LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 44, 1 December 1944, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Operating in the Mayfield and Westerfield plantations the County Council rabbiter destroyed 484 rabbits last month.

A profitable .week-end’s fishing is anticipated anglers, all the rivers being in,fairly good condition. The Rangitata and Rakaia have been discoloured during the week as a result of the north-west gale, but the Ashburton was not affected.

When the name of a defendant was called in. the Ashburton Magistrate’s Court this morning Senior-Sergeant J. F. Cleary explained that defendant had no clothes to appear in. He had been admitted to the Ashburton Public Hospital with a poisoned thumb and his clothes had been sent to be. drycleaned. The case was adjourned till later in the day to enable defendant to obtain his clothes.

Among the registrations announced in the “Mercantile Gazette” is the following! Burnett’s Motors Ltd. Registered as a private company, November 17. Office: East Street, Ashburton. Capitalk £12,000 in shares of £1 each. Subscribers: Ashburton—R. A. Burnett 11,999, C. J. Bonnington 1. Objects: General carriers and cartage contractors, service station and garage proprietor, and incidental. (Christchurch, 47/’44).

Members of the Ashburton Technical High School Board were last evening treated to supper prepared by the senior domestic girls. An appetising array of savouries and cakes was served by the girls, under Miss F. E. Vesty, home science mistress. A toast to Mr Winston Churchill on his 70th birthday, proposed by Mr L. L. Aitken, was honoured in ice-cream, made in the newly-installed refrigerator.. The girls were thanked by the chairman (Mr H. Watts), Mr E. C. Bathurst and Mrs F. Curtis.

Figures before the County Council to-day indicated that the amount of stock handled at the Tinwald saleyards is about double that dealt with at the. Ashburton yards. For the period October 24 to November 28 the figures were:—Tinwald, 85,052 sheep and 441 cattle; Ashburton, 30,076 sheep and 168 cattle. During the period one more sale was held at Tinwald than at Ashburton, but judging by the figures another sale at Ashburton yards would only confirm the ratio of two to one.

Applications by farmers of Mid-Can-terbury for dwellings under'the Rural Housing Emergency Scheme show that the types most favoured are temporary quarters and permanent farmworkers’ dwellings. When applications closed yesterday six had been recommended by the Mid-Canterbury Council of Primary Production and had been forwarded for final consideration to the State Advances Corporation. Most of the applications were from the Methven area.

Units from Aslitmrton, Methven, Rakaia and Southbridge will take part in a combined sports meeting of Air Training Corps units at Rakaia to-mor-row. Tabloid sports, shooting, swimming and baseball will be held.

The election of officers for the ensuing six months took place at the quarterly summoned meeting of the Loyal Ashburton Lodge, M.U.1.0.0.F., last evening. The N.G, (Bro. J. Kirk), E.S. (P.G. Bro. W. K. Waters) and Lecture Master (P.G. Bro. R. H. Biggar) were re-elected and P.G. Bro. C. M. Inne's was elected Y.G. Sick pay amounting to £l3 8s 4d was passed in favour of 15 members. The attendance was very good.,

Approval of the measures being taken to lessen the grass fire hazard at Dromore had been expressed by farmers of the district, who discussed the matter with the riding member (Mr M. D. McDowell) reported the Engineer (Mr H. A. Vezey) to the County Council to-day. Firebreaks were being ploughed on both sides of the railway line between the glassworks and Chertsey. To further control the menace the farmers advocated the cutting back of hedges, the clearing of areas infected with gorse and the. substitution of wire fences for gorse hedges near railway lines. This work was authorised.

One of the current meat ration coupons, No. 4, will expire to-morrow. Coupon No. 5 is available until December 9, and a new set of coupons, No. 6, will be available from Monday to December 16. The value of the adult meat ration this month will be Is lid, and the children’s ration will remain at is. To effect the change in the adult ration the H meat coupon now has a value of Bd. Tea coupons 5 to 8, for a total ration of Boz, and sugar coupons 5 to 8, for a total of 31b, are available until December 23. Butter coupons 5 and 6, for a total ration of lib, are available until December 9, and a new set of coupons, Nos. 7 and 8, will be available from December 11 to December 23.

Estates to the value of £547,548 were reported and accepted for administration by the Public Trustee during October. The total value of estates and funds under administration by the Public Trustee on March 31 was £66,788,292 and the new business for the seven months ended October 31 was £4,646,693. Grants of administration made by the Court in favour of the Public Trustee numbered 234 for the month. During the month 618 new wills appointing the. Public Trustee executor were prepared on behalf of testators and lodged for safe custody, and 453 existing wills were revised to provide for changes desired by testators. The total number of wills now held in the Public Trust Office on behalf of living peasons is 127,476.