LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4523, 14 January 1942, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A sum of money in excess of £BO was lost on the' Arapuni road near Putaruru recently and was picked up upon New' Year’s Day and promptly handed over to the Police. Yesterday the loser recovered the sum intact and was very grateful. A by-election to fill the vacancy on the Kihikihi Town Board, created by the resignation of Mr W. Q. McGhie, is being conducted to-day. The candidates are Mr F. Alcock and Mr H. F. W. Sapsford. The result should be known shortly after 6 p.m. The annual shows of the Matamata and Morrinsville Agricultural and Pastoral Associations have this year been abandoned on account of the conditions created by the war situation. It now seems improbable that any shows will be held in the Waikato this year. The Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. J. G. Barclay announced yesterday that orders had been placed for 1500 tons of imported potatoes which will arrive in the Dominion in the near future. There would be sufficient in the consignment for army supplies and for a surplus which would be distributed throughout New Zealand. No less than 120 men with steam shovels and excavators are engaged in a concentrated effort to reopen the Stratford-Okahukura railway line, which was blocked by slips and washouts last week. An inspection of damage was made on Monday by the General Manager of Railways, Mr E. Casey, who said it would take about three weeks to clear the line. “ I wonder how many hats are retrieved by owners of properties beside the railway line ? ” mused a traveller on the Main Trunk express when another passenger lost his hat, wafted through an open window by a particularly fierce gust of wind. In the conversation that followed it appeared that the small group had actual knowledge of a dozen hats being similarly lost. j Officials of the Health Department at Auckland stated yesterday that it was very unlikely that the typhus epidemic, which the cables have recorded is raging in Europe, would reach New Zealand and no special precautions were necessary. The problem was very different from that in England where there was close contact with the infected Continent. The system of port inspection as carried out in New Zealand would detect any case that might conceivably be on a ship from an infected country. The utmost vigilance would be maintained.

An announcement that the terms of the contract for canned beef for the third year of the war has now been completed with the United Kingdom Government was made by the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. J. G. Barclay, at Wellington last night. The prices now offered by the United Kingdom, said the Minister, show an increase on last year’s contracts, and consequently it would be possible for canning works to pay a higher price for boneless cow beef. This would mean in turn that meat operators would be able to increase their schedule prices to producers.

“The public cannot expect a prewar railway service in wartime,” declared Mr T. L. Seddon, chairman of 6A Manpower Committee, at a sitting at Palmerston North on Monday, when suggesting to representatives of the Railway Department that there was room for a curtailment of the service to permit the release of men for the armed forces. Thirty-eight appeals were before the committee in respect to the Railway Department’s staff. The committee dismissed five appeals, all for junior porters. Mr Seddon added that in wartime the public had to put up with inconveniences and it would be an invidious distinction if the committee placed the department in a more favourable •position than a private employer. Numerous humorous incidents provided some good laughs for officers nd men of the Hastings Home Guard battalion who went into bivouac at the Tomoana show grounds. When it came to bed-time an odd one or two men produced their pyjamas, and had to withstand a barrage of good-humoured, but not alwavg complimentary, banter. A man who allowed a hot-W’ater bottle to drop from his kit-bag when he unpacked was not even given an opportunity to explain how it came to be there. It might have been placed there by his wife, either as a joke or as: an indication of her true interest in his welfare; but the man was at once howled down by his comrades while he hastily pushed the offending bottle back into the bag. Humour creeps jn rather unconsciously at the most unexpected times and places. When addressing the E.P.S. meeting at Te Awamutu yesterday morning, Mr C. J. Lovegrove, Controller of Evacuation in the city of Auckland, mentioned that he had addressed a most successful gathering at Putaruru, “but,” he added significantly, “it lasted as most farmers’ meetings do well into the early hours of the morning!” A merry tinkle went around the room among members not only of the local E.P.S., but also of the Te Awamutu Borough Council, all of whom have got accustomed to 11 o’clock meetings, not to mention that on two occasions at least the hour of termination of the august proceedings was nearly midnight! An extraordinary but true trait in the character of the people was mentioned by Mr C. J. Lovegrove, Controller of Evacuation at Auckland, when addressing the Te Awamutu E.P.S. yesterday morning. He said the Mayor of Cambridge (Mr Edgar James) had expressed surprise that when the canvass of that town was made, the poorest people were prepared to take the greatest number of evacuees. This, however, did not come ’s a surprise to him (Mr Lovegrove) as he had always found that those on the “bread and butter line” had got a better understanding of the needs of such people than those situated in more favourable circumstances. However, he should mention that one well-to-do-farmer in the Hamilton district had offered to accommodate sixteen evacuees and pay all expenses so that on both sides of the scale the people were exceedingly generous.