LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4232, 17 January 1940, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The monthly meeting of the Te Awamutu Electric Power Board is to be held on Friday.

That there are normally a lot of dogs owned in the borough of Te Awamutu was indicated when the town clerk told the Borough Council on Monday evening that dog registration yielded £97 14s 6d last year.

An indication of the progress of Ngaroma district is contained in the fact that since the establishment of the sawmill at Ngaroma by Messrs Smyth Bros, and Boryer, Ltd., the firm has built sixteen small cottages for occupation ’. by its married employees.

Quite a number of Te Awamutu district sportsmen are visiting Wellington at present—some to attend the thoroughbred yearling sales at Trentham to-day, and others to witness the three days’ racing of the Wellington Racing Club, the bigattraction being the Centennial Cup race to-morrow.

A wonderful array of trophies for competition at the annual sports meeting of Te Awamutu Amateur Athletic and Cycling Club, on Saturday and Monday, 27th and 29th January, is being collected by the Club, and the trophies will be placed on public exhibition in the course of a few days.-

The Mayor (Mr G. Spinley) told the Borough Council on Monday evening that the instruction given to a committee at last month’s meeting respecting two applications by property owners to have their lands declared rural lands had not been continued, bht it was hoped to arrange an interview with the Government valuer at an early date.

Commissioned and non-commis-sioned officers of the third echelon of the Expeditionary Force will go mto camp at Treritham on February 1 for special training before the third echelon men are called into camp. Colonel R. A. Row, officer commanding the central military district, said there were still some vacancies for commissioned officers for the third echelon.

Many householders had been very wasteful of water during the past few weeks of dry weather, said the Mayor (Mr G. Spinley) at the meeting on Monday evening of the local Borough Council, and he added that had there not been such a copious rainfall during the week-end the Council would have been recommended to take drastic action against those people who did not observe the bylaws.

A substantial advance in. enlistments throughout the Dominion for the Expeditionary Force—from 18,858 to 20,541 —took place during the week ended January 6, the latest date at which the national returns are available. These figures do not include enlistments in the Maori Battalion. The recruits are classified as follows, the figures at December 30 being given in parentheses:—-Fit. 12,699 (ll;490); temporarily unfit, 2576 (2527); permanently unfit, 2146 (2J071); engaged in reserved occupations and therefore not available, 1292 (1144); sent to camp 8139 (8065': balance available for posting to camp, 3003 (2198).

The progress made with the construction of dwellings under . the State housing scheme was briefly reviewed by the Minister of Housing, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, in an interview last evening. The Ministry of Housing- was established in September, 1936, and the building of houses was commenced early the following year. Statistics were quoted by the Minister to show that 5705 houses have ben completed since the inception of the scheme. The following was the position on December 29, 1939:—Houses under construction 2450; houses completed, 5705; houses advertised for contracts, 10,057; houses completed and handed over during 1939, 3333 men employed by the Housing Construction Department and contractors, 5162; towns in which work is proceeding, 113.

The monthly meeting of the Wjaipa County Council is to be held next Monday.

Borough ratepayers who desire to avoid the imposition of the statutory ten per cent penalty should make a point of paying the current year’s rates by 14th February.

The schedule for Te Awamutu Agricultural, Pastoral, and Horticultural Association’s annual show, which is to be held at Albert Park on Saturday, 10th February, is now in the secretary’s hands, and copies will be posted on application.

Small patches of ragwort in full bloom are to be seen along the Ara-puni-Kihikihi main highway, and owners of properties fronting that road would be doing a service to themselves and to their neighbours by destroying the plants before they have time to disseminate their thousands of seed all over the countryside.

Surprise was expressed at the meeting of the Morrinsville branch of the Farmers’ Union when Mr Topham quoted a case ow how the Income Tax Department deals with soldiers. A Morrinsville district soldier who had been getting £5 a week before he enlisted in the First Echelon, had shown this member papers to the effect that he had been called on to pay his income tax, plus 15 per cent war taxation, before leaving New Zealand. “Fancy soldiers who are offering their lives for their country having to pay income tax and 15 per cent war tax before they are allowed to leave New Zealand,” exclaimed this member, who added that other taxpayers will not receive their income tax demands until next month.

During a discussion at the local Borough Council meeting on Monday evening on the subject of an alteration, decided upon at the December meeting, in the water supply connections to houses to provide for not less than three-quarter-inch pipes, the Mayor (Mr G. Spinley) reminded councillors that an amended by-law altered the old requirement for a three-quarter-inch pipe to a half-inch pipe, and to depart from it now would necessitate rescinding the amending by-law. Cr L. S. Armstrong indicated that he proposed to give notice of motion for next Council meeting to rescind the by-law. He contended that a three-quarter-inch pipe was necessary and desirable, and he added that most borough councils now realised that.

In the No. 4 (Hamilton) military area 338 married men have enlisted since the outbreak of war. Many have large families. A very small percentage, however, has been called up, and in those cases the approval of the wife has first been secured. Included in the enlistments of married men, excluding officers, are 69 men who have no children. However, 111 married men with one child have joined up. Fourteen of the married men without children have already been despatched to camp and are serving with the forces, while 21 married men with one child are in camp also. Of the 71 married men with two children who have enlisted, four have been called up. Two of the 43 married men with three children who have enlisted have gone to camp, Nineteen married men with four children have joined the colours, and 25 married men with five or more children are included in the enlistments. None of these latter classes has been called up.

The population of stoats, weasels and wild cats in Tongariro National Park is stated to have greatly increased in recent years, and, consequently, depredations among the bird life of the park are greater. Arrangements are being made by the fields branch of the Department of Internal Affairs for an attack on the animals forming a menace at the park. “Reports from the ’management of the Chateau Tongariro as tc the increased number of weasels and. in particular wild cats, about the Chateau grounds, led to a preliminary investigation by Captain G. F Yerex, head of the fields branch of the department,” said the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Parry, on Monday. “There is no doubt about there being fair-sized colonies of the vermin in this beautiful park and native and game birds have no chance of escape. Some men, expert in trapping, will be placed in the park a little later on in the year and a heavy toll among the weasels and cats should result."

In view of the fact that a number of slaughtermen at the Municipal Abattoir in Auckland had made it known to the management that they wished to enlist the City Council, at a special meeting yesterday, decided to make a formal application to the Placement Officer at Auckland, that essential workers at the abattoir should be placed on the same footing as freezing workers and debarred from military service. After a short discussion a motion by the Mayor, Sir Ernest Davis, seconded by Mrs M. M. Dreaver, that the application be made, was adopted by eight votes to five. The council’s decision is to be discussed by the men concerned at a meeting at the abattoir to-day. It was stated yesterday that men otherwise eligible for service overseas objected to the proposed exemption. They submitted that they were not engaged in the vital export meat trade and that there were older men who could fill their places on the boards for the time being.