LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 270, 27 August 1946, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Toe H Meeting A card evening was held by the Ashburton branch of Toe H at its weekly meeting last evening. The chairman (Mr B. .1. Wood) presided. Tyres and Tubes Applications for 7S tyres' and 40 tubes were approved by the Ashburton Tyre and Tube Rationing Committee last evening. Telegrams For Calcutta The Director-General of the Post and Telegraph Department advises that the delivery of telegrams destined for Calcutta is restricted, and that they are subject to some delay. Proceeds of Fancy Dress Party Net proceeds from the children’s fancy dress party held recently by the Ashburton Free Kindergarten Association have been finalised as £GO. The profits are in aid of the association’s funds.

Young Ashburton Singer Competing at’ the Timaru Competitions yesterday In the section, song in character, girls or boys under 18, in which there were 13 entries, Keith Tonlts, of Ashburton, was third, with 102 points. He sang “Wandering the King’s Highway.” The winner, Valda Fair-brother, was awarded 110 points.

Bookmaker Heavily Fined Pleading guilty to a charge of bookmaking, William Halsey Stewart, aged 32, - was fined £3OO by Mr W. H. Bundle, S.M., in the Dunedin Magistrate's Court yesterday. The Magistrate expressed surprise that accused, who had been before tlie Court previously on bookmaking charges, should have two telephones in his office.

Candidate for Roskill The reason for the sitting member for Waimarino (Mr F. Langstone) contesting the Roskill seat in the interests of the Labour Party at the coming election was given by Mr J. W. A. Stead (president of the Balmoral branch) in introducing him to a, meeting in the Three Kings School las? night, says an Auckland Press* Association message). Mr Stead said that because of a division of the electorate, the sitting member (Mr A. S. Richards) would stand for the new Mt. Albert seat. As Mr Langstone had gone to live at Auckland because of his wife’s ill health, the national executive of the Labour Party, which did not want to forgo his services, had chosen him to fill the vacancy.

Evidence on the Blotter An unexpected piece of evidence was produced in a defended divorce suit at New Plymouth. The petitioner, under cross-examination, was asked to write: “I am going down to the beach. 0.K.?” He wrote the words as directed and subsequently admitted having written them in a note to another woman, except for the “O.K. Counsel then produced a sheet of blotting paper and a small mirror and asked the petitioner to look at the reflection of the writing on the blotter. Under the direction of 'counsel, the petitioner was able to discern the impression of words he had written four years ago, including “0.K.” He then admitted that he must have written what the blotter revealed. “Who is the genius that discovered this?” asked the judge and was informed it was the petitioner’s wife. “Your wife has some brains,” commented his Honour to the petitioner.

Unusual Exhibit of Granite ; Cut from a large boulder in a remote part of the South Island a block 'of polished granite with a striking “bullseye” pattern, has been presented to the Australian Museum, Sydney, by the New Zealand Government. Known 'as spheroidal granite, it shows when cut and polished, large circular areas comprising concentric layers of black mica and white felspar. These lie in a grey-white ground mass which is characteristic of ordinary granite. The discoverer of this unique rock, Dr. ! Patrick Marshall, one of New Zealand’s foremost geologists, and a former professor at Otago University, has said that New Zealand and Finland were evidently the only countries in | the world where this granite occurred | with such perfection of structure. In hiis opinion, its formation was caused by irregularities which occurred when the original molten rock material was * cooling down ages ago. The exhibit, which has been on display at the Australian Museum, weighs half a hundredweight.

Tourist Trade

From reports received from overseas, there are “wonderful prospects” for New Zealand’s tourist trade, according to a statement by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry), when he received a deputation at Auckland yesterday with proposals for the erection of a new residential hotel in the city. The Minister said New Zealand servicemen abroad had proved splendid ambassadors for the Dominion, which to-day stood very high in the estimation of the rest of the world. Mr Parry said he was in agreement with the necessity for developing accommodation, not only for overseas tourists, but also for internal travellers. During the last four or five years there had been an increasing interest in travel amopg New Zealanders anxious to see the beauties of their own country, and it could be said there had never before been equal tourist activity within the Dominion. So far as the Tourist Department was concerned, an efficient committee had been preparing a programme of development, and the department was ready to go as soon as the word was given. New Zealand would get a large share of the tourist trade, and he had every confidence that the requirements of visitors would be met. The Dominion’s sporting facilities were a source of constant inquiry, and it was essential that these attractions should be emphasised abroad. —P.A.

You may buy a box of matches for a copper, but sometimes you’d give more than that- for it—if you could get it. The other day an Auckland hiker tramped, all on his lonesome, to the wilds of the Waitakeres. Presently he sat down on a fallen bluegum, and hungry for a smoke, pulled out pipe and pouch, only to discover he had no matches! “And so the poor dog had none!” By the way, the best ’baccy when hiking is “toasted,” because, you see, you can smoke pipe after pipe of it without feeling “fed up,” as you do with so many brands if you smoke them at all freely. You may get a sore tongue, or find your throat bothering you, or get “nervy.” But toasted never makes your tongue sore, never irritates your throat, never gets your nerves on edge. There are only five brands of the real toasted: Cut plug No. 10 (Bullshead), Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Cavendish, Riverliead Gold and Desert Gold; also toasted tailormades. Ax