LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4529, 28 January 1942, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Monday, January 19, marked the beginning of the Mohammedan year 1361. The starting point of the Mohammedan chronology is the flight from Mecca to Medina of the Prophet, but the calendar is a complicated one in that lunar as well as solar reckoning is used, hence the Mohammedan year does not always contain the same number of days.

“I realise that the war situation is increasingly serious, and I now wish to withdraw my appeal, which was based on undue hardship. I have joined the National Military Reserve and go to camp almost at once,” said an appellant, a Hamilton business man, at a sitting of the Manpower Committee. The application was granted. >

With a continuance of fine warm weather, fish are making a welcome re-appearance and increasing in numbers in Kawhia harbour and environments. The sea has been like glass lately and Mr George Hart has been enabled to make a trip out to Garnet Island, which resulted in a very valuable haul, the catch including a number of the much-prized hapuka.

The second of a series of talks on “Social Justice,” given by the Rev. Matthew Calder, curate of St. John’s Church, Te Awamutu, will be heard from all Z.B. stations on Sunday next, February Ist, at 6 p.m. Unfortunately Mr Calder is confined to bed in Auckland with rheumatic fever, but his talk has been recorded by an Auckland firm, and this recording will be heard during the session mentioned.

A Hamilton businessman told the Manpower Committee at its sitting yesterday that he was arranging his business affairs to enable him to render war service. The Committee deferred his order to report to camp until February 20, to allow him to complete his business affairs. In reply to a question, the reservist was told that, though he was called to the Territorial Forces, his service would probably be “for the duration of the war,” an indefinite period. During the hearing of a barrister’s

representations on behalf of a reservist seeking exemption from military training, members of the Area No. 7 Manpower Committee were informed in Napier recently that appellant was totally blind in one eye and consequently unsuitable for Army service. After this submission had been corroborated by a witness, the chairman (Mr G. A. Maddison) remarked: “In one eye? So is General Wavell.”

When giving evidence before the Manpower Committee at its sitting at Hamilton yesterday, an appellant, a farmer, said his two brothers were also farming. A member of the Committee commented that it was necessary to obtain men for the Armed Forces and the burden must be evenly distributed. Members of appellant’s family all owned land, and it was not right to expect other people to fight alone for its protection.

A sharemilker, living nine miles from Hamilton, appealed to the Manpower Committee at its sitting yesterday, for exemption from military training. The Committee, however, pointed out appellant was one of five brothers, and seemed to be the one who could best serve his country in the fighting forces. Arrangements could be made for one of the married brothers to take over the herd, a comparatively small one. The Committee will further consider the appeal on Friday next.

At this morning’s sitting in Te Awamutu of the Man-power Committee a young man, engaged in a afrming ocyoung man, engaged in a farming octorial service, a sine die adjournment being granted. Thereupon the man offered to go into camp for two months’ training. The Committee replied that it would be impossible to grant the request, as a man going in now went there for the duration. If the man went into camp even for two months, it would then be necessary to appeal to get him out to resume his farm work.

The Napier Borough Council has decided to enter a strong protest because 100 gallons of benzine were being used in one military camp each week for cooking arrangements alone. A member said that the people had been told by an eminent authority that benzine was more precious than gold, ancT wastage was going on in face of an offer by the gas company to install a cooking plant at five per cent per annum on the capital cost plus the cost of gas. Another member considered that unnecessary wastage of petrol was occurring, apart from the danger which might threaten adjacent buildings.

Despite the fact that supplies of petrol for private cars have been severely restricted there are still some motorists who appear to have no realisation of the urgency of preserving whatever meagre supplies they have, remarks the “Morrinsville Star.” On Friday afternoon a saloon car bearing a Morrinsville registration number was left with the engine running for five minutes in Thames Street while the driver visited a nearby store. This action may possibly have been mere thoughtlessness, but when the driver returned he sat in his car for about 10 minutes, still with the engine running, and chatted with a couple of lady friends. The amount of petrol thus wasted might easily have enabled a small car to make a return trip to Kereone and back to Morrinsville.

“I feel that I should tell you something about myself,” said Mr D. C. Davie, Independent’ Monetary Reform candidate for Temuka, at his opening meeting at Temuka on Saturday evening, “in view of the fact that my opponent, Mr J. Acland, is a popular young man, and it is well known in the district that he has come from fine pioneering stock. In the range of snow-capped ranges which overlook the Canterbury plains there is a Mount Davie. That was named after my father’s father, Cyrus Davie, Then jn the northern part of this electorate there is a district called Greenstreet. It is named after Charles Hawkins Greenstreet, who was my mother’s father. Because of that I can say that I am running neck-and-neck with my opponent in ‘the grandfather stakes.’ ” Mr Davie will be remembered locally, having lectured throughout the Waikato in the interests of the Douglas Social Credit movement.