LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 169, 29 April 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

“The Discovery of Anaesthetics’ ’ Was the subject of the address given by Dr.,. r J. Connor at the -Ashburton Rotary Club? s> luncheon to-day.

The first Rugby football games of the season 1 will he played in the Domain on Saturday. The match between the Tiniani arid Ashburton Air Training C6rps’ haA'h'ben bancellbd.

Canterbury Patriotic Fund receipts from November, 1939, to March 31, 1943, were £390,057, and payments t £3o4,399, leaving a balance of £85,658. •The statement of the tf6asurer (Mr J. W. Niven) to the Cahterbury' Patriotic Council,, yesterday showed that the principal balances yirere £7258 in the general account, £6017 in the Union Jack Club account, And £65,575 in the fund for post-war relief.

Inquiries made by many people have •revealed misunderstanding regarding installations of 'telephones. "As explained" by an'official of the Post and Telegraph Department this morning, the position, is that it is not so much the shortage of telephones as the shortage of wiring that is the vital factor. Where wiring exists telephones can be installed, ' ; ’b'Ut if "there is- no wiring the haftie of 'the would-be subscriber ' hasto be placed on a Waiting-list.

' Last week 163 towns attained their National War Savings quotas, says the Post and Telegraph Department. This is the highest number for many months. Sixteen of the 18 provincial centres '.achieved their full district quotas, thus indicating an increased realisation of the value of National Savings in the war effort and as a safe investment. For the third week in succession the Blenheim postal district gained a 100 per cent, success for all towns in the district.

Cake baked on May 12 of last year was served‘at afternoon tea f for the Canterbury Provincial Patriotic Council .at Christchurch yesterday. The Mayoress (Miss Ei. Couzins) explained that because of complaints about cake in some soldiers’ parcels, which she did not think came from Canterbury, a test was arranged in Christchurch. When cake for the council’s order whs made last year, several tins were put in a box on top-of the factory roof, and left there exposed to the elements until they were opened this month. Members at yesterday’s meeting, after sampling the cake, agreed that the complaints did not refer to Canterbury.

“The ; list of gifts supplied by the National Patriotic Fund Board to the troopship leads like a summary of a department store stock-taking,” says a paragraph in the magazine of a recent draft of New Zealand soldiers going overseas. “It provides striking evidence that without the' generosity of New Zealand men and women, who have contributed to various patriotic fund drives our voyage might have been a good deal less comfortable.” The magazine goes 1 on to give a list of the articles, which consisted of 173 cases occupying 620 cubic feet, and weighing almost eight tons. The items included such things as sweets and cordials, tobacco and cigarettes, sports gear, writing paper and books, and even two boxes of fancy costumes.

The growing practice of holding dances and other public entertainments in buildings which do not comply with the regulations in regard to reasonable protection of life and property is viewed with concern by the New Plymouth Fire Board, which, at its annual meeting, decided to refer the matter to the New Plymouth Borough Council for urgent attention. The question applied particularly to buildings where entertainments were held above the level of the ground floor, said Mr L. F. Hartley, superintendent of the fire brigade. He had visited such buildings while entertainments were being held, and in his opinion there were few instances where escapes were adequate and would safely cope with the numbers of people attending. “Very little effort, if any,” declared Mr Hartley, “is made to bontrol smoking, and the likelihood of fire occurring either while the building is occupied or after it is closed is ever present,”

i The suspected case of infantile paralysis at Cobden this week has. been diagnosed as negative. The patient is a boy, aged eight years.

An Ashburton shopkeeper expresses amazement at the rapid sale, oftfipyergl gross of Faiglish-made combs. They were * displayed in a case iiis?3o Hi 5 shop at about lunch-time and three -hours later were -all sold, - although only one conib was allowed each person. - '

One hundred' r and -twenty-seven ap-. plications for assistance by servicemen or their -dependants ' were considered by the 'standing comnlittee of the Canterbury Patriotic Council this month. Of this number, 83 were granted, at a cost of £248 4s 3d, 23 were declined, 17 were deferred, and. four were referred to other organisations.

Emphatic reference to the difficulty, of getting enough, men -to meet the demands of farmers for sowing next season’s crops was made by the sec-? retar,y of the Mid-Canterbury Primary Production Council (Mr W. H. Amos) to-day. Mr Amos said' there was aj pronounced shortage of tractor and a considerable waiting list of farmers who required them. May and June were peak months for demands on man-power as most of the farmers were busily engaged "with their planting programmes.

Having completed operations at the Maronan Bridge, the Ashburton County Council’s angledozer is clearing scrub and opening up the riverbed at' the Mayfield Bridge, which is the last bridge on the Council’s programme for this work. Previously the river at Mayfield was so filled with shingle that each fresh caused an overflow' of the river on to the eastern approach to the bridge, holding up traffic and damaging the road. A cessation of this trouble is' expected -with the completion of the clearing operations.

A Representative of “Procters,” The Opticians, Christchurch, is at present in' Ashburton, and may be consulted on all defects of eyesight at the Somerset Hotel, to-morrow (Friday). Appointments can now be made by ringing, writing or calling on Mr Newton Jones, Bookseller. ’Phono' No. 58.