LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 162, 22 April 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Members of the Ashburton County Council spent to-day on a tour of inspection of plantations and works over a wide area of the western portion of the County. Large quantities of bottles of all descriptions and scrap metals were collected by senior pupils of the Ashburton schools to-day as a result of a drive they carried out in the interests of the local patriotic fund. At the same time, oirls from the schools carried out a collection of books for the militarj camps. Eels will burrow and climb. This was disclosed in a report which the Palmerston North district ranger of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, Mr T. Andrews, presented to the council last, week on the cel trap at Lake Hunia. Eels, he said, would burrow under a foot of sand, and, alternatively, climb a 30-rinch netting wall without the least tiouble. There was no comparison between tho tasks of trapping eels and trapping trout. An appeal to all transport operators, including local bodies as well ?ts privately-owned concerns, to provide war workers working on Anzac Day with adequate transport facilities avus made last night by the Hon. R. Semple Minister for National service) (says a Press Association telegram). The Minister referred to a similar appeal he made before the Easter holidays, and asked transport operators to see that there Avas no shortage of transport k>r war Avorkers on Anzac Day. Nearly 50 per cent, of the Auckland reservists called in the ballot on March 25, married men from 18 to 28 years of age Avith children, had appealed against military service, said the secretary of the Auckland ManpoAver Committee (Mr L. N. Harris) yesterday. Auckland’s quota AA’as 3U93, of whom 1512 had appealed. The bulk of the appeals AA-ere on the ground of personal hardship or on behalf of reservists on the ground that they are engaged in essential Avork. There Avas a marked decrease in the appeals on the ground of conscientious objection. The cabled statement from London that the Japanese Red Cross has agreed to make public tho names of subjects Avho are interned and prisoners of war has given relief to those people with friends and relatives from whom nothing has been heard since the Western Pacific countries were over-run. An additional reassurance is contained in a letter from General Mac Arthur’s headquarters in Australia, sent to an anxious NeAV Zealander, whose daughter was in the Philippines at the time Japan struck. The British and United States subjects in Japanese hands are, General MacArthur’s aide states, known to be receiving good treatment.

Mystery books are in greatest demand at the Ashburton Public Library, said the librarian (Mrs B. E. Opie) in conversation with a “Guardian’ ’ reporter. This type cf book had always been popular but more than ever during the last few months, she said. Political and war books were in constant demand, popular issues ibeing “So Few,” by David Masters, “Secret Weapon,” by Bernard Newman and “The Sun Shall Greet Them,” by David Pane. Other books enjoyed by readers were “Brave Old Women,” by Eleanor Farjeon, “The Long Alert,’’ by Philip Gibbs, “Cafe du Dome,” by Anna Reiner, “This Island 'Demands,” by Humphrey Jordan,’ and “ r lwo Survived” by Guy Pearce Jones. An unusual case was heard at Kaihoke, North Auckland, before Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M., when Ronald Joseph Miller, of Okaihau, was charged with opening a billiard saloon on Sunday when the law required it to be closed. The poljco found the billiard saloon open, with a large crowd of soldiers playing. Miller stntcd that he opened the saloon to provide amusement for the soldiers and to keep them from hanging about the street. He had obtained written permission from the military authorities to do so. Few civilians were present, and all were engaged in patriotic work. All the receipts wore used by him for patriotic purposes. The magistrate did not take a serious view of the case, remarking, however, that the military authorities could no more give permission to open a billiard saloon on a Sunday than he could. Miller was convicted and discharged, as were the civilians found in the saloon.