LOCAL AND GENERAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4873, 21 July 1936, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The annual meeting of the St.John Ambulance is being held in the Municipal Hall to-night at 8 o’clock.

Teams from the Te Kuiti High and Primary Schools are to journey to Taumarunui next Saturday to play the x-epresentatives of the Taumarunui school.

Two players, A. Gault and F. Pickrang, who were taking part in the Maniapotq Rugby Sub-Union’s competitions last yeai’, have been selected to represent Auckland in the Rugby League match against the English team next Saturday.

The Te Kuiti Football Club has issued a challenge to the champion team of the Taumarunui Sub-Union for the Hetet Shield. As the champion team had to be chosen by the second Saturday in August it was decided that the challenge be held over until after the first Saturday of that month.

“I’m going to become a driver,” one councillor remarked at the meeting of the Makara County Council, when the council was cited as a party to the drivers’ dispute to be heard on July 28, under which a wage of £5 3s for a five-day week is sought by the union for drivers of lorries up to two tons. One councillor said employees would soon be better off than councillors, and it was mentioned that 108 applications had been received for the position of roadman in the Makara riding.

“Maintenance orders take precedence over debts,” stated Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Palmerston North Magistrate’s Court, when a defendant pleaded inability to comply with an order owing to the fact that he had to pay off liabilities which had accumulated. The magistrate added, in dealing with one individual whom he described as being “particularly obstreperous,” that some defaulters would not pay up -until a warrant was issued for their imprisonment.

To remove the existing doubt as to what rates of pay were necessary in the case of men employed to do casual gardening and suchlike work, Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, M.P., made a telegraphic inquiry of the Labour Department. A reply has been received that the matter is not covered by any award and it is one for arrangement between the employer and worker.

A case was heard in Auckland recently in which a landlord sought possession of a house on the plea that he desired it for himself or an employee. It was further submitted that the tenant was making undue pi-ofit from the property by sub-letting rooms. The Magistrate held that the landlord had not established his case, and dismissed the application.

Swept from a rocky ledge while endeavoui’ing to fill a kerosene tin with water, Ai'thur Hodgson, of Rotorua, aged about 28, married, with two children, is believed to have lost his life after being carried over the famous Huka Falls, near Taupo. Although there were no eye-witnesses to the actual happening, Hodgson is understood to have attempted to fill the tin from the fast running waters about __2po yards above the falls. He was - kneeling on a ledge about a foot above the level of the l’apids, and it is believed that the force of the current caused him to lose his grip.

The Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, stated in Christchurch that there will be no competition between the Public Works Department and farmers in enjoying labour. The aim of the Department will be to engage men from the ranks of the unemployed and if those engaged in farm labour think they are all going to get the jobs of those who have long been out of work they “will get a rude shock. Anything like that will be stopped. If it shows up we will tread on it good and hard.”

After a long trip abroad, in which he visited many countries, Mr. H. Chapman, of Christchurch, is convinced that New Zealand is well served by its newspapers. “After seeing the general run of newspapers in England, Scotland and America,” he said in an interview, “I cannot speak too highly of the newspapers we have here.” Excepting in some of the larger papers in London, there seemed to be comparatively little general news, and the methods of setting out did not appeal as New Zealand methods did. “We certainly have cause to be proud of our newspapers,” he said.

Dr. A. B. O’Brien, of Christchurch, has a distinction in Rugby football which probably very few other players in the world can claim. He was once selected as reserve for both teams in an international match. Dr. O’Brien told how this happened in recounting some Rugby reminiscences at the annual reunion dinner of the Christchurch High School Old Boys’ Association. While studying medicine in England, Dr. O’Brien said, he had played for Kent for a year in which it had won the counties’ championship. He had then been selected to play in the match between the north and south of England, and had finally been chosen as a reserve for the English team. He went to Ireland once to play for Ulster, and it was after this match that he was chosen as a reserve for the Irish international team. When Ireland played England, England, therefore, Dr. O’Brien was reserve for both teams. Dr. O’Brien explained that replacements were not allowed during the match; nevertheless, he had to attend with “togs” and could have played for either side.