LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 139, 24 March 1948, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Services Acknowledged A. brief but pleasant function took place during tile luncheon adjournment at. the County Schools’ Sports today, when Mr J. T. Thomas (president) asked Mrs S. W. Gower to accept a gift as some recognition of her having superintended for some 10 years the officials’ luncheon arrangements.

High School Y.F.C. On Tuesday tlve Ashburton High School branch of the Young Farmers’ Club held its annual meeting at the school. The election of officers resulted:—Chairman, M. Hunt; secretary, A. McDougall; treasurer, D. Collins; reporter, P>. Page. It was decided to have a question box at the next meeting.

Rugby Tournament The Celtic Rugby Football Club, Ashburton, is sending a team to Christchurch over Easter, to take part in the South Island Catholic football clubs’ tournament. The team will leave on Easter Saturday, returning on Monday night, playing two games on Saturday and two on Monday. Special Air Mail Flight

About 22,000 air mail letters and air letter cards were carried by a Royal New Zealand Air Force Dakota which left Auckland for Sydney, via Norfolk Island and Brisbane, yesterday morning on a special mail flight during a gap in the regular Tasman service. The mail weighed 2401 b, of which 591 b was for Norfolk Island and J Force and the remaining 1811 b for Australia and the United Kingdom. —P.A.

Extra Petrol for Taxis

An extra allowance of petrol of 20 gallons for single shift taxis and 40 gallons for double shift taxis would be made throughout New Zealand for the Easter period, said the Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer) after he had received a deputation from the Otago Taxi Proprietors’ Association at Port Chalmers yesterday afternoon. —P.A.

Charge Against Motorman Dismissed A charge of moving .his tram while a passenger was alighting, brought against a tramway motorman in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yesterday, was dismissed by Mr A. M. Goulding, S.M. “To convict on this charge I have to be satisfied that the motorman knew that the passenger was attempting to leave the tram,” said the Magistrate. “I think the real fault in this case probably lay with the conductor.” —P.A.

Gift for Freight of Lime A gift of £250 for the payment of freight on lime has been made by a resident of Inglewood to the Taranaki Aid for Britain Committee. The donor intimated that he did not wish to tie the hands of the Aid for Britain Committee, but he suggested that the money should he expended in the payment of freight on lime used by returned servicemen and other deserving small farmers, who wished v to break-in freSh land for the purpose of increasing production.

“Lost” Food Parcels Each week in London about 180 parcels from overseas are “lost,” that is, the addressee cannot be traced, or the address has been torn off or damaged and become illegible. In cases such as this the parcels are handed over by the British Post Office to the headquarters of the Red Cross. The . parcels are then opened, and if any indication of the address can be found they are sent on. If no information is available the parcels are distributed among people in need.

Willowby Methodist Circuit On Sunday morning last the annual harvest thanksgiving service was held in Willowby Methodist Church, which was decorated for the service with an abundance of fruit, vegetables and flowers. Mr S. G. Macfarlane, M.A., was the preacher, and Miss Lill organist. The circuit rtHly was held on Monday afternoon, when Adjutant Smith, of the Salvation Army, conducted the service. The various harvest gifts were later auctioned, and tea dis pensed in the Sunday School Hall by local ladies. Court Behaviour “That’s a nice Christmas box,” remarked a defendant in the Dunedin Magistrate’s Court on Monday when she was fined £7 10s for an offence. The Magistrate called her back and warned her that she had better retract her statement and behave herself in future. If she had waited a little, however, she would have had the doubtful pleasure of seeing another defendant given a much larger “Christmas box” when the Magistrate Imposed fines totalling £425 for charges of failure to make returns of income and failing to pay wages tax. Union Fees A poor reception was accorded a union secretary from Wellington when he visited a lingerie factory in Palmerston North in an endeavour to persuade 40 part-time women workers to pay union fees. The secretary tried to address the workers but was greeted with such a chorus of catcalls and booing that he had to give up and left the factory without having achieved his purpose. The women, who work only three to six hours a day, have offered to pay half the fees, but the union is not prepared to accept this. The dispute will probably reach a climax on April 1 when the women’s • fees will be three months in arrears and they will automatically cease to be members of the White Shirt and Silk Workers’ Union.

ScTTool for Pitcairn Island

The first school on Pitcairn Island will be established soon by a New Zealand teacher, Mr A. W. Moverley. He is under contract to the British Colonial Service, through the High Comissioner for the Western Pacific, and with Mrs Moverley and their nine-year-old daughter will leave today by the Matua for Fiji. A specially chartered ship, the Awahou, will carry the family from Suva to Pitcairn Island. She will also take a prefabricated school and a house, sent from Britain, the contractor who will erect them at Pitcairn Island, and furniture for both. “There is no school at Pitcairn Island, and this scheme is something absolutely new,” Mr Moverley said. “I think there are about a couple of dozen children in all, and T shall take them to whatever standard they are capable of going. Education is compulsory for those from six to 16 years, and I think Pitcairn Island was the first place in the world with compulsory education.” Mr Moverley, who has had 20 years’ teaching experience at New Zealand primary and secondary schools, recently taught at the Wanganui Technical College.—P.A.