LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 65, Issue 5502, 24 July 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

There was a good attendance of ladies at the Kihikihi Town Hall last night, when a papier mache class was commenced. It has been planned to hold these classes weekly on Thursday evenings.

The National Savings Pennent was flown in Te Awamutu yesterday, the district quota of £483 having been oversubscribed. Up to last night deposits and the sale of bonds totalled £554 10s 4d,

A pohutukawa tree in Park Road, Miramar, is in full bloom. Whether it is last season’s flowering rather late, or the new season’s flowering rather early, is a question. The pohutukawa normally blooms in December or January.

There was only a slight frost in Te Awamutu yesterday morning, four degrees being recorded. The rainfall for the 24 hours ending at 9 o’clock this morning was .04 inches. A wide halo readily noticeable encircling the moon last night is generally accepted as a sign of near rain.

Reporting to yesterday’s meeting, Mr C. J. Flay, secretary of the Te Awamutu Farmers’ Union, said that the stock inspector (Mr R. G. Bonner) had now moved to a house fitted with a telephone and the Post and Telegraph Department has advised that the ’phone would remain.

By promptly solving a difficult problem confronting a transport operatoi on the West Coast recently a bystander earned £1 and the gratitude of the driver. A truck piled high with its heavy contents failed to clear the superstructure of a traffic bridge by two inches. The suggestion made by the bystander was that the air in the tyres of the truck be let down to a little more than the two inches.

A youthful runner of the Christchurch Press at Greymouth has found a cheap but excellent substitute for the rubber bands that had previously kept his papers in a compact roll. With his friends, who have adopted his idea, he saves the outside of used cigarette packets, which normally find their way into gutters, rubbish tins, and fireplaces, and after cutting the packets into five strips crosswise, quickly ties his papers with the strips.

Ruling that if a youth was old enough to drive a car he was old enough to answer in the open Court any charges concerning his driving, Mr J. L. S.M., recently refused an application in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, that three charges against a youth should be dealt with in the Children’s Court. Mr Stout said that such cases were in a different category from those which might be dealt with by placing the offender under some form of supervision.

The authorities are reported to have at present under consideration an invention by Warrant Officer H. Sutton, of the Invercargill Army staff, consisting of a device called the “sub-prac-tice cartridge,” which is in itself a cartridge containing mechanical parts. According to a local description, it can be fired all day when once it has been placed into the breach of a service rifle. Each time the trigger is pressed it makes a record of the firer’s personal efforts on a target at short ranges. It can be used indoors as well as outside.

Reclaimed or made ground is accounted particularly vulnerable to earthquake disturbance. The reason, according to engineers, is that the period of settling is practically indefinite; Some fillings in Wellington—places where gullies have been filled in by decapitating the hills on either side—have been settling for over 20 years, and they are not quite stable yetWhen a great mass of earth is tumbled loosely into a hollow, without any attempt at compacting it by weight, the process of • solidification must necessarily be lengthy.

The Wellington Metropolitan Patriotic Committee has willing teams of good knitters whose needles are never idle. So far the committee, through its busy helpers, has been able to distribute large quantities of woollen comforts to the troops in camp. The Central Command has received 8636 balaclavas, 14,519 scarves, 4500 mittens, 891 pairs of sox, and 394 caps; a large camp has received 1533 mittens, 204 balaclavas, and 201 caps, and a camp further north has been supplied with 17,000 sets of scarves, mittens, and balaclavas.

In the remote possibility of a gas attack Wellington will be prepared. The decontamination centre, the establishment of which was made public some time ago, is ready for use. Expert opinion has been given that an enemy gas attack is unlikely but the authorities are leaving nothing to chance. For instance, the mayor, Mr T. C. A. Hislop, said yesterday that gas masks had already been made available to fire-fighting personnel and others in the E.P.S. organization. He expected that about 20,000 masks would be distributed to Wellington householders living in the more congested areas before very long.

On Saturday afternoon last Scoutmaster D. Rogers and Cubmaster M. H. Allen paid a visit to Kihikihi in connection with the establishment there of a Scout group. Despite the most unsatisfactory state of the weather, eight boys attended at the Town Hall and showed great interest and enthusiasm in an address on the purpose and meaning of scouting- A second visit is to be paid to-morrow afternoon, when it is hoped that a larger gathering will become the first move towards the recruiting of several patrols at Kihikihi. This should be possible with the inclusion of lads from eight to 11, who may join as cubs.

Suggested ways in which manufacturers might unite in helping to establish “the new order” are contained in the June number of Industrial News issued by the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association. The suggestions are: Employer-employee co-opera-tion; the raising of standards of living by greater efficiency in factories, producing better goods at lower prices; the abolition of “synthetic class _ prejudice”; the improvement of factory conditions until all reached the level of the really good conditions already in many factories; and a full investigation of co-operative ownership, with emphasis on responsibility.