Local and General

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 23 March 1935, Page 4

Local and General

Assistance was given to 39 families in t'Jie Okaiawa and Hawera districts this morning by the distribution rations to registered relief workers. Hie following commodities were parcelled up and distributed: Tea 201 b, sugar 1581 b, flour 2361 b, oatmeal 401 b, rice 401 b, ’ butter 391 b, bread 82 loaves.

Under the auspices of the combined Okaiawa branches of the Farmers’ Union and the Women’s Division, a concert and dance will be held in the Okaiawa Town Hall next Wednesday evening commencing at 8 o’clock. An excellent entertainment programme has been arranged) and during the evening competition certificates will be presented. Dancing will take place on the new floor to first-class music and supper will be .provided. ‘ “The greatest amount of literature in China is .not-distributed.'by Communists; it is distributed by the Bible Societies,” declared the Rev. A. W. Stuart, retiring organiser of the Canterbury and Westland Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, when giving a farewell address at the annual meeting of the society in Christchurch. Mr Stuart added that altogether the several societies operating in China distributed eleven million copies of the Bible in the course of a year.

Members of the Hawera Orchestra] Society are reminded that practices in preparation for the first, concert of the 1935 season will commence at the band room, Albion Street, on Tuesday next. A new set of music will be distributed, some of which has just arrived from the English publishers and has never been played in New Zealand before. Members are asked to attend at i .30 sharp, as prior to th© practice an important announcement is to be made. That school committees had been misled regarding their obligations * tb respect to dental clinics was the opinion expressed by several members at the quarterly meeting of the Auckland School Committees’ Association recently. It was stated that when the school dental clinics were established the Government definitely stated that the only cost to the committees would be the maintenance. Now. however, they were required to pav an additional £3O a year toward the nurse’s salary. In many districts, it was becoming very difficult to continue. The meeting decided to ask the New Zealand Federation of School Committees to protest to the Government.

The plight of a draft of trotting horses purchased in New South Wales and Queensland about eight months ago and shipped to Shanghai, where it was proposed to establish a trotting club, is referred to in the NorthChina Daily News. Officials of the Shanghai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reported to Dr. Li Ting-an, Commissioner of Public Health of the Government of Greater Shanghai, that inspections revealed a progressive and advanced debility of many of the animals, a condition that was associated with the general lack of care,, inadequate and unsuitable food and clothing, and unsatisfactory stabling. It was held that with the advent of cold weather the horses in their condition would be exposed to cruelty. The society’s representatives had been unable to locate the owners of the horses.

The ' attitude of present-day people toward the police was the subject of comment by Mr W. Nash, M.P., when speaking at Moera, Lower Hutt, during a public farewell to Sergeant J. Scarry, who has been transferred to Auckland. He could not help thinking as he entered the hall, said Mr Nash, of the changed attitude today with regal’d to policemen compared with what it was twenty oi thirty years ago. When he was a boy all the schoolchildren were afraid of "a policeman, but modern children did not have the same fear. Policemen had a difficult job, for not only did they have to prevent the breaking of the law but they had to do something to help people, especially those in whom a difficulty of temperament tended to make them law-breakers. The people needed less police protection in New Zealand than in any other country. There was a member of the force for every 1279 people in New Zealand, as against one for every 750 in Britain.

It is not often that an opportunity is afforded to “put one across’’ the police, but in a country township not many miles from Hawera that feat was accomplished. The scene was laid at a dance, aiftl while passing the place where the cars were parked; the constable heard a masculine voice, “Come on Jean, have another drink. The representative of the law had strong ideas on the subject cf women drinking, and “Jean” and her escort became an object of suspicion and the need for instant investigation. Flashing his torch into the car the policeman saw there two young “bloods,” but no “Jean,” whereupon the constable wanted to know what the “game” was. “It’s all right, we’re not doing any harm.” The constable forcibly replied that he did not know about that, and demanded to see the drink, which, incidentally, having been the cause of trouble at previous dances, was “taboo.” The youths obliged him, and brought to light a bottle of “orange crush,” gleefully admitting it was a deliberate hoax. Smitten with pardonable annoyance at the manner in which he had been “had,” the constable sought retribution, and later had his opportunity in a manner which satisfied his honour, and a number nine boot loomed largely ia the operations.