LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5603, 9 April 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Working Bee Arranged Scoutmaster D. Rogers advises all Scouts that a working bee will be held at the camp site on Mr J. T. Young’s farm to-morrow (Saturday) afternoon, transport leaving Te Awamutu about 2 p.m. All helpers will be welcome.

“Loitering in the Pacific” Visiting servicemen did not escape the attention of the mock court which was held in Christchurch on Friday to raise funds for candidates in the “Miss Victory” contest. A member of the United States Marine Corps who was brought before the court was convicted and fined 10s on a charge of “loitering in the Pacific.”

Croquet Club Members of the Te Awamutu Croquet Club journeyed to Te Kuiti on Wednesday as challengers for the New Zealand Croquet Council’s King Country Cup held by the Taumarunui Club. To enable the.matches to be played the Te Kuiti Club kindly placed its lawns at the disposal visiting teams. After a very pleasant day’s play the Taumarunui Club retained the cup by 85 points to 71 points. Soldier’s Travels

To have travelled 11,000 miles during leave periods between campaigns, visiting most countries in the Middle East, has be£n the experience of Signalman A. S. Helm, Riverton, whose latest excursion included wanderings through Persia to Russia. In the Caucasus he met business-like Russian soldiers, who saw a NevF Zealander for the first time. At Ispahan he met Musavvir, the foremost Persian miniature artist, who was taken to England at the time of the jubilee to do work for the King and Queen. In his wanderings through six countries on this occasion, Signalman Helm covered 4000 miles at a total cost of £27. Pay of Australian Soldiers “The common soldier is bearing on his shoulders the destiny of Australia, but the national ‘reward’ is to apportion him the poorest pay among all classes directly employed in the war effort,” states a leading article in Reveille, the official journal of the New South Wales Returned Soldiers’ League. “There was relatively few among our stay-at-homes, in positions from the highest to the lowest, who would willingly exchange their lot for that of the common soldier who is defending our frontiers.” The writer -of the article alleges that many Australian civilians have “manoeuvred” themselves into positions in essential industries to evade mobilisation. “If we had a tribunal of front-line war

veterans,” he adds, “to appraise what a soldier is worth, in comparison with what he is getting, the soldier would come into his just due.”