LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 51, 9 December 1948, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Brigade Attends Grass Fire Fire starting in grass at the residence of Mrs C. Goodwin, Alford Forest Road, resulted in a call to the Ashburton Volunteer Fire Brigade a minute or two before noon to-day. The blaze, which was spreading toward two hedges, was extinguished before any damage was caused.

Fair Warning “Beware —anything from paint to a painter may fall from the roof.” Chalked on the footpath this legend warns the public whose business takes them to tlie Ashburton Post Office of the risks attendant on the most peaceful occasions: or maybe it’s an effort on the part of someone interested in rationality to explain why it’s unlucky to walls, under a ladder.

Ashburton Music Work Praised Praise for work in music at Ashburton was voiced this afternoon by Mr Andrew Morrison, examiner for the Trinity College of Music, London. “I was very pleased and agreeably surprised by the standards of work here, especially in music,” he stated. “There is a great deal of promising talent in the district, and the work of developing this is being carried out on sound and thoroughly efficient lines.”

Fatal Farm Accidents

Twenty-nine accidental deaths occur on farms in New Zealand every year, according to an official of the Department of Agriculture, who bases his statement on figures available during the nine years to 1947. This represents an average of 24 deaths per 100,000 farm workers (the Dominion had 124,326 farm workers last year), which compares with the 1946 figures for the United States of 42 deaths in each 100,000 of her 8,500,000 farm workers.

As Others See It To travel-weary passengers arriving by sea, Auckland usually appears in a welcome right. Sometimes the laudatory co/nments are unjustified, as in the case of the woman immigrant who was drinking in the sights after her six weeks’ journey from England recently. After enumerating the beauties of the landscape she gazed down into the sewer polluted Waitemata. "Oh,” she exclaimed ecstatically, “what lively clear water.”

Magpies Attack Man Magpies attacked and inflicted painful injuries on a young Hastings man at Mangateretere. The man was walking along the road near a belt of macroearpa trees when a magpie suddenly dived at hi in and began a furious attack in which another magpie later joined. Efforts by the man to beat the birds off were without avail. It was some minutes before the birds desisted. A passing motorist brought the man to Hastings where he received medical treatment. Chess Match In a friendly chess match played against four visitors from Rakaia last evening,, the Ashburton Chess Club beat Rakaia by fqur games to three. In order to equalise the number of players in each team, three Ashburton members played for Rakaia. Detailed results are as follow, the names of those playing for Ashburton being mentioned first:—Mrs T. Forrest beat D. Robertson, D. Parr beat T. Dunn, Miss E. Dunn beat S. Hight, G. Thomson beat J. M. Bell, N. E. H-. Fulton lost to T. V. Wilkinson, A. J. Hayston lost to H. M. Copland, and A. C. Renner lost to T. B. Hamilton. „

Sea Cadets May Visit Canada A party of New Zealand sea cadets would probably go to Canada in June or July to attend an Empire sea cadets training camp, said Mr C. Palmer, of Auckland, when he arrived in the Aorangi from Vancouver. Mr Palmer said it was originally intended that 12 cadets should go from the Dominion but the Canadian Navy League had extended an invitation for 25, and it was hoped that number would be able to go. The Canadian League would bear all the expenses of the visitors in Canada. They would be taken to various points of interest throughout Canada and all billeting arrangements would be made by the league.—P.A. Disaster Losses Answering criticism by Mr A. A. Fraser, chairman of the Waikokopu County Council that the district had been treated “pretty miserably” in State aid after the May flood, the Minister of Transpoi’t (the Hon. F. Hackett) said that a line had to be drawn somewhere in the use of State funds for relief. The Government in dealing with public money had to justify every payment though there might be a margin not covered. If any endeavour were made to meet the costs of every natural disaster it would be like pouring money into a bottomless pit. He felt that natural disaster losses should be covered by special funds raised by premiums as in the case of the Earthquake Fund. —P.A.

More Teachers Needed To meet staffing requirements one of every five pupils passing for school certificates this year would have to become a teacher, said the Minister of Education (the Hon, T. H. McCombs) speaking at the final assembly for the year of the Ardmore Teachers’ Training College. This was because young teachers could be taken only from the group born in the early 1930’s when New Zealand's birth rate was the lowest in history. “We are about to enter a period of vei’y rapid expansion in the size of schools,” he said. “In 1952, primary schools will have a 30 per cent, higher roll than last year, and the numbers of infants will be 50 per cent, higher. We must provide 2000 more classrooms and teachers for them.” —P.A.