LOCAL AND GENERAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 68, Issue 5941, 10 May 1944, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Otorohanga Patriotic Parcels Otorohanga has been called on to pack 224 patriotic parcels in connection with the quarterly gift parcels scheme of the National Fund Board.

Kawhia Patriotic Parcels Patriotic workers at Kawhia have packed one hundred and eight patriotic parcels for distribution to men serving overseas. Brilliant Meteor

A particularly brilliant meteor was seen in the southern sky on Monday night at about 6.30 o’clock. The meteor described an arc in its swift flight across the sky, and made a striking sight. Land Sales Committee

The Land Sales Committee, consisting of Messrs N. A. Ching (chairman), J. J. Shallue, and H. O. Mellsop, with Mr J. B. Rowe as Crown representative, is sitting in Te Awamutu to-day. It is expected that the session will continue to-morrow.

Serious Decline in Dairy Cows Speaking at a meeting of Te Awamutu Primary Production Committee last week, the chairman (Mr A. 9. Wyllie), in stressing the urgency of the need to arrest the decline in the dairy cow population, said that there had been a decrease of 99,603 dairy cows in New Zealand since the 19401941 milking season. Patriotic Parcels Packed

The Town Hall presented a scene of pleasing activity this morning when the patriotic parcels sent overseas by Te Awamutu Patriotic Society were packed. Last week the eighty boxes that contain the parcels were made up at Te Awamutu District High School by the boys. Four hundred and eighteen parcels were packed, those doing the work being members of Te Awamutu Society, Kihikihi and Ohaupo branches-, assisted by the senior girls and boys of Te Awamutu High School. One hundred and eighty parcels will go to the Pacific and three hundred to the Middle East. Each parcel contains one handkerchief, one pair of socks, two packets chewing gum, one tin Andrews’ liver salts, one tin cake, one bottle aspirins, one tin barley sugar, one tin foot-powder, one tin coffee and milk, one tin green peas, one tooth-brush, and one packet of razor blades.

Bathurst Burr A resident of Pirongia brought into the Courier office on Monday a little known, fortunately, weed. It was later brought under the notice of Mr G. M. Wall, Noxious Weeds Inspector for the Waipa County Council, who identified it as Buthurst Burr (Xanthium Spinosum), a native of Australia. The weed, which has clinging propensities far greater than biddy bid, is one greatly feared in sheep country. The sample brought to Te Awamutu is believed to have grown as a result of the seed being carried on sheep that were grazed on the farm where it was discovered: The sheep came from the East Coast. This is only the second occasion that a plant of the weed has been submitted to Mr Wall, the other occasion being in May, 1937, when a plant was posted in from the Roto-o-Rangi district. The Bathurst Burr has been declared a noxious weed in the Waipa County. Remarks by Mr W. J. Broadfoot Strong exception is taken by Mr A. G. Osborne, Parliamentary Undersecretary to the Prime Minister, to a statement by Mr W. J. Broadfoot (Waitomo) at a National Party meeting in Auckland. Mr Broadfoot was reported to have said it would be a long time before the Labour Party lived down the incident relating to soldiers’ votes, said Mr Osborne, implying, of course, that the Government had been guilty of tampering with ballot papers to suit its own purpose. Mr Osborne pointed out that the whole question was under investigation by a Parliamentary select committee, on which the National Party had four representatives. This committee had not yet reported to the House, and it was a most extraordinary proceeding for a lawyer to imply some malpractice had been committed when the matter concerned was sub judice, and when the evidence might completely refute his suggestion.