THE OTAKI MAIL MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1943. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Otaki Mail, 25 January 1943, Page 2

THE OTAKI MAIL MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1943. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Friday, the holiday, passed oft pleasantly, the weather being fine, •while visitors were numerous.

The Plunket Society will have a refreshment stall at Mrs. Len. Kilmistcr’s residence on Saturday (race day).

A warning boll for the benefit of bathers has been placed at the pavilion at Tasman Beach. This was secured from the Maori College.

The Te Horo Younger Set Social Club held another of their enjoyable dance 3on Saturday night when there was a good attendance. Messrs Sharp and Butler supplied splendid music, while supper was a pleasing feature.

A single girls, Alice Takarua, aged 20, met her death at approximately 1 a.in. to-day under mysterious circumstances. A doctor was called to Motuiti to attend Takarua w-ho was suffering from head injuries. She died shortly after. The police are investigating.

In this issue Mr. George Walton (late of Grand Hotel, Devin) announces that he has taken over the Central Hotel at Otaki, and that he intends to cater in approved style for all his customers. Only the best of wines, ales and spirits stocked.

The Horowhenua College will re-open after the summer vacation on Tuesday, February 2nd, 1943. For the convenience of parents wishing an interview the principal, Mr. W. D. Thomas, will be in attendance at the college between the hours of 11 a.nr. and 12 noon and 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Friday, January 29th and Monday, February Ist.

With opportunities for the use of caravans for holiday tours greatly re etrieted, the North island Motor Union recently suggested to the Commissioner of Transport that licences should be granted for short periods. It was reported at a meeting of the council of the Automobile Association (Auckland) that the commissioner had agreed the request was a reasonable one, but so far an ollicial decision had not been announced.

The Commissioner of Taxes draws the- attention of taxpayers to the notification appearing in to-day’s issue that the due date of payment of income tax is on Thursday, the 11th day of February, 1943. Additional demands will be posted from the office of the Commissioner of Taxes on or about 4tli February, 1943. Demands must be presented with all payments, and if a demand has not been received the Commissioner should be communicated with.

Until recently, boxes of safety matches made in New Zealand have carried a full-length striker on each side, but uow economies are being effected. On some boxes, there are still two strikers, but their length has been reduced by half. For some time, there has been only one strip of glass-paper on each box of wax matches. Similarly, on the boxes of safety matches imported for the uso of American servicemen, there is one striker only.

“Canadian Church leaders are actively' seeking to avoid outbursts of animosity against Japanese residents of Canada, ’ ’ states the ‘ ‘ Outlook. ” ‘ ‘ The Home Mission Board of the United Church of Canada, meeting in Toronto, voiced its confidence in the loyalty of the Japanese clergymen, and satisfaction in the fact that they would bo allowed to continue their work among their own people, following them wherever they might .be sent by tho authorities.”

Air raid shelters are rapidly becoming war relics and, once common topics of conversation, now fail to rouse even an interested glance from passers-by. Many are camouflaged by tall grass, others appear somew'hat ravaged by weather, all seem forgotten—and some have even disappeared. A good example set by the Government in the heart of Wellington soon after war came to the Pacific was the series of slit-trenches in the gardens of the Government Buildings in Lambton Quay. These have now disappeared, filled in with soil and the gardens restored.

The Japanese Prisoners of War Bureau recommends that all letters for prisoners of war and civilians interned in Japan and Japanese-occupied territories be typewritten or written in block letters and that the letters be kept to the shortest possible length. The Postmaster-General, Mr. Webb, said that the recommendation, which •had been received through the International Red Cross Committee, Geneva, was made in order to facilitate examination by the Japanese authorities and early transmission of the letters ■to the addressees. He urged writers, in their own interests, to comply with the request.

“It is a very good testimonial for tho Association and also reveals a healthy faith in the future when a member living under such conditions is still able to remember these matters,” said Mr. F. G. Farrell, president of the Automobile Association (Auckland), Inc., at a meeting of the council, when it was intimated on behalf of Mr. H. W. Nickless, a prisoner of war in Hongkong, that he desired to continue his membership of the Association. The council agreed to the president’s suggestion that the amount of the subscription forwarded should be held in trust and that Mr. Nickloss should be granted free membership during the war.

A lost umbrella is advertised for. A radio set is for sale —a snip. An advertiser wishee to buy a secondhand bicycle tyre. A reward is offered for the return of a green knitted cardigan. A bed-sittingroom', furnished, is wanted by a business lady. A farewell social is being tendered to Rev. and Mrs. Cumming on Wednesday evening next. Two to three acres of good land, with or without modern bungalow, are wanted. A parade of tho officers and n.c.o.’s * of the Home Guard will take place at the Raukawa to-night at 7.30. ! Mrs. Cook, L.8.5.M., resumes teaching of pianoforte, singing, and har- 1 mony on Fobruary 4th.

A freak in the form of a four-legged white leghorn chicken was hatched out in Claudelands, and has sinco made hoalthy progress. One of a clutch of nine to survive, it walks normally, the extra legs, perfectly formed, growing behind the other two. The chick uses only two legs, and the extra pair do not appear to hinder its normal progress.

A recommendation to the Dominion executive that all garbage from military camps be boiled before being fed to pigs was passed at the meeting of the North Canterbury executive of the Farmers’ Union. Mr. R. G. Bishop, chairman, said that a recent outbreak of swine fever in Australia had been traced to camp garbage including tinned sausage from America. Such an outbreak could be caused in New Zealand, he said.

Hamilton Chinese market gardeners feel somewhat incensed at the action of the Government in flooding the market with their surplus crop of green peas from the Ruakura State Farm. They are being sold as low as Is Cd a sugar bag, or less than the cost of picking. Most of the Ruakura output is consigned to the armed services, but 140 bags of second-grade peas were sent to the local market last week. The Chinese gardeners claim that their livelihood is sufficiently precarious without it being made more so by- uneconomical Government competition.

A most interesting capture from the Japanese on Guadalcanal Island is an elaborately' fitted aluminium case containing all the instruments a doctor might need for any but the most complicated eye operations in the field. The case, which is ab,out loin, long by about Bin. wide and 2in. deep, contains a slotted tray- into which the in struments are snugly' fitted. This tray' lifts out, conveniently carrying the instruments for sterilisation. The instruments are of German pattern, but their lack of finish suggests that they are Japanese copies.

“The Court always has to take into account the inherent gravity of the particular offence with which a person is charged,’’ commented the Chief Justico (Sir Michael Myers) when sentencing a prisoner in the Supremo Court, Wellington. “It is a mistake,’’ he added, “to suppose, as some do, that a substantial sentence moans punishment again for previous offences. It does not; but the Court is bound to take into consideration a previous record, because the character of a person who commits an offence is a factor in the determination of the quantum of sentence. “The previous record of a prisoner is a matter affecting his character. The inherent gravity of an offence may be greater by reason of the character of the person by whom it is committed.’’