburton Returned Soldiers’ Association last evening decided to proceed with the formation of a miniature rifle club for members.

At Die weekly luncheon meeting of the Ashburton Rotary Club to-day the chief speaker was Dr. A. J. Mason, who related some of his experiences dming his trip to and from England, from which he; has just returned after an absence of 12 months. Dr. Mason spoke of England under war conditions.

There were 1,100,261 sheep held in the Ashburton County in 1930' compared with 1,303,582 in the previous year. Of move than 1300 sheeipowneys in the County, who were required to furnish by May 14 a return of then flocks at April 30,, 24 have, not done so. Final notices have been issued by the Stock Inspector, and legal action is proposed against those who do not comply with, the final demands.

The secretary of the Ashburton Returned Soldiers’ Association is about to prepare a list of settlements in Ashburton County where soldier settlers are farming, individual soldiers who aret working uneconomic Crown I-* 81 ?" farms and soldiers who have freehold farms mortgaged to the State Advances Department. This work is being undertaken so that the future programme of the selection committeei can <We coordinated.

Some important facts about the fertiliser position in the Dominion were given by Mir A. H. Cockayne Directorgeneral of Agriculture, when speaking to North Island sheep farmers gathered at Massey College last week. He stated that 320,‘000 tons had been used in the Auckland province, 150,000 tons in the rest of the North Island, and 130,000 tons in the South Island. To supply that want 100,000 tons had beejn. imported ready for use and the rest was manufactured in New Zealand from Nauru phosphate rock.

The success of the iodine on the tongue as a preventive of influenza in the 1918 epidemic in Uganda (states the “New Zealand-Herald”) is recalled by the present outbreak. Ordinary tincture of iodine was mixed with, equal parts of honey, and two or three, drops wiere placed on the tongue at two or three-hour intervals. The mortality where this method Was used in 1918 was strikingly low. The use of a wooden match wrapped round with cottoii wool for application of the remedy is suggested, and afterwards the match should be burned.

A collection of Australian butterflies which was a part, of the Australian Government exhibit a tthe Commonwealth Pavilion at the Exhibition has been acquired by the Dominion Museum. This fine collection, comprising 110 specimens, was made by Dr. C. A. Waterhouse., eminent Australian entomologist, who wag, president of the zoological section of the Science Congress in Auckland in 1937. The collection will be used to prepare an exhibit to bo placed on view in _ thei museum later in the year, in conjunction _ with a. fine collection of giant moths bred in New Zealand by the late Mr A. Venigar Wellington.

A Maltese, cook who produced fried fish for tea jiist after the Battle of Jutland was the central figure in a story told by Mr A. CL A. Sexton at the Auckland Town Hall rally of the National Service Movement. Immediately qfter the battlei, said the sneaker, the men suddenly discovered that they were hungry. The cook produced fish for tea, and when asked where he got them he replied: "While you figlitum battle I eatehum fish.” It appeared that dozens of fish, stunned by exploditia shells, had been floating past the ship. The Maltese had been spearing them with a boathook and was able to produce a royal meal at a most unlikely moment.

After having been located at the yards in Burnett Street for about 50 years, the Ashburton Boi;cugh Council’s horses have ibeen transferred to the new stables at the corner of William and South Streets. In the past the horses, averaging about seven or eight, were taken from a paddock in the south-east corner of the town to the yards at Burnett Street for feeding and grooming and for the greater paji't of the year they made; the journey in the, dark, as the morning, migration was made about 6 o’clock. It is said that they were so regular that people past whose houses they trotted, could set their clocks by them! At the same time, they were a danger to other traffic on the streets at these times, especially in the winter evenings. The new quarters are very modern in design.

An offer believed to be the first .of its kind from a farmer in the Dominion was made to the Botorua Council of Primary production by Mr W. Branson, of Ngongotaha, who offered the Government for the duration of the war the supervision and profits of his farm. The main farm and two smaller areas total 570 acres and carry about 100 cows- and 600 breeding ewes. Mr Branson stated that it was well equipped with implements. He and his family would be prepared to work under Government supervision for wages. He was not seeking a 40-hour week, and felt that some greater effort was needed. Tiie district council decided to forward the offer to the national council, advising it that it might be, worthy of consideration.

Few would imagine that there eoujd be a link between the Dunkirk evacua - tion and Gilbert and -Sullivan, yet one was provided by the London fireboat Massey Shaw,' whose part in the epic was described by two of her crew from Dnventrv last week. The boat is named after Captain Eyre Massey Shaw, superintendent of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in the ’eighties and early ’nineties. He had the singular fortune to be immortalised by W. S. Gilbert in the opera "lolanthe,” which was first produced in 1882. In her song. "O Foolish Fay,” the Fairy Queen thus apostrophises him: "O Can tain 'Shaw, Type of true love kept under, Could thy briirade With cold cascade Quench my great love, I wonder ” When Shaw retired about 1893, Punch honoured him with a full-page cartoon by Linley Sambourne.

The increasing calls on the space of the Ashburton Soldiers’ Club of late have necessitated the extension of some of the. rooms and the executive of the Returned Soldiers Association last evening decided that the small card room should be extended to take in the verandah immediately in front of the 3'ocm.

Supplies of. wool have been made available to the Red Cross depot at Ashburton and the Society is making an appeal for helpers to obtain some of the material for knitting into mittens for the soldiers. When the last supply came to hand a similar appeal was mado and there was,an excellent response.

“It is because we believe as we do/’ said Archbishop West-Watson, preaching in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Auckland, on Sunday evening, “that even.in the darkest days we say ‘His Kingdom cannot, fail.’ If Cod has a use fop (this British Empire, tnis British civilisation, with all its faults, then He will not let it perish. And we offer ourselves to Him with all our failings, asking Him to usetos for His glorv in the long story of mankind’s growth in grace. We are sure that faith in nothing less than that Divine-human Saviour can ever lead men upward and onward to the goal.”

Can it be that the announcement of a, new Hitler postage stamp for , April 20 had any connection with the attempted assumption of new “protectorates” ? asks “Lucio” in the “Manchester Guardian.” It is reported that the stamp in honour of the Fuehrer’s fifty-first /birthday - is designed to show that “Hitler is a kind man who loves children,” and it exhibits him as “bending down over a little girl.” Perhaps the “little girl” was intended to represent unhappy Denmark, or even the small nations generally? It remains to be seen whether the finished article will give the desired impression of Hitler’s benignity; it may convey an entirely different message to many of his subjects and to those who have reason to dread his desire to “protect” them.

Mr W. B. Bland, G.8.0.A., (Hons.) F. 1.0., London, of Messrs J. R. Procter, Limited, Christchurch, .is at present in Ashburton, and may be consulted bn all defects of eyesight at the Somerset Hotel to-morrow (Friday)— (Advt.)