Marching Championships

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 79, Issue 7103, 5 September 1949, Page 4

Marching Championships

The local marching girls’ association has received advice that the North Island marching championships are to be held in Auckland. The competitions will take place prior to the opening of the British Empire Games in February. The New 'Zealand championships are expected to be held in Christchurch and will be portion of the southern city’s Centennial celebrations.

Fewer Accidents The accident rate with firearms—--43, including 11 fatal—was the lowest last year since 1936, when such statistics were first compiled. This is stated by the Commissioner of Police, Mr James Cummings, in his report to Parliament. There has been a steady drop in the number of such accidents over the past 13 years. As usual, nearly every accident was due to a lack of proper care, or to a false sense of security when mechanism was unsafe.

Bounty for Goat Skins “If the young sportsmen in and around Hamilton knew that they could get 6s a skin we would soon notice a diminution in the number of goats,” commented a Raglan County Councillor when referring to the wild goat pest on Pirongia and Karioi mountain slopes. He added that the scenic and forests reserves were “out of bounds” to shooters, who were trespassers unless they first obtained permission from the controlling authorities, while owners of some of the domesticated goats nearer settlements would be apt to take punitive measures if they found the animals disturbed by intruding “sportsmen.”

Large Number Leave Dominion Persons coming to New Zealand over the last 10 years exceeded those leaving by an average of only 2748 a year, a conference on population at Wellington was told recently. Figures were set out by Mr A. Leigh Hunt, president of the Dominion Settlement and Population Association, which called the conference. In 1947-48 permanent arrivals were 9648, and permanent departures 5769, a net gain of 3879. While New Zealand had one ship of 15,000 tons specially engaged in transporting immigrants, Australia had 28 liners totalling 473,000 tons. In addition Australia expected to receive 100,000 displaced persons in the next year and a half. New Zealand’s yearly target .was about 5000, against 250,000 in Australia.