LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 6, 18 October 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

No cases of infectious, disease, from Ashburton Borough or County have Been reported to the Health Inspector during the last week.

The Mid-Canterbury Young Farmers’ Clubs spent their annual field day at Longbeach to-day on the property of Mr J. H. Grigg. The visitors were shown points of agricultural interest on Mr Grigg’s farm.

What is believed to b)3 one of the first moving pictures of Tinwald will be shown at the TimVald Central Hall on Monday evening. The film is of a young people’s rally in the Tinwald school grounds.

It. is understood from reports received to-day that as a result of the north-west winds during the week there are big flows of water in the local rivers and the condition of the llangitata and Rakaia mouths may be greatly improved, for anglers. The months have been running a Icing, distance north and south respectively and it is expected that they may soon break out in a more convenient position. The Ashburton River is in a dirty state.

proposed alterations to the. present system of grading teachers has been considered by the Ashburton branch of the Teachers’ Institute. It was agreed to inform the Dominion executive that the branch favoured the abolition of restrictions in the allotment'of grading marks to teachers who have net previously been in sole charge of a. school. Thle explanation Mvas given that the distinction had .been introduced some years ago in an attempt to encourage teachers to remain in country districts.

“Believe me, Hitler’s made a, muck of his mass attacks on Britain by plane; I wish. he’d try by sea now — we’re ready,” writes Sergeant W. A. Whitlock, of the Second Echelon, in a letter to friends at New Plymouth. Another side of the picture is provided in a letter from another Taranaki man, Sergeant-Pilot S. I. Baird, who, after a period of initial training at a station, with Wellingtons, commented: “The fighter boys are doing great work, but the Bombejr Command is blowing out of the towns in Germany. The reports you get of our air successes are very accurate.”

A copy of a newspaper which had only onb issue has been presented to the Auckland War Memorial Museum by Mr James Madill, of Auckland. Mr Madill was a soldier in BrigadierGeneral Plumer’s column of New Zealanders and Australians when it marched from Pretoria to Pieite/rsburg in the South African War. The latter town was taken after a hurried retreat by the Boers, and among the litter left behind the advancing soldiers found a Boer printing press. Before it was destroyed it was used to uublish a oneleaf newspaper recording the event. The date was April 11, 1901.

The last Europeans to leave Iching, China j before it was captured by the Japanese invaders, Mrs L. C. Evans and her son, Mr A. C. Evans, have arrived at Auckland from Tonga, where they have been spending a holiday. Bombed by the Japanese at Sungking, Mrs Evans, an Englishwoman, and her son, an official of a shipping company in China, travelled by motor truck across the Plateau Yunan and down to Ind'o-China, sailing from Saigon to New Guinea. They have spent several weeks at Tonga and the New Hebrides, and plan to visit other islands in the Pacific before Mr Evans returns to his position in China at the end of the year.

The curious fact that the stability of St. Paiil’s Cathedral, London, depends on a small subterranean stream was mentioned by Mr Dudley R.. Wills in the course of a talk at the weekly luncheon of the Invercargill Rotary Club. He said that in spite of the building’s great size and weight, the foundations of thje cathedral were only four feet deep and they rested on sand, which was kept moist and solid by a small stream. “Should the stream bo diverted or should it dry up, the whole cathedral might collapse,” Mr Wills said. “That is why this Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s will not allow any excavation near the cathedral except under their supervision.”

The fact that tha horse Funny Fox had been withdrawn from the Musket Stakes .on the final day of the Auckland Racing Club’s Spring Meeting at Ellerslie did not deter a number of investors from supporting, her and, owing to an error, thp money was accepted at the totalisator. When the machine closed more than £IOO had been wagered on the horse. After the race it was announced that this amount would be returned to the investors. This represented a loss to the club, as the dividends had been declared as though the filly had run unplaced.

A short but graphic description ol Londoners is contained in a letter received from Private M. C. 'Smith, now in England, who was formerly on the staff of the State/Advances Corporation in Christchurch. “Some come up and talk with you; some are quite sociable if you speak to them first,” he stated. “Some look' you up and down, admitting quietly to themselves that you are a necessary evil; but the majority do net see you at all—they simply look right through you. J. M. Barrie once wrote that the chief beauty of London was that it was the only city in the/world in the streets of which one could oat penny buns without attracting attention. I agree with him.”

“When you are out in the open where we are you have a dross-circle seat at one of the most wonderful shows in the world,” writes a member of the Second Echelon, N.Z.E.F., from England. “It is customary to see overhead practically every day squadrons of ’planes, our own and Fritz’s. There was a scrap up abovo to-day and a Heinkel was brought down not far away. I saw the Spitfire which got him do the Victory Roll after the show. They always do this roll after finishing off a German ’plane, if not too hard pressed. We are now averaging about 90 German ’planes a day, as against 15 of ours. It sounds too good to be true, but it is about fright. The Germans have to fight better ’planes and better men. All of ours are seeded pilots, while the Germans are mostly kids of 16 and 17 years of age. I have actually s«3n German pilots bale out before their ’planes arc hit. All our team are in good nick, with their %hins up.”