LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 248, 27 July 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There was a large number of passengers on the first express for the south this morning, many of them bring bound for the Timaru races. The Canterbury football team which played m Ashburton this afternoon also arrived,, by this express.

The Postmaster at Ashburuton has received advice that the service undet which cablegrams for members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force nre forwarded at cheap rates has boon extended to include the Dominion oi Canada.

Jt was stated at a meeting of the Waitomo Power Board that the present staff, depleted by enlistments, had bqen unable to cope with the demand for the wiring lof many milking sheds. A 44-hour week was considered necessary to assist in meeting the difficulty

A woman went into a Napier drapery establishment and placed an order. \yhen the order had been fixed the following list of instructions was given for the benefit of the boy who was to deliver the goods: “When the boy gets there tell him to open the gate, go inside and look in the letter-box. There he will find a bone, which he is to give to the dog. The dog will not then, bite tho boy and he can deliver the parcel.”

Operation, of a car driven b.V producer gas by a Stratford engineer, Mr G. John, has on preliminary tests given Mr John all the' results expected of it, He constructed the plant himself. It is likely that the future will see several motor-ears at Stratford operating without petrol, for other Stratford engineers are working on similar plants. Unlike the majority of producer gas equipment, the plant is small and compact. It is fitted to the front of Mr John’s 10 horse-power oar.

Tine Centennial Exhibition tower, which has been a landmark for more than a year now, will shortly disappear. The contractors have made a start oil dismantling: the structure and allready a few feet of the upper portion has been removed. The tower block of the Exhibition buildings has been transformed into officers’ quarters lor the large number of Air Force personnel, who will henceforth live at the new air station established in the Exhibition property.

A Wellington mother who has two sons in the Army and another sen in the Air Force is among citizens who have generously responded to the appeal made by the. secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board for gifts of electric irons for the use of Air Eorce trainees at Rougetai to enable them to Leep their uniforms smart. She liyes at ICilbijinie, and not only has she advised Mr G. A. Hayden, the board’s secretary, that she can make an iron available, but she has also offered the hospitality of her home to one of the trainees when he is off duty. Mr Hayden has undertaken to advise the commanding officer a t Ron got a i of this kind offer.

Waiouru military camp is badly off for wood. All tne country in that region was a natural clearing in the days of New Zealand forest, a sort of pumice desert, covered in tussock. Unlike the region round Raotihi and Ohakune, where the forest was exceptionally thick, Waiouru offers little; in thei wlay of trees, except those grown by the owners of the station. A pine plantation round the homestead has furnished the camp with comes, and trees cut down to make way lor the camp have furnished firewood 1 . Possibly the day will come when the camp will absorb much of the firewood going to waste in the neighbourhood of Ohakune.

About 1000 pigs are consumed by the people cf New Zealand every day, Mr C. H. M. Sorensen, supervisor for the Taranaki Pig Council, told the New Plymouth Rotary Club. This made a big inroad into the total production in this country, hut he felt that by present improvements in the care and accommodation the quantities needed by Groat Britain could be supplied. Mr Sorensen emphasised the great importance of the quality of the product. “It is the quality of the product today that is going to determine our market for to-morrow,” lie said. “We hear a great deal of talk about glut on the market, but there is no glut when your article is on top, and that is what New Zealand must always aim at,”

New Zealanders can bo counted upon to. enjoy green peas grown in the Dominion when they are fresh, but those same, peas when dried and canned are apparently too liajrd and tough for British tastes. “Great Britain,” states the annual repart of the {Plant Research Bureau, “cans one hundred million cans of dried peas per annum, using for this purpose about 500,000 bushels of dry peas, of which 70 per cent, to 80 per cent, are imported from the Continent and Japan. This is exclusive of the large quantity sold as dry peas in packets. New Zealandgrown peas are not acceptable in Great Britain for canning on account of their hardness and the. toughness of their skins. A project was commenced some years ago to breed varieties suitable for New Zealand more acceptable to the British trade. While these efforts have resulted in improvement in yield and appearance it has not been possible to overcome hardness and toughness. Those features an pear to be associated with climatic conditions.” Mona progress has been attained, in the production of a high-yielding white pea for the split-pea trade. It was not long after arriving at their new station “somewhere in Egypt” that the New Zealand soldiers heard tho news of the French capitulation. A referenda to that happening serves to introduce an interesting commentary by one of the Now Zealand soldiers in a letter to his relatives in Wellington. “Yesterday,” he says, “we learnt of France’s complete surrender and undoubted humiliation. Jt is, indeed, a terrible thing, and must have cast gloom over all of you. But, remember, don’t lot it get you down. We shall come on on top all right, and gone seems to be the necessity for large land armies and heavy casualties. That may prove a blessing in disguise. In our small world what is going to. happen is just as problematical as tlve trend of future events in the war. Our reinforcements have gone to England,’ and it may be wo shall never meet up with them. It is all vi?ry confused, yet the most we seem capable of doing to help the show is to swelter and be most uncomfortable over here. I quite realise our lot may well lie worse- 1 . I just go on. hoping that sopiiehnw peace will come to mankind, and soon,”

Alterations to the . shop in 'Burnett Street which is to house the Ashburton Public Library are well advanced. Rows of shelves have been erected inside and the painting of a part of the exterior was commenced yesterday. The library is expected to open in its new quarters next Thursday.

The first green peas of the season appeared on the Auckland City Markets on Tuesday, selling at up to 2s per l|b, states the ‘‘New Zealand Hieralcl.” The consignment was a small one of good quality from Oratia, which supplied the first new potatoes a few weeks ago. The Oratia district is a good one for early cultivation of peas, being practically frost-free and well sheltered.

“His Majesty the King has approved that foreign subjects accepted for service in. the forces may be permitted to wear foreign decorations or their ribbons when in uniform, but such permission is confined to decorations of a fully official character—namely, honours conferred by the. head of the State or by the Government of the country in which the foreigner coneejrned belongs, or of a country fighting in alliance with iGreat Britain,” states a. notification contained in New Zealand Army Orders. The permission applies also to Czecho-Slovakian decorations.

Commissioner J. Evan Smith, of the Salvation Army, following the recent speech in which Lord Halifax referred to the people of a Yorkshire village forming a “sixth” column, pledging themselves to give a few minutes each day to prayer for the Empire’s cause, has issued a call to Christian people in the: Dominion to enrol as sixth columnists. The pledge they are asked to sign is as follows; “I promise to spend a few minutes at noon each day in prayer that >God will protect our loved ones and bless the cause for which our Empire is at war.” •

A denial of a suggestion that butter and other primary, produce needed in Great Britain were being obtained from Australia rather than New Zealand because of the delay in delivery from the 1 Dominion was received, by the Auckland Chamber of Commerci? at a meeting of the council from the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash). Mr Nash said the reasons mentioned by the council —the long time spent by ships at ports on the coast, and the slow rate of work of waterside workers —.had no bearing on the situation. New Zealand’s produce had been purchased by the British Government, and the Home authorities wens alone concerned with the question of transport.