LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 30, 15 November 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

As tlie Ashburton and Rakaia Rivers were dirty and unfishable, and the Hinds and Rangitata, not in a very good condition, fishing over the Week-end was poor.

About 75 couples were present at an R.A.0.8. social held ih the Hampstead Memorial Hall on Saturday evening. A Monte Carlo was won by Mrs Doak and Mr Paterson. Music for dancing was supplied by Messrs V. Nevill and C. Hansen and the Harmonica Band.

Subject to the sanction of the Building Controller being obtained, the Ashburton Bowling Club decided on Saturday to grant the committee permission to have extensions made to the club pavilion. The decision was made at a special meeting presided over by the president (Mr W. H. Amos). The project will be financed by the issue of debentures bearing three per cent, interest.

Congratulating the editor of the ‘-Outlook” (the Rev. L. M. Rogers) on his refusal to publish letters over pen names, the Moderator (the Right Rev. D. C. Herron), speaking at a session of the General Assembly of the. Presbyterian Church, said he personally received many anonymous letters, but he did not read them unless they contained money.—-(Laughter,) He had always made that a practice in his ministry, and it had saved him a lot of worry, as anonymous letter-writing Was the meanest form of attack.

The solicitor for the Lower Hutt City Council informed the council that a woman ratepayer had recently been fined £1 by a magistrate foi having cut down a pohutukawa tree on the street opposite her residence at Lower Hutt. He had suggested to the magistrate that he should fine her the value of the tree, and he wished the council’s instruction as to whether he should proceed further In the matter. Mr J. Mitchell, chairman of the reserves committee, said the tree was valued at £32. Mr F. S. Hewer said the cost of replacing the tree would be £2O. Mr F. Campbell said that as the woman had expressed regret, the council should take no further action in the matter. He moved to this effect and the motion was carried.

Some of the difficulties that confront an official war artist were humorously described by Captain Peter Mclntyre when he was addressing Wellington Rotarians at their weekly luncheon. The greatest difficulty, he said, was to get to know beforehand What was going to happen so as to be ablo to he there on the spot. Colonels were aloof and it was no use asking them; majors would not say, aud captains did not know. So all one could do was to swallow one’s pride and ask one’s batman, and it was extraordinary liow often he was right. Captain Mclntyre added that experience had taught him to discard cumbersome paraphernalia.; all he now took with him into action was a small sketch book and a pencil. Armed with this, he got into the deepest hole he could find and did his sketching with one eye peering over the edge. As far as transport was concerned, he travelled with a heterogeneous collection of radio and camera men and men whose job nobody knew, and it was doubtful if they themselves knew.

With the weather promising to be more settled than it has been of late, the girls of the Ashburton High seliool to-day abandoned their winter uniform for a cooler and more comfortable summer one. The tie and long stockings of the winter uniform are replaced by open-necked short-sleeved white blouses and navy sockettes.

Whilst passengers on a north-hound train yesterday morning were partaking of refreshments at the Ashburton railway station they enjoyed the smart playing of a popular march by the Timaru Boys’ High School Band. - The boys were en route to Station 3YA, where they gave selections in the afternoon. Their playing was a tribute to their tutor, Mr W. H. Osborne, well known in Ashburton.

An instance of the outstanding service in the war effort given by the wives of farmers was revealed at the annual baconer pig competition at Westfield freezing works. When the awards were made it was announced that Mrs A. W. Williams, of Pulcekohe East, who was an exhibitor, had been awarded a special prize. “We acknowledge the splendid service of Mrs Williams,” said Mr A. Rowlands, general manager of Messrs W. and R. Fletcher Ltd. “Her husband is overseas with the armed forces, and she is carryingon a 50-acre farm and milking 27 cows solely with the assistance of her 11-year-old son. Mrs Williams’s actions indicate the resolve of our farming women to see the job through.” As she went to receive her award, Mrs Williams was accorded an ovation from the gathering of about 400 farmers and others associated with the pig industry.

“Taking the American servicemen as a body, I think we have been extremely fortunate in the calibre of the men who have come to us,” said Colonel C. H. Weston, K.C. (president of the British-American Co-operation movement) at its annual meeting in Wellington. “We all know that in any body of men, wherever you collect them and whoever they may be, there is always a very small percentage that does cause trouble and is difficult to manage. That applies to every army, and our own New Zealand divisions have the same trouble —they have a very small percentage of men who cause trouble and bring disrepute upon their own people. I think that in forming our judgment on our visitors we should realise what a veryfine body of men the American servicemen are. I think it would be a Very great pity if we allowed our judgment to he influenced by the -inevitable small minority.”