LOCAL AND GENERAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 July 1941, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

At a sitting of the Children’s Court at Greymouth, to-day, before Mr. G. G. Chisholm, S.M., a'boy aged 15 years, charged with breaking, entering and theft, and the conversion of a motor-car, at Runanga, was committed to the care of the Superintendent of the Child Welfare Department. On returning to their car, three Greymouth sportsmen who spent yesterday deer-stalking in the neighbourhood of Turiwhate, found that a small quantity of silver, and the battery and bulb of a torch were missing. The car had been left locked, but, apparently with the aid of .a screwdriver, the locks had been removed.

The Armed Forces Appeal Board will commence its West Coast sittings at Hokitika to-morrow and will continue in session at Greymouth on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Appeals by or on behalf of men called in the Second Overseas ballot and also appeals against Territorial service on the ground of conscientious objection will be heard by the Board. Mr. F. F. Reid, S.M. (chairman), G. M. Hall (member) and W. Baxter (secretary) of the Board will arrive to-day, from Christchurch. Within the past week rumours have gained circulation in Greymouth to the effect that the burglary which took place at Millers Ltd., Mawhera Quay, last month, had been solved. When the rumours were referred to Inspector W. E. Packer to-day, he stated that there was no truth in them. No arrests had been made, and, instead of repeating such rumours, people should refrain from damaging the characters of innocent citizens.

The National Savings Committee announces that during the first eight months of the campaign, to the end of May, £1,700,000 was contributed, an average of approximately £50,000 per week.' For the month of .June, the receipts were £438,000, an average of over £109,000 each week. On June 9, when the National Savings Committee’s drive for 250.000 accounts commenced, 124,371 National Savings accounts had been opened. On Friday last, the total was 173,421, an -increase of 49,050 accounts in one month.

A number of areas in Canterbury, and one on the West Coast, are declared in the Gazette to be prohibited places under the Defence Emergency Regulations (1939). The areas include a district at Burnham, another at Lyttelton, covering the oil-tank area and Erskine Point magazine, the Lake Coleridge hydro-electric powerstation (including the power-house, pipe lines and surge chambers, ana the intake); the Waitaki hydro-elec-tric area, Ripa Island, and the magazine at Marsden Road, Greymouth.

Upon the completion of then course in motor mechanics, memoers of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary in Greymouth recently underwent the transport examination conducted for the Auxiliary by the Institute of Automotive Engineers and the following were successful: Mesdames Barbara Coffey, Jean Ellis, A. E. Anderson, Irene Schaef, Hilda Sligo and C. Meldrum; Misses Agnes McKnight, Christina McKnight, Eileen Hahn, E. Phyllis Smith, Jean Hambleton and V. Ashton. These members all hold heavy traffic licenses, and they are now undertaking a course of instruction in first aid.

Under the Patriotic Purposes Regulations the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society has been appointed a receiving agent, and the sole expending agent, of the fund on behalf of the sick and . wounded. Doubt exists in the minds of the public as to where the responsibility of the Joint Council toward the sick arid wounded begins and ends, particularly in regard to the interpretation of the word “Distress” in the title of “The Sick, Wounded and Distress Fund Appeal.” At the conference of the National Patriotic Council, the National Patriotic Fund Board and Provincial Patriotic Councils held m Wellington, the following resolution was unanimously agreed to: —“That this conference agrees that the Sick and Wounded Fund be available only for the provision of comforts for civilians injured by enemy action, prisoners of war, and sick and wounded members of the Forces until discharged, and for any period during which they may be in hospital after 'discharge; at no time will the Sick and Wounded Fund be resnonsible for economic relisf of either men, women or their dependants.” Children’s Woollen Ankle Sox.. A choice selection of shades. Small sizes 2/9 to 3/3 pair. Brown Marl in sizes 7to 10, 3/6 ad 3/9 pair.—C. Smith’s. —Advt.

A fleece-picker and general farm hand by occupation, Mr. Arthur Feathery, employed in the Waiau district for many years, was the winner of tne first prize, £2OOO, in the “One For Dad” art union. He is fifty years of age.

The view that the work done by the first Governor of New Zealand, Captain Hobson, in founding and. developing Auckland had never been adequately commemorated was expressed by Canon C. A. B. Watson in an address on the early history of Auckland at a Rotary Club luncheon. Canon Watson referred to the great difficulties encountered by Captain Hobson and to the hostile criticism which he faced from other parts of New Zealand when he chose the site of Auckland as the seat of government. Captain Hobson died worn out by the difficulties of his task, and little had been done in acknowledgement of his great labours other than the placing of a tablet in St. Paul’s Church, which was soon to commemorate its centenary. “The men who came back from the campaigns in Greece and Crete, all say that those who should get the decorations are those doctors, otner members of the Medical Corps, and padres who remained behind with the wounded and could not be got away,” said Private R. Mcßride, one of the soldiers who returned with the party of sick and wounded men from the Middle East. In an interview on Saturday in Christchurch, Private McBride, who comes from Westport, said that the Medical Corps members were normally supposed to be non-combat-ants, but in the fast-moving ba ides fought in Greece and Crete —particularly in Crete—they ended up in the front line, and, what was more, in a great many cases, stayed behind.

Writing to a friend in Westport, Drivei- W. Treloar, who is with the N.Z.E.F. in the Middle East, referring to news, says, “In the desert we seldom see a paper unless it is about a week old and our knowledge of world affairs is limited to the 8.8. C. and the. Axis stations during such times as we are home in our advanced company camp. Most units have a radio and, of course, the most popular station is the 8.8. C. Rome provides the comedy session in the desert since they tell us of air raids on our own area which caused widespread destruction among troop concentrations’ when no such raids have taken place. For a long while we were in an excellent position to judge the truth or otherwise of Rome radio war news, since we were stationed at a spot which was mentioned every night. They claimed raids when no raids took place, widespread damage when the bombs landed a mile away from any conceivable target area, and after months and months ot bombing, the entire area was as devoid ot damage as is Granity. To be on the spot in the event of a crisis developing in the Pacific, and paint pen pictures of New Zealand and Australia for the American people particularly of the war effort, Mr. Royal Arch Gunnison, an American journalist, is a passenger in the Monterey to Australia, as special correspondent of the North American Newspaper Alliance, representing 90 newspapers throughout the world. He is accompanied by his wife, who is writing a series of articles of the war effort from tne women’s angle. He will return to New Zealand later. Mr. Gunnison was in New Zealand last yeai- with the American journalists on a goodwill flight. He later visited China and gave the world the story that Nazi raiders were being fitted and equipped in Japanese mandated islands. “If anything does happen m the South Pacific,” he said, “Americans will be working with you, as closely as we are now working with Britain in the North Atlantic.”—Press Assn.

Guests at the Albion Hotel include: Mr T. G. Roberts, Mr arid Mrs Montgomery (Wellington), Mr F. Carson, Mr A. L. Taylor, Mr C. Lyvatt (Christchurch), Mr R. J. Smith (Auckland), Mr and Mrs Gardiner (Waiuta), Mrs W. Harris (Tai Tapu), Miss L. M. Park (Hokitika). Mr P. L. Garth (Dunedin), Mr M. Tally (Westport).