LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 151, 12 April 1950, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Dancer’s Win y Competing in the dancing section at the Mackenzie County A. and P. Association Show at Fairlie on Monday, Pamela Childs, of Ashburton, secured a win in the Highland Fling under eight years. Ashburton East School Committee The following nominations have been received for the Ashburton East School Committee: —J. Rodger, J. Kirk, H. Paterson, H. Hickman, J. Dickinson, T. Childs, L. McNally, J. Twamley and A. Sutherland. Stolen Truck Recovered Understood to be undamaged, the 15cwt truck, belonging to Mr W. G. Marshall, of Oak Grove, which was removed from in front of the Radiant Hall on Monday evening, was found abandoned in Timaru, according to advice received by the Ashburton police this morning. Empire Games Record An expensive book giving the official history of the British Empire Games of 1950 is to produced as a permanent work of reference suitable for archives and libraries. This proposal was adopted at a meeting of the directors of British Empire Games (N.Z.), Ltd., the company responsible for financing the event, subject to the concurrence of the New Zealand Olympic and British Empire Games Association, Wellington.

Jet Flight Covers . Philatelists will have to act quickly if they desire souvenirs of the first international flight of a Canadian jet airliner scheduled for April 18 from Toronto to New York. All first-day covers must reach the postmaster, Toronto, by April 16, and must bear Canadian postage at the normal airmail rate applicable to the destination to which the cover is addressed, and must be accompanied by a service fee of 10 cents. Advice to this effect has been received by the Canadian High Commissioner’s Office in Wellington.

No Power Was Saved A household in Auckland had been using more power than it should, so decided to resurrect its benzine stove and cook the Sunday dinner. They would save lots of electricity, they thought, full of a sense of duty. They primed the stove and set it going, only to see a sheet of flame burst from a fault. By the*-time the fire engines had arrived, the .kitchen had lost its paint, a carpet square and a good deal of woodwork. It will take about £3O to repair the damage. And the dinner was cooked with electricity after all.

Money for Roads ;■ ,i Less Government money will be available this year for expenditure on roads. The Minister of Works (Mr W. S. Goosman) made this clear to the Whangarei Couqty Council yesterday, when the council welcomed him on his first tour of inspection of Northland as a member of the Cabinet. He said that local bodies would have no justification for their existence if they continued to pass on their responsibilities to the State,’ and lie Urged them to find as much money as they could through their own efforts. —P.A. Wild Dogs Destroyed Four of the five wild dogs which have caused serious sheep losses in the Lake Clearwater area over the past 18 months are now reported destroyed, and hopes are held that the remaining one, believed to be a bitch, will soon be eliminated. Former sheepdogs, the destructive animals proved very hard to kill, even thought shepherds and musterers usually carried rifles when traversing the hill country. Traps and poison were used freely with little success, and, at one stage,/‘spotting” from, a plane was tried out, also unsuccessfully. Two litters of pups, however, were found and destroyed. Auckland Wharves Concerted action' to clear Auckland’s congested wharves has shown results. Most wharf sheds are less than half full and those at the export wharf are empty. Although ships are now working full numbers of discharging gangs, all waterfront berths are occupied, and six oversea? ships will be anchored in the stream this morning. This evening members of the Auckland branch of the Harbour Boards’ Employees’ Union will have their annual meeting, and only a limited number of cranedrivers expect to be available. To-mor-row morning the Auckland branch of the Waterside Workers’ Union will have its monthly stop-work meeting.— P.A. Dangerous Shooting A rabbiter at Puketeraki was recently given an excellent example of the dangers of indiscriminate shooting in apparently “safe” country areas,, He had just dropped a number of rabbit traps and was moving away to set a trap when he heard a clang behind him. He looked round to see the trigger plate of one of the traps on the ground flying through the air. On investigating the cause, he found that a stray .303 calibre bullet had penetrated the steel plate and had dislodged it from its fastenings on the trap. As the rabbiter pointed out, he himself could have been the billet for the bullet. Mr A. Roberts, F.S.M.C., England, representing Procter’s (Opticians since 1877), Christchurch, arrives in Ashburton to-morrow on a professional visit. —(Advt.)