General News

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31840, 19 November 1968, Page 16

General News

Troops Leave The second airlift of 50 troops for Malaysia left Christchurch yesterday at 10 a.m. on the first of two N.A.C. charter flights. The second charter flight carrying the third group of troops will leave Christchurch at 10 a.m. today. Last Thursday 50 men were taken to Auckland in an R.N.Z.A.F. Bristol Freighter. The 150 men are the reinforcement draft from the Battalion Depot, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, at Burnham. They will leave Auckland for Malaysia in an R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules aircraft. From The Sublime. . . Under the heading, “Sensational Withdrawals,” the “South Australian Chess Bulletin” discusses the withdrawal from the recent World Chess Olympics at Rome of two Czechoslovak grandmasters, L. Kavalek and L. Pachmann, in protest against the occupation of their country by Russia and its satellites. The players made a public explanation referring to the occupation as a gross violation of international law: as “the elementary human rights were trampled upon no decent person could approve oi such a deed." The journal reports that later the American champion, Bobby Fischer, withdrew from his team after complaining of the lighting in the tournament hall. The bulletin remarked: “It must have sounded very petty after Kavalek and Pachmann.” New Bridge Tenders have been called for a 486 ft bridge to span Adderley Terrace, the railway and the Kaiapoi River. It will be the last major bridge on the northern motorway to Pinehaven. The bridge will be supported by rein-forced-concrete piers, each of six circular columns, and runthrough abutments will be supported on precast pretensioned driven piles, 20 in a square. The twin, two-lane superstructures, each 36ft between channel-section guard rails, will consist of cast-in-place, reinforced - concrete deck slab on prestressed concrete I-beams. Cars Damaged During the week-end somebody went into the Sydenham yard of Metro Car Sales and sprayed soft drink over seven cars—including a Pontiac and three Jaguars, the managing director of the firm (Mr D. A. Nichols) said yesterday. By yesterday morning the beverage had eaten through the paintwork and down to bare metal, he said. Repainting the damaged areas would cost $155. Whoever did the damage had shaken the bottle of soft drink and sprayed it about, Mr Nichols said. The firm had no insurance cover for damage of this sort, he said. The police had been informed. New Squash Courts Two courts are to be added to the Christchurch Squash Rackets Club’s premises in Chester Street. Members last evening authorised the committee to accept the lowest tender of $18,429. The additions will include two showers and changing rooms for women. Mr R. D. Monk, the club president, said that the additions would bring the number of courts to five and make the club one of the finest squash centres in New Zealand. Replacements The Post Office had replaced about 2500 telephone directories since their issue last May, the Chief Postmaster in Christchurch (Mr M. E. Wilson) said yesterday. Directories which had fallen apart at the binding were being replaced at the rate of about 30 a week. Mr Wilson said that the Post Office would replace badly bound directories on presentation. Personal Mr J. S. Malthus, a former senior supervisor in the office of the Regional Engineer of the Post Office, has been appointed Deputy Chief Postmaster in Christchurch. Mr Malthus was appointed acting Deputy Chief Postmaster after Mr C. V. Jury moved to Wanganui about three weeks ago. Mr Malthus joined the Post Office 34 years ago and has been in Christchurch since 1962.