LOCAL AND GENERAL

Grey River Argus, 26 February 1944, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

S 4 S. Rata is expected to-morrow evening to load coal for Nelson and Tarakohe.

The Maori Gold dredge return for the week ended yesterday was 74ozs for 155 hours work, 15,800 yards being treated. After a month in the New Brighton Health Camp a' party of twenty Greymouth girls returned on Thursday looking tanned and well. They had had an average increase in weight of five pounds.

The proceeds of the Cobden-Blake-town residents’ shop day in the Soldiers’ Shop, Mackay Street, yesterday, amounted to £32. Patrons and donors are thanked for their support.

Pointing out that during the last 80 years Scotland has lost more than 1,500,000 of her population, the Registrar-General comments that the vitality of Scotland is being or has been sapped by the export of the most virile of her people.

The condition of the Greymouth bar has nowise deteriorated since the latest fresh in the river, the depth of water over the inner bar yesterday being; eighteen feet, and that over the outer bar eleven feet. The prevailing northerly wind, however, is not expected to prove beneficial.

Evidence that there had been a slight improvement in the staffing position at the Hokitika Mental Hospital was given by the District Manpower Officer (Mr. G. G. M. Mitchell) at yesterday’s sitting at Greymouth of the Christchurch Manpower Appeal Committee. Mr. Mitchell said that the hospital now need 20 nurses and two domestics.

Three days quick-selling—Friday, Saturday, Monday, at White’s Big Summer Fashion Sale. —Advt.

Two schools of the milling settlements in the National Park Raurimu area are closed because of a shortage of single male • teachers in the Wanganui Education Board’s service, states a Wanganui correspondent. One other school is open only temporarily. Other boards have been communicated with in an effort, to find an assistant, but they too, are in the same position. The annual meeting of the Greymouth Branch of the New. Zealand Labour Party will be held at eight o’clock on Monday evening at the Lyceum Hall, when the officers for the ensuing term will be elected, and the annual balance-sheet will be submitted. The full membership of the Branch is requested to be present on the occasion, when the Member for the District, Hon. J. O’Brien, will attend and will give an address. For the first time in its history, there will be no need for the attendance of jurymen at the Greymouth session of the Supreme Court which opens on Monday morning. The only civil case set down for hearing has been settled, and there remain only three petitions in divorce to be heard by his Honour, Air. Justice Northcroft. The traditional ceremony associated with the absence of criminal cases from the calender will take P^ ce .. ani l l . th ® fF J y^ g ® will be presented by the Sheriff (Mr. D. Malcolm) with a pair of white gloves.'

People are entitled to demand a two-pound loaf of bread. Ihe Mmister of Supply, Hon D. G. Sullivan, yesterday replied at Wellington to| criticism 7 ’regarding 'the weight pt fancy loaves of bread. He said thet different bakers had sold fancy loaves st varving weights. Alost of these fancy loaf weights were lower than the minimum weight of one pound. Eight ounces, which has now been Sxed for special types of approved loaves. The Minister reiterated the statement that two pound loaves ot plain bread were. Available on demand. —P-A.

Post Free! Gent’s .good Dn 1 KJiaM Shirts Only a limited supply. 10/-, 12/6 15/- 17/6. Easily 4/- per garment cheaper than elsewhere. H. Hamer, Kumara.—Advt. A “Pommy” writing to the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” finds it remarkable that, “Australia, land of river* without water, pubs without should have a laughing jackass as hei national bird.” He finds it strange also, “that the most" popular nat'onal song should tell of a sheepstealing tramp, and the national hero should be Ned Kelly.

“Robbery is on the increase, alarmingly so,” said Mr. Justice Callan, when addressing a jury in the Auckland Supreme Court. ’ His Honour said that if it went on without check society would dissolve into anarchy and chaos. Therefore the detection of burglars, their arrest and punishment were mattters of very great importance. It was a bad thing if guilty persons slipped through the fingers of the law, but a greater evil if a person was wrongly convicted..

Life-savers at Cottesloe (West Australia) have a strange pat ent, a seal with a broken flipper.. Members saw the seal swimming mcircles near a reef and , went out m their boat. Despite his vigorous opposition they hauled him aboard and put him to bed in their clubhouse. They carted in sand toi atmps phere and fish for food, and tned a salt-water cure. Each marn J? one of them wraps him in a san and takes him for a dip.. In be tween dips he luxuriates in a batn thev rigged and filled with salt water the beach. When he is better they intend to restore him to the deep—if he will go-

Mr Stan Hughes, of Christchurch, a member of the Meat Rationing Board, will address West Coast butchers at M. J. Fogarty s rooms on Monday next at 8 p.m. on mat ters relating to meat rationing regulations. AU buteners are asked to attend, as the discussions will interest them in the conduct of then business.—Advt.

A recent electrical disturbance in the Elington Valley left the road at the 19-mile peg past T’e Anau like a bomber area. After striking the side of the road, the lightning flash turned at right angles and travelled along the thoroughfare for about a chain, sweeping it clear of gravel. It then turned off the road and dug a ditch about 30 yards long and a foot deep and finally expended itself in the ground, where it left a hole eight feet long and four feet deep. Gravel and manuka trees were thrown all over She place.

Following the fatal accident at Ohura which on Wednesday befell Mr. Thomas Raymond Hatchard, aged 31 years, Clerk of the State Coal Mine at Tatu. near Ohura, an inquest was yesterda.v held at Taumarunui. The evidence showed that Mr. Hatchard was. killed instantly when a car, driven by the mine manager, Albert McMillan, skidded oyer the bank in approaching a truck. McMillan applied the footbrake, but it locked the left wheel and pulled the car over the bank. A verdict of accidental death was returned. The late Mr. Hatchard, who, until two years ago had been a member of the State Mines Department’s staff in this district, leaves a wife and young family.

“I was hitch-hiking from Bath back to my base,” writes Flight Sergeant Harold Davies, in a letter just received by his parents, Mr, and Mrs. J. H. Davies, Christchurch, ‘‘when who should come along, but Queen Mary. She is always giving uniformed men lifts when she is out, and I was one of the lucky ones. When I got out of the car, she gave me a medal with her initials on it for a souvenir. I wasn’t sure who it was when I first got into the car, but recognised herby photographs I had seen, and the lady next to her was calling her 1 ‘Your Majesty,’ so then I was sure. [I was asked what part of New .Zealand I came from and she said I‘the King and I. were out there 1 some years ago.’ ”

Wagers involving feats of skill or dar.ng have become fairly frequent among the servicemen travelling on Devonport ferries in recent months. One which was settled about U o’clock one night caused a considerable amount of amusement among the passengers. The first indication that something unusual was to happen was given when an American serviceman on the upper deck removed his shoes, socks, and hat, and handed them, with his valuables, to his friends. When the boat was still about 60 yards from the Devonport wharf the serviceman, still in trousers and tunic, swung his legs over the side of the vessel, called out, “Here I go,” and plunged into the water. In a high tide he swam to the wharf, climbed ashore, retrieved his belongings and collected his stake of ten dollars.

The loss of dairy production _ in Taranaki through herd reductions is estimated at about 5,000 tons of cheese or 2,300 tons of butter annually. Ito is estimated that during the last two years 21,000 cows .went out of production in Taranaki. A survey of the dairy industry in the North Island, with particular reference to decreasing herds is being undertaken by the National Dairy Federation. Data are being collected from 67 dairy companies in Taranaki and as far south as Westmere, and so far 50 have ■ supplied the information sought. No alteration has taken place in the districts served by seven companies/ but in the main these are small concerns such as Warea and Meremere. Forty-three .companies report that during the last two seasons 224 farms, carrying 8,757 cows went out of dairying entirely. Seventeen companies have yet to make their returns.

“Hang your washing on the Seigfried Line,” but don’t hang it on your hotel balconies. Our city fathers are concerned about the appearances of our fair city and rightly so, after all, appearances count. The controversy is not all one-sided, however. Hotel proprietors are about their wits end, what with staffs being manpowered and linen unprocurable. In the old days before a modern laundry was established in Greymouth, this was the only way of drying washing and old methods die hard. Getting back to appearances just stand out on the road and pass a critical eye at . the appearances of your hotel with the washing hanging on the balcony. You will then ring 136 and have Westland Laundry call for your washing and have it returned beautifully finished at a price that will astound you. Then again, guests are most critical about appearances. Be modern and have your hotel with appearances second to none. If you do not haye a good stock of linen, which is no disgrace these days, Westland Laundry will give you a daily service. Westland Laundry Ltd. ’Phone 136. Depot: 27 Albert Street. —Advt.