Local and General News

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21560, 24 January 1940, Page 6

Local and General News

Skirl of the Pipes “Do you know that there are people who go there who actually do not like pipe music?” said Mr S. F. Hanson at a meeting of the Caledonian Society last night, when complaints were mentioned that the piping was staged too near the stand during the annual sports. “I love it myself,” he added, as he glanced at the incredulous smiles of his fellow members. Three More Recruits Three more South Canterbury recruits for the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force registered at the Timaru Recruiting Office yesterday, bringing the total for the district to 534. The men enlisting were: Patrick Maurice James Martin, Hook; Anthony Michael Quill, Fairlie; James McNab. Pleasant Point. A Medical Board will sit to-morrow when about 20 recruits will be examined. Labour Shortage The facts of the following story are vouched for by a Hastings orchardist. Needing a man for a fortnight’s peach picking, he advertised, and subsequently was approached by an elderly man inquiring concerning wages and conditions. The applicant revealed that he was drawing a social security payment of £3/10/- a week. This he would have to forego if he began work for the fruitgrower, for which he would be paid £4 a week. The man spent some time considering the pros and cons of working and improving his financial condition to the extent of 10/- a week. Finally he decided that he was better situated drawing his present income, and he regretfully informed the orchardist that he would not take the job. Modern Pioneers A family migration from the King Country to a block of virgin country near Whangaroa formed a striking procession along the main Northland Road. Mr and Mrs T. J. Smith and their seven children, the eldest of whom is 10, arrived at Whangarei on Sunday. The woman and youngest children rode in an ancient buggy drawn by two horses and containing all the family’s worldly possessions. The father and the three eldest children were on foot, driving two cows, three calves, and two goats. The purchase price of the farm took all the Smith’s money. They avoided motor camps on the journey, and pitched a tent and boiled the billy by the wayside. The party left Kawhia on December 5. Liner Carries Scars One of the first victims of Nazi attacks on merchant ships, an 11,000-ton motor-ship has arrived in Wellington, bearing scars where machine-gun bullets struck her. She was attacked off the English coast on December 17 by Heinkel bombers, which dropped five bombs and then raked the decks -with machinegun fire. No hits were registered with bombs, but the second radio operator, who left the wireless office to see what was happening, was killed by a bullet from a machine-gun. The ship’s funnel was struck by two bullets, three or four hit the bridge, a pane of glass in the look-out position on the starboard side has a neat hole drilled through it, and others entered the saloon. Asked how he felt while the ship was under fire, a member of the crew said: It happened so quickly that we hadn’t time to think about it until afterwards.” Political Broadcasts “I do not know to what extent it comes within the province of the Chamber of Commerce to express an opinion upon such matters, but I feel that it is time that some form of public protest was made against the action of the Prime Minister in making use of all the main broadcasting stations to deliver political addresses on Sabbath evenings,” said Mr F. N. Christian, at a meeting of the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce. “If a Chinese works in his garden on Sunday he is fined,” continued the speaker. “Yet the Prime Minister, last Sunday evening, was permitted to use the services of the staffs of seven or eight of the main stations in the Dominion in order that he should put over a purely political address in a national broadcast.” Mr Christian then gave notice that he would move at the next meeting of the chamber that a protest be sent to the Prime Minister against the broadcasting of political speeches on the Sabbath Day.

Oil Boring Plant An announcement that oil-boring equipment valued at nearly £lOO,OOO would arrive in New Zealand in April for use on the west coast of the North Island, possibly in Taranaki, was made by Mr C. M. La Mar, an oil-boring expert, who arrived from San Francisco by the Monterey last week. Mr La Mar said the company with which he was connected had the plant at present on order. Its drilling capacity would extend to 15,000 ft. Also travelling by the Monterey was Mr C St. J. Bremner, a geologist for the Standard Oil Company, who is proceeding to the East, with calls at Dutch New Guinea and Burma. He said that United States supplies of oil were not being materially affected by the war, as the belligerents were obtaining huge quantities in Europe, Ash and Venezuela. The opinion was held in United States military circles, said Mr Bremner, that Germany, a large pre-war importer of aviation petrol, would become increasingly short of supplies as hostilities progressed. “Turf Adviser” “This man Is a professional tipster, one of a type that racing clubs and the police are desirous of keeping off the courses,” said Detective-Sergeant McHugh, when William Patrick Neary was charged in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court before Mr J. Morling, S.M., with trespassing on a racecourse when he was a prohibited person convicted of theft. Accused was found on the Ellerslie racecourse on January 2. Mr McHugh continued, and was very abusive and cheeky when he was asked to leave the course. He went back three times. The last time accused was in Court, in 1923, he was fined £2O, after which he went to Australia. Accused, who pleaded guilty, claimed that he was a professional turf adviser, not an ordinary tipster. The horses he mentioned always had a fair chance to win. The racing club, he said, had allowed enlisted men to enter the course free. He had enlisted, although he had not yet been called up. Out of 106,000 people who paid for admission to the races, accused concluded, he was the only one persecuted, and that after an absence of 20 years from the country. Accused was fined £l5.