LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 161, 21 April 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In commemoration of Princess Elizabeth's 16th birthday the flag was flown on the Ashburton Post Oflico to-d ! ay.

Confirmation of special orders relating to amendments to the municipal abattoir charges and to the surrender of a. Glasgow lease was given at a special meeting of the Ashburton Borough Council yesterday. About 45 per rent of the 1232 men called up in the Dunedin, district in the ballot on March 25 have been the subjects of appeal, the majority oi which emanated from, firms whose employees are on essential work (says a Press Association message). In a personal published yesterday it was stated that’Dr. X. E. H. Fulton >s divisional surgeon, to the St. John Ambulance Association. As a matter of fact there is no such position. Dr. Fulton is divisional to the St. John Ambulance Brigade, Ashburton division. There is also a divisional surgeon of the nursing division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade Dr. J. Connor holding that position.

Works in hand or about to be started by the Ashburton Borough Council’s works staff include a final coating of tar on King Street and on the new-ly-reconstructed area at the corner of West Street and! Racecourse Road, a footpath irl Bfucefield Avenue, and the tar-spraying of footpath surfaces in several parts of the- residential area of the Borough.

The annual meeting of the DannCvirke and district Returned Services’ Association carried a resolution deploring the number of appeals being made for exemption from service and requesting the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association to place before a competent authority the desirability of appointing local representatives to the various appeal committees, when the boards were sitting at places other than the main towns.

Several hundred books that were taken out of circulation in the Ashburton Public Library a few years ago have been: sent to a military camp as the nucleus of the library it is hoped to start there. The contribution has been welcomed by the military authorities, but further supplies are wanted from the public. In the last week or so only a few bocks have been sent in by the Ashburton public in response to the appeal made by the Council. "

The number of applicants for ration books at the Ashburton Post Office in the evenings has fallen away so much in the last few days that it has been decided to discontinue the opening of the office in the evenings end after tonight all applications for the books will have to be made at the issuing depot in the Masonic (Hall, which is open each day till 5.30 o’clock. It is believed that the issue of books will be completed in Ashburton by the time the allotted period for issue closes next Friday afternoon.

The almost-forgotten art of hmndspinning has again come into fashion. A man who undertakes such work says that orders for spinning wheels have been coming in fast from patriotic organisations throughout the country, as there has been a request from men of the forces for comforts knitted from hand-spun wool. The machines are quite simply put together, but difficulty in the purchase of iron is expected in the future, ft takes a skilled person to operate one of these wheels successfully.

A heavy crop of oats grown in the Five Rivers district, Southland, has been threshed out of stook to produce the remarkably high average of 150 bushels to the acre. This rate of production is believed to be the highest known in the province (states the /‘Southland Times”), and equals a record established in the Garston district nearly 10 years ago. The latest crop was grown on land which had been well treated, the oats: following a crop or turnips and one of swedes. It was of the Onward Gartens variety and showed a remarkable growth of straw. Some of the crop was fully six feet high. An interesting feature was that the sowing was made sparingly, being at the rate of two bushels and a-halt tcP the acre, compared with four bushels regularly sown down on many farms in Southland.

Sanction for the laying of a line across Walnut Avenue and East Street, linking the main railway line with the gas works was granted to the Ashburton Gas, Coal and Coke Company at a. special meeting of the Ashburton Borough Council yesterday. Permission was granted on the understanding that the weak is to bo carried out to the satisfaction! of the Borough Engineer, that the company will ho responsible for the maintenance of the roadway between the rails and for two feet on each isido.of the track, and that adequate provision for safeguards for other traffic when trucks are being taken across the main road is made by the company.

Visions of a return to the flint and tinder era, or, to go further back to antiquity, the rubbing together of sticks, must be arising before many Aucklanders at present. Matches, both safety and wax (says the “Auckland Star”) are at a premium. Several tobacconists’ shops and chain stores in the city are completely out of them at present while others are doling them out a box at a time. One retailer refuses to sell a box unless some other article is purchased with the order. Matches first became difficult to buy in bulk in Auckland some six months ago. Then the position was relieved for a time with supplies from Australia. For some months, however, there have boon periodical shortages until now the position has become chronic.

“The utility horse, the most readily available army asset in New Zealand, is not being sufficiently used by the army,” said Dr. W. C. Ring (a veterinary surgeon) in an interview in Auckland. “We know that brigade masses of mounted troops do not fit into war operations as they are fought to-day, but the armies of our Allies and our enemies still use horses in considerable numbers, and New Zealand, completely dependent upon other countries for vehicles, petrol and tyres cannot afford to disregard them. For operations in the rougher country, we should roinhinc the rapidity of the motor with the mobility of the horse. Already mounted Home Guard units are performing useful work in various areas. More could he done with the utility horse in the Territorial Army. There are plenty of horses of the types needed in the country.’’