LOCAL AND GENERAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4818, 2 August 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Saluting the cathedral and the waiting passengers, an effigy in snow of Herr Hitler stood near the Godley statue in the Square in Christchurch one night during the storm. The finishing touches were applied with earth—a big flop of hair down the forehead and a neat moustache. On the breast a swastika had been impressed and filled in with soil, and the right arm was suitably raised in the air. The effigy took about thirty minutes to make, and its completion, when the use of soil for hair, eyes, and moustache made it suddenly recognisable, was signalled by a shout of laughter from onlookers.

"Unworkable and unwieldy" was the description applied to the proposed Paid Holiday Bill at a meeting of the Hawera Chamber of Commerce on Monday when consideration was given to the proposal for an annual holiday of two weeks on full pay for all classes of employees. Objection to the over-riding of awards was expressed and the proposal was referred to the industrial awards committee for its consideration. A draft of the Bill supplied the Associated Chambers of Commerce was forwarded by the secretary, Mr. A. 0. Heany, who stated that the Minister was testing the opinion of all sections of industry. According to the Minister the proposed Bill had not yet been submitted to either the Cabinet or caucus and there was no undertaking that it would become law.

"I feel I would let extra fancy apples go unpacked rather than wrap them in paper," said Mr. Edilson, when speaking at the annual Hawke's Bay Provincial meeting of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers' Federation in Hastings on the fact that the federation had to purchase paper from Germany, a country which was a potential enemy. "Profits from the paper are made into bullets to shoot us down if the time comes," he said. "We could buy from neutral countries as easily as from potential enemy countries." Replying to the statement,- the president of the New Zealand Federation (Mr. T. C. Brasch) said that in seeking to reduce costs the federation had' purchased ten tons of paper from Germany. This would not occur this year. If they were not going to allow a nation to sell its goods they were asking for war, he added. The greatest contribution they could make for peace was to ameliorate or break down the feeling expressed by Mr. Edilson.

Te Kuiti is a mighty cold place these days but not quite so cold as at least one business firm believes. Yesterday a local retailer was amazed to receive the following from a wellknown importing firm: "Can supply any quantity of W ice skates." And though the local firm has business ramifications extending all over this district it has yet to find the basis of sales talk to sell these articles—ice thick enough to skate on.

For the team to play Hawke's Bay at New Plymouth on Saturday the Taranaki Rugby selector, Mr. C. Brown, has pinned his faith in the same side that defeated King Country, except that half-back L. Arnold, who was out of that game on account of an injury, is back in the team.

"Pastures in Canterbury are getting into a terrible state . . ." "Some farmers will have to reduce their stock this season by 50 per cent, because they simply have not the grass." These were typical comments heard at a recent meeting of the North Canterbury Provincial executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union when members discussed the ravages this season of the porina and grass grub. It was decided to cooperate with the Mid-Canterbury Executive in an attempt to get the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. W. Lee Martin) to come down and see for himself how bad the position was in Canterbury grasslands.

• With the meat export season nearing a close, pork is still the only class in which shipments are running at a lower level than in the previous season. Recent forecasts of record exports are confirmed by the latest figures issued by the New Zealand Meat Producers Board. Exports for the 9y 2 months from October 1, 1938. to July 15, in the past two seasons, compare as follows:—Chilled beef (qrs) 218,095 in 1938-39, 196,813 in 1937-38; frozen beef (qrs) 131,928, 107,380; mutton (carcases), 1,576,173, 1,428,454; lamb (carcases) 7,377,707, 7,319,730; pork (carcases) 417,908, 498,271; boneless beef (bags), 307,035, 242,658.

With no sign of panic, more than 200 patients were evacuated from the Southland Hospital at Kew early on Tuesday morning when fire broke out on the uppper floor about in the middle of the building, and spread both ways. No one was injured, but the damage is estimated at many thousand pounds. Nurses performed heroic work during the fire in getting the patients out of the main building in a remarkably short time.

A more than doubled vote for the Army, which outstrips the other services, is the most striking feature of the Defence Estimates. Naval and air services, however, have also been granted very large increases. Together, the three services require net sum of £3,214,438, or an increase of more than £1,000,000 over last years vote of £2,000,000. With the addition of £2,200,000 from the Public Works Fund, the defence vote is brought to the record peacetime amount of £5,414,438.

The investigation made by the Transport Department into accidents which killed 246 and injured 5635 persons on New Zealand roads in the 12 months ended March 31 has brought out some striking facts as to accident probabilities in various age groups. The 20 t0.24-year group had the worst record, with 707 casualties for each 100,000 of population, the 15 to 19 years group also ha"d a high record (603 casualties per 100,000). After 35 years is reached the rate was comparatively steady at about 340 casualties per 100,000. The accident rate for children was only half that of the group over 35, but in the case of the very young and the very old accidents had much more severe effects. Over all age groups one person was killed for every 24 injured, but among children under five years of age one in 13 accidents was fatal, and among people of 64 and over one in every 10- injured in motor accidents did not survive.