LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 65, Issue 5527, 21 September 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

In an article entitled '■ Why Wc Shall Win,” appearing in Friday’s Courier, the following sentence occurred: “The German Waterloo wil be on the old plains of China.” This was an error, the correct reference being to the plains of Russia. A decision has been reached by the Hairini Soldiers’ Welfare Committee to have a roll of honour hung in the Hall as soon as sufficient funds arc forthcoming to meet the cost. The roll will consist of the names of men from three wars—South African. Great and the present one. The No. 1 Armed Forces Appeal Board is to hear a number of appeals in Te Awamutu on Thursday. The No. 2 Armed Forces Appeal Board has several fixtures for next week, including Cambridge on Monday, Ngaruawahia and Huntly on Tuesday, Te Awamutu on Wednesday, and Hamilton on Thursday. “The fact that you are declared an essential industry does not mean that your employees have no obligations so far as the military point of view is concerned,” said Mr Hayward, when dealing with an appeal lodged by a lime company at a sitting of the Appeal Board in Te Kuiti on Wedneday. Sydney papers announce that Archdeacon Dr. Gilroy has rceived permission of His Holiness the Pope to announce a dispensation to Australian Catholics to eat meat on Fridays. This dispensation is said to have been made on account of the shortage of certain foodstuffs, and the scarcity and exorbitant price of fish. Revenue earned by the Te Awamutu Electric Power Board from the sales of current for June and July, was as follows, figures for June being given first:—Lighting, heating and cooking, £2309 10s lOd, £2411 Os lid; power. £930 3s 2d, £1027; penalties and sundries, £49 10s sd, £3O 17s 6d; street lighting. £l2 16s 9d, £l5; totals £3302 Is 2d, £3483 18s sd. Last year total revenue for rhe corresponding months' was £3654 18s 2d and £3518 2s 4d. “I should say that if they start running railways again in New Zealand they will be too busy to think of beautifying the station, while if the trains do not recommence there will be no necessity for this work,” commented the honorary secretary of the Morrinsville Beautifying Society, Mr A. G. Strahan, amid laughter, when members of that body met last week. There was little other comment, and the discussion lapsed. Cricket clubs in most Dominion centres are having considerable difficulty in finding enough members to fill official positions, according to reports made to the suburban associations. Most members are working long hours, and in addition to home ties they have responsibilities in civilian war services. “We have appointed two secretaries and a stand-by,” said one delegate, commenting' on the uncertain position of his club through members waiting to be called up. “The nerve of them!” The comment was that of an elderly man, one of a group which stood watching a girl driver coaxing her five-ton truck backward into a cart-dock in Wellington. It was a G.P.O. van, piled high with mail-bags, which gave the load a spread beyond the breadth of the lorry, making it all the more difficult for the driver to see. There was only a foot to spare on either side of the load, but the young woman, leaning far out from the driver’s seat, backed the truck into the dock with the skill of a veteran. Small catches of whitebait continue to be made at the mouth of the Hokitika river,* the high tides of last week

tending to make them more plentiful. Whitebait should start to run consistently after the first spring flush in the river. The riverbed is very clean and favourable for whitebait fishing this season. There have been isolated catches of a pint and less at Greymouth and in the Taramakau river, but the snap is against any early improvement. Limited supplies were available in restaurants and hotels at Westport during the weekend, but as much as 5s and even 10s was being paid for a pint. The level of water in wells throughout the Hutt Valley has dropped by about 12 inches as a result of the earthquake, said the engineer of the Hutt City Council, Mr Bach, at the meeting of the council. He understood that there had been a similar drop in the level of wells in Wellington. It was not expected that’ this would cause any difficulty at the Seaview Road pumping station, but at the other stations it might be found necessary to reduce slightly the quantity of water drawn off. A considerable number of leaks in water mains and house services had also been caused by the earthquake, at least 20 of them being in the mains. A tribute to the fighting qualities of the New Zealand Division in the Middle East was paid by the Mayor of Oamaru (Mr J. C. Kirkness), speaking at an entertainment for soldiers. “It has been said of the men of the New Zealand Division that they arethe finest body of troops in the world,” said Mr Kirkness, “and in the present fighting in the Western Desert no one can read without a thrill of pride the reports of the achievements of the New Zealanders. They were brought in at a critical time, and if they did not save the Bth Army from defeat they certainly played a major part in the halting of the Axis forces.” Hanging in the Kensington Drill Hall, Dunedin, at the beginning of last week, was a large camouflage net, measuring approximately 24ft. by 18ft., made entirely of green flax. Raw flax has been put to many uses in the past, generally with satisfactory results, and, with the present limited output of all kinds of twines and ropes, it was perhaps only to be expected that experiments would be made with flax in the making of camouflage nets. As completed, the net appears perfectly satisfactory, though lacking much of the even finish of the more familiar rope or twine weavings. It will remain hanging for a few days in order to observe the extent of shrinkage which is certain to ensue.