Local and General News

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21062, 14 June 1938, Page 6

Local and General News

Minor Outbreak of Fire The Timaru Fire Brigade answered a call to a minor fire in Stafford Street at mid-day yesterday, and had the outbreak suppressed in about a minute, no substantial damage being done. The lire was in the rooms occupied by the Simpson Duplicating Service, above Porter’s china shop. Only a partition wall was scorched by the flames. Friendly VVeka A strange pet has been acquired by a party of workmen engaged by the Hawke's Bay County Council in road metalling at Crownthorpe. The pet is a weka, a bird which in its natural state is usually very difficult to tame. The bird which has become used to the men, is most friendly, and even the blasting operations fail to scare it away. “No Unemployment’’ ‘•The Minister of Labour tells us that we have no unemployment, and therefore I don't see why we should put money aside for that purpose," Mr C. V. Kirke stated at a special meeting of the Mackenzie County Council yesterday, when estimates were under consideration. The amount appearing cn the estimates was £lOO, and the engineer clerk (Mr D. Jeune) intimated that the Council would have to pay 13 4 a man a week. It was decided to find work for men if the Government paid the full cost. Covers For Mackenzie Sheep Mr J. Allan, of Bendrose Station, Mackenzie Country, is covering 450 ewe hoggets this year as an experiment to protect wool and save the constitution of the sheep. He told a representative of “The Timaru Herald’* at Fairlie yesterday that he had already put covers on 420 hoggets, and the idea was working satisfactorily. The covers were made of jute, and cost 2/- each. It was intended to leave them on until shearing time. The idea of covering sheep has come from Australia, where it is used extensively. “Favouritism” After many requests, the Government had only offered a subsidy of £3 a week for unemployed men engaged on the proposed water supply and sewerage scheme at Fairlie, the county engineer-clerk (Mr D. Jeune) intimated at a special meeting of the Mackenzie County Council yesterday. There appeared to be a certain amount of favouritism, because Kaiapoi had been asked to start a similar scheme and was offered a subsidy of £4 a week. What the Government did for one town, he added, it should do for another. Pushing the Port ‘‘lt is surprising how many people in the back country of Taranaki think that cargo is still landed by lighters at New Plymouth,’’ said a member of the council of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce at a meeting last week. He said he was amazed to find the idea still persisted when he went through certain parts of the country not so long ago. He tried to get the Harbour Board to share the cost of distributing some photos showing the landing and loading of produce at the port, but was unsuccessful. He took the matter into his own hands and secured ten good photographs and had them placed in various centres where he thought they would effectually dispel the mistaken idea. Back-Country Pests “You have a far greater menace back there, and you don't realise it; that is the chamois and the thar,” Mr P. Kidd stated at the special Mackenzie County Council meeting yesterday, when a subsidy for the destruction of keas was under consideration. He maintained that people should not be taught to rely so much on local body and Government assistance. “Are you going to say that you are not going to kill keas unless you get a subsidy?” he asked. During the discussion, it was pointed out that the Government would not pay a subsidy of 2/6 for kea destruction unless the local body concerned paid a similar amount. It was decided to allocate £l5 for the purpose. Breaking and Entering Forty-three charges of breaking and entering, 29 of them relating to houses and the remainder to business premises, were admitted by Francis Henry Gormon Guilford in the Magistrate’s Court, Christchurch, yesterday. Two other charges were admitted by Guilford, one relating to an escape from Paparua Prison on May 2 and the other to the theft of £23 in money and a gold watch valued at £B. The breaking and entering charges ranged from September 3, 1937, to May 5 this year, and in all 56 witnesses were called by the police. The approximate value of the goods and money was £450. Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M., was on the Bench. Guilford was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Order of St. John At an investiture at Government House, Auckland, a number of officers of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem received their insignia at the hands of the Governor-General, Lord Galway, as follows: Promotion to grade of commander (posthumous award), late Dr. Neil McDougall (from officer); admission in grade of commander, Sir Henry Horton; promotion to grade of officer, Ughtred Hitchon (from serving brother) and S. E. Langstone (from serving brother); admissions in grade of serving brother, Messrs Frank Crossley Mapin, Thomas Alexander Low, Canon R. G. Coats as assistant chaplain, and Dr. W. R. Lawrence (Te Aroha); admissions in grade of serving sisters, Mrs Jane Mackay and Miss Florence Fox. A Record Output “With the shipping of 153,000 tons of phosphate last month from Nauru and Ocean Islands, the previous monthly record was easily exceeded,” said Sir Albert Ellis, New Zealand Commissioner on the British Phosphate Commission. Sir Albert estimated that for the year ending June 30 a record total of 1,200,000 tons would be exported. More than 80 per cent, of the phosphate is imported into Australia and New Zealand, said Sir Albert, and there was every prospect that the amounts would continue to increase. More than 1,000,000 tons were exported from the islands for the year ending June 30, 1937, an output which surpassed the previous annual record by 140,000 tons. “Dominion imports for the current year have exceeded 300,000 tons,” he continued, “and Australia has taken nearly three times as much. New machinery was installed at Nauru last year to facilitate the production and export of phosphate. The demand had continued to increase to such an extent that it had been decided to make a further material increase to the plant at Nauru.”