Untitled

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 126, 29 April 1941, Page 4

Maori Runs Amok.

Running amok in Whangarei at about G o'clock last Friday evening, a 17-year-old Maori youth injured a number of people, one severely, before ho was taken in charge by the police Guard Falls on Bayonet. While challenging a trespasser in the early hours of the. morning, Private Alexander Burrows, one of the guards of a vital Dunedin area, tripped and fell on his bayonet, inflicting a wound in the neck.

Telephone Stolen. Recently the City Council received a bill Irom the Post and Telegraph Department for £2 6s 3d as the cost of a, telephone which had been stolen from a taxi stand in the city. The council decided, last night, to pay the sum. Variations of Rainfall.

Rainfall statistics for 1040. compiled by the Meteorological Office, .show that the lowest rainfall in the Dominion ■was experienced at Alexandra, Otago. ■where only J4.36in were recorded. This compares with the heaviest falls of 380.09 in at Homer Tunnel and 205.7 S in at Milford Sound.

Auxiliary Landing Ground. The City Council, last evening, granted permission for the Milson aerodrome to be used as an auxiliary landing ground by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Under an agreement jhe State, has the right to use the lauding ground and, in the event of damage to the ground, the City Council expects compensation.

Intermediate School. Seven nominations have been received for six seats for parents' representatives on the Intermediate School Committee—Messrs L. C. Sadd, J. L. C. Merton, F. G- Major,- A. Charles, W. H. Brown, M. MePhail, and J. S. Tlornblow. The other six members constituting the remainder of the committee of twelve will be appointed by the six contributing primary school committees. City's State Houses.

Reporting to the City Council, last evening, the engineer (Mr J. R. Hughes) stated that since the inception of the State housing 265 State houses had been completed in Palmerston North, and .'33 were now under construction. There were 24 for which tenders had been let but on which work had not yet commenced ; in round figures these would cost £32.000. In the last financial year 66 new dwellings were commenced, 33 being completed and occupied.

Guardsmen's Arms. Home Guardsmen were entitled now to ask wliat they could do now that they had been brought to a state of efficiency, but he had the most unpleasant duty to tell them that there were no arms for them, said MajorGeueral R. Young, commanding officer of the Home Guard in New Zealand, when he inspected a parade of 354 members of the Waipawa Battalion. The fact that rifles were not available, said General Young, did not mean that the Home Guard was to give up hope. That inspection was the first where he had seen so many privately-owned rifles, and it was the intention of the Government to impress every privatelyowned .303 rifle in the Dominion. Grant For Drainage.

In connection with the recent decision of the Palmcrston North City Council, Kairanga County Council, and Manawatu Drainage * Board to defer indefinitely a scheme for the improvement ol the Mangaone and Kawau Streams in view of the war situation, the City Council has now received advice from the Minister of Finance (Hon. W- Nash) that the Government is prepared to make a grant of £SOOO toward the cost of improving the two waterways from the point of view of flood defects, provided that 70 per cent, of the labour involved is drawn from men at present on scheme No. 13 undertakings. The coun cil decided, last night, to call the 1 special committee together again at an early date.

Torpedoed Twice in Day. A Scottish ship's fireman now in Auckland has had the experience of having been torpedoed twice in one day. 25,000 Volunteers For Air Force. Speaking in Auckland the Minister of Defence said that 2."),000 New Zealanders had volunteered for the Royal 'Air Force. "Giving, Not Gambling." The Bishop of Wcllingtou has received a donation of £25 from a "Father and Mother" in furtherance of his. appeal for "giving, not gambling" for patriotic funds. Refused by Government. Applications by a large Canadian firm of hosiery manufacturers for permission to open a mill in the Dominion ior the production of women's silk stockings have been refused by. theGovernment. Half-Sovereigns in Collection. When a member of the Pahiatuaj Returned Soldiers' Association was checking over the amount collected at the conclusion of the Ansae Day service there were found in a large vari-! ety of coins two half-sovcre'igns. City Library Books. In the past year there were 321.432 books issued from the Palmerston North municipal library, as against 258,686 for the previous year, an in- j crease of 62.746. The City Council last [ night gave the librarian permission to purchase books to the value of £2OO. A Fisherman's Luck.

A notable catch by an Auckland angler at the mouth" of the Waitahanui River, in the Taupo district, on Thursday, was a trout weighing 16} lb, considered to lx> the largest trout caught in the district for the past ten years.

Request for Commission. The Palmerston North City Council ha.s received a reply from the Department of Internal Affairs stating thtt the council's request lor a Commission to be set Tip 1 to report on the basis of rating in the Palmerston North River Board's district will bo carefully considered. Oldest Home Guard?

Mr "Sam" Tipcnc, a Maori living at Moeraki (Taranaki), is one of the claimants for the honour of being the oldest member of the Home Guard in New Zealand. Although he is fJ2 years of age, ho parades with the Moeraki unit every Monday night.

Lights for Drill. The City Council hag decided to erect three lamps at the Boys' High (School, four at the Central School and four at the Terrace End School to provido light for drill grounds for the City North Battalion of the Home Guard, and also two lamps at the Girls' High School for the use of the 12th Company, National Military Reserve.

Emergency Fire Equipment. The City Council, last evening, received from the chairman of the supplies committee of the Emergency Precautions Scheme a requisition from the Palmerston North Eire Board for the provision of £2.559 I Is 9d to cover the cost of equipment required under the application of the scheme to firelighting in the city. It was decided to refer the matter to the Municipal Association to make representations to the Government that such equipment be a charge on the national finances. Expelled From Labour Party. On the allegation that they had persistently engaged in disruptive activities, two would-be union delegates to the recent New Zealand Labour Party conference were disqualified from acting and expelled Ironi the party, according to a report published by the official Labour paper. The action was taken on the recommendation of the credentials committee, which reported that evidence had been produced before it to »how that the two men were actively campaigning against the Labour Party's war policy, were opposed in almost every other direction to the party's policy and. in one instance at least, had associated themselves with anti-war resolutions couched in the usual Communist phraseology, the paper states.