LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 41, 28 November 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr Allan Sutton, who was severely injured in a motor-cycle accident at Chertsey on Tuesday evening, is still seriously ill, according to a report from, the Ashburton public Hospital today.

At the weekly meeting of the Ashburton Rotary Club to-day the chief speaker was Air A. H. Todd, whose subject was “Experiences in the North.” Mr Todd returned this morning from a holiday visit at Rotorua and Tauranga.

Matthew Joseph Nolan and Frances Gertrude Jane Banner were this morning charged before Mr E. 0. Bathurst, J.P., with having committed theft-, and on the application of the police they were remanded to appear before the' Magistrate to-morrow.

Appearing before Mr E. C. Bathurst, JjP., in the Ashburton Police Court this morning, on remand from last week on a, charge of indecent assault, Albert Janies Holland was again remanded, this time till 3 o’clock tomorrow afternoon.

Ten members of the Christchurch Defence Rifle Club will visit Ashburton on Saturday; for a friendly match with the Ashburton Defence Chib. This will he the first visit of an outsidechib during the present season.

A quantity of wool has btsen obtained by the Mid-Canterbury Centre of the Red Cross Society for making into socks and mittens foy soldiers, and it is desired that as many women as possible should call at the depot in Havfcloclt Street to obtain a supply. The president of the Mid-Canterbury Centre (Mrs F. Curtis) said this morning that knitters were urgently required.

Thie fact that the Englishman can always see the humorous side of a thing is revealed 1 in the following comment in a recent letter from a New Zealand officer visiting London : “List’s hope our New Zealand cities never know what it is to be bombed. The English are wonderful really. In one part of London I saw an hotel and a tea shop next door showing the effects of a raid. The hotel had a notice, ‘Open as usual,’ but the tea shop notice went one better —‘More open than, usual. ” *

“It is a most uncanny feeling, driving along a street in glorious sunshine in the afternoon when there is not a soul about,” writes a New Zealand woman from London to Dunedin relatives. .“We took the ear 1 into the city and while we were there an air raid alarm sounded. We didn’t know whether to- run for home (a London suburb) or seek a shelter, but finally decided to (run for it. There was nobody about, and you cannot imagine the sensations we felt, tearing along deserted streets. It w«as almost as though it was a dead city. Needless to say, it didn’t talqe us long to reach •home!”

The linen flax crops in the Mfetliven district are well forward and are showing the benefit from the recent rain. The early-sown fields are looking very well, but it is yet too early in the season to gauge what the harvest might he like. Some crops at the hack of Methven suffered damage when hail fell in that locality last week, but they should recover toi a large extent. Progress is being made with the building of the factory in which the harvest will be treated. This factory is on the outskirts of Methven.

There was a hue and cry for a small boy at meal-time ini a certain Ashburton residence last evening. The boy had appeared after returning from school and then disappeared. Another member of the family went around the lad’s favourite haunts but failed to locate the missing one and a longdelayed meal was started. Time went by and still no sign of the truant. It was some time after 7 o’clock that the missing boy suddenly appeared—from his bedroom, where he had lain down and gone to sleep. and where no one had thought of looking.

The Mid-Canterbury export lamb competition, organised by the Ashburton Agricultural and 'Pastoral Association, will be held at the Fairfield Freezing Works on Tliursdav. December 12. Farmers between the Rakaia and Rangitata rivers may enter two pens of three lambs suitable for export and these will be judged on the hocks the day they are killed aind dressed. All lambs must be long-woolled, or the progeny of a Down or short-woolled ram crossed with' a long-woolled ewe, or a Corriedale ewe, or a long-woolled Mierino cross ewe. Lambs must not be bred for stud purposes. Entries close on Friday, December 6.

Astonishment at the freedom, with which New Zealanders discuss troop movements and other defence matters which the authorities consider should be kept secret was expressed by a. New Zealand merchant navy \ officer who has spent much of this war on the coast of Britain and has had: two of his ships torpedoed. In Britain, he said, even a request for information about the right street to take for a certain destination would now result in an instruction to apply to the nearest police station, for direction, the Teason being that routes from place to place in the country Avere regarded as being of use to an invading enemy. In Auckland, hoAvevep', he had found that nothing, even if it might mean the safety of hundreds of soldiers, was so secret that it should not be discussed in shops and on tlje streets.

Two girls, aged 10 and 9, daughters of farm;ers’in the Tutamoe district, between Kaihu and Talieko, North' Auckland, who were lost in dense bush near their homes on Saturday, Avere found at 1 p.m. on Monday little the worse for their tAvo nights in the open. The children left their homes at 11 o’clock on Saturday morning. When they did not return in the aftea-noon anxiety Avas felt and the police from DargaAille and Kaikohe organised search parties. Over 50 farmers from the _ district joined in, the search. Heavy rain which set in on Saturday night continued over the Aveek end, but Avhrm the girls Avere found early on Monday afternoon they AA'eii’o warm and dry. Thcvy had found shelter in a hollow rata log and gathered berries to eat. When found they Avere only about three-quarters of a mile aAvny from their homos.

Mr E. Cholorton, of Messrs J. R. Procter, Limited, Christchurch is at present in Ashbutton, and may bo consulted on all defects of eyesight at the Somerset Hotel to-morroAV. —(Advt.)