LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 86, 22 January 1942, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tile executive committee of the New Zealand Public Service Association has decided to make representations to the Government urging the rationing of silk stockings. Its action was taken at the request of the newly-formed Public Service Women’s Club.

A failure in the supply of power in the Waimea district recently was caused bv seagulls carrying offal, from the boiling-down works and becoming entangled in the llk.v. cables. This is the second occasion that a. similar fault has occurred, and there does not appear to be any reasonable way of eliminating the risk of further occurrences.

A letter- posted in the South Sea Islands and addressed ‘‘Claudelands, sth Avenue, Cambridge, New South Wales,” arrived at its proper destination, Claudelands, (Hamilton, six weeks later. Postmarks- showed that the letter had been sent to several .offices in New South Wales, before somebody market it “Try Hamilton, New Zealand.”

A fresh nest of white ants in a locality where these pests were formerly found and dealt with in New Plymouth has recently been discovered. They are in a clothes-line post in a private property. The sealing up by the ants of their runways in the post was seen on the outside, and when some of this material was removed the ants at once set about repairing the breach made in the sealing material. .Steps are to be taken immediately to dose the nest with the poison which has proved effective.

The longest trek which has been undertaken hv an infantry battalion in New Zealand has been made by a territorial unit in the Northern Military District. It marched 65 miles in foui 1 days, covering 14 miles in the morning and six in the afternoon on each of the first three clays ? and finishing on the fourth with 12 in the morning and two in the afternoon. Having already marched 30 miles in two preceding days, the unit- covered almost 100 miles within a week.

The first train has .run over 26 miles of a new line' of 32 miles south, of the Clarence, from Aniseed to the Blue Slip, reported Mr J. Wright, resident engineer of the Public Works Department at Kaikoura. The construction work has now reached a point one mile south of Aniseed, but the completion of the line to Kaikoura, because of the withdrawal of men for more urgent work, has been delayed, and no definite indication of the date can be given, added Mr Wright.

A large pig which found itself marooned at the Pohukura railway station in the recent floods in Taranaki, disliking the. platform, over which there flowed a stream of water, retired into the station building, where it found a higher spot relatively not very damp. It also found a sack of bran, and apparently it considered its comfort more than its appetite, as it broke the sack open and spread the contents on floor to make a comfortable bed. When the owner found the sorry mess and carefully considered the quantity on the floor, he was convinced that none had been eaten.

In addition to the hardships of life in the war zones, even the elements turned against common people of China during the past year, writes a New Zealand missionary, the Rev. E. G; Jansen, in the Presbyterian journal, the “Outlook.” The spring rice crop was seriously damaged by flood, and then, by a strange turn of irony, the autumn crop was largely destroyed by a drought. The winter saw worse poverty than there had been since the outbreak of war, and hundreds of villagers near the mission died of malnutrition. The price of rice, said Mr Jansen, had risen from eight dollars pre-war to 100 dollars a picul.

Those willing to assist in first aid work and stretcher-bearing arc asked to attend a meeting of this unit of the Emergency Precautions Services to be held at tlie Fire Brigade Station this evening. It is hoped there will be a number of new recruits, as there is an urgent need of more members —at the emergency trial there were only four parties of trained stretcherbearers to deal with 32 casualties. The chairman of the First Aid (Parties Committee (Dr. N. E. H. Fulton) emphasises the need to prepare ourselves to face any emergency, and urges the public to assist with this work.

A warning to Napier residents that they would not be allowed to leave the town haphazardly in the event of evacuation being necessary was voiced by the Mayor of Napier, Mr T. W. Hercock. All roads would be guarded, and uo one would be allowed to pass the barriers without the necessary authority. Car drivers would be instructed where to go and how to get to their destinations, and every vehicle which left the district would carry a full load, while each person would be required to supply himself with sufficient food for 24 hours and warm clothes, including waterproof garments if possihle. “Evacuation is, however, most unlikely, hut. nevertheless, provision must be made,” Mr Hercock said.