Local and General News

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21735, 17 August 1940, Page 6

Local and General News

Another £lO,OOO War Loan The North Island Motor Union has mane a substantial contribution to the war effort in the form of a £lO,OOO interest-free loan for the duration of the war and six months thereafter, states a Press Association message from Wellington. Gifts to Museum The ethnological section of the Auckland War Memorial Museum has received several interesting articles. A fine Maori ko, or digging stick, has been given by Mr F. A. Luke, Clevedon. Mr W. E. Browne. Piha. has deposited the point for a bird spear fashioned from a stingray barb. It was found at Piha. A rough Maori kilt made from the leaves of a cabbage tree has been presented by Mr B. Biggs, New Lynn. Another gift, a dancing mask decorated with cockatoo and cassowary feathers, comes from New Britain, and Mr P. B. Armitage is the donor. Good Farming Conditions “Ideal conditions have prevailed throughout the winter and farmers generally have good cause to be thankful for the mildest winter for many years,” stated the president (Mr A. J. Davey) in his report to the monthly meeting of the South Canterbury Executive of the Farmers’ Union. Farm work is well advanced, land is in excellent condition for working, spring is in the air and, given a few showers, there should soon be a good growth in both pastures and crops. It is hoped that, in the interests of production, the coming season will be a good one. ss every ounce that can be produced will be needed.” Volunteer Badges The distribution of volunteer badges to men in the Auckland area who registered for service with the Expeditionary Force, but were rejected on medical grounds, has progressed to the point where the first supply of 1000 badges has been exhausted. More men in this category have still to receive their badges, and additional supplies are being obtained. Later a start will be made with those who actually entered camp but were discharged from there for medical reasons. Badges also will be given to volunteers who have been retained in civilian employment by the manpower committee. Record Whaling Season With 106 whales captured, and every likelihood of the migration continuing till the end of the month, the Tory Channel whalers have had the best season recorded in their annals of more than 100 years. The best previously recorded was last year, when 81 whales were taken. This year they have killed an unusually large number in enclosed waters, 11 in all in the channel or in Queen Charlotte Sound. The number of whales sighted has diminished in the past few days. This may indicate that the migration is drawing to an end, but on the other hand it may be merely a chance gap in the ranks of the great seasonal procession of the humpbacks. Dismantling the Port Bowen A large area fenced off and liberally posted with signs declaring that it is a prohibited area indicates to visitors to Castlecliff Beach that they are not permitted near the work of dismantling and cutting up the wrecked Port Bowen. More huts have been provided for some of the men permanently employed on the work. These keep watch at night on material brought ashore. Two gaping holes have been cut in the side of the Port Bowen, and to these holes a ramp is being extended in the form of a letter Y. The ramp will lead right up to the vessel, and small trucks will run into the steamer to bring heavy material ashore. A railway being laid along the foreshore will run to the shore end of the ramp, where the iron and steel will be reloaded into the railway trucks to be hauled away by a locomotive. South Island Daffodil Show Arrangements for the fourteenth annual South Island Show conducted by the National Daffodil Society of New Zealand, to be held in conjunction with the Spring Show at Caroline Bay Hall on October 1 and 2, were advanced at a largely attended meeting of the Management Committee of the Timaru Horticultural Society last night. The chairman of committees, Mr G. E. Knowles, presided. Mr W. J. Foote was appointed the Society’s delegate to the Queen Carnival Patriotic Executive Committee. In connection with the proposal to provide morning and afternoon tea at the National Daffodil Show as a means of raising funds for the queen carnival patriotic effort, Messrs D. B. Shand, G. E. Knowles, W. J. Foote, R. J. Weir and W. J. Hogg, were appointed a sub-committee to make the necessary arrangements. “Neutral” Christians Commenting on a statement by the Bishop of London, that the people of England were less Christian than the people of Uganda, the Ven. Archdeacon H. W. Monaghan, of Timaru, speaking at the Anglican Board of Missions rally in Wellington this week, said he did not agree with the view of T. S. Eliot, that the people were “neutral.” That was the trouble with secularised democracies—the people, in a Christian sense, were neutral. Being neutral in peacetime was different from being neutral in war. Were the people still going to continue that state of neutrality? The King, the British Prime Minister, and Lord Halifax had all spoken to the nation as a Christian nation, and to-day the Church must be ready to go forward in the new world, to seize the opportunity or lose it for ever—history did not make faith in God, but faith in God made history. How Are the Mighty Fallen “In 1812 Napoleon dominated Europe, and in his campaign against Russia 170,000 soldiers, drawn from countries outside France, were included in his grand armies,” said Mr J. T Martin at a meeting of the English-speaking Union in Wellington. “It seemed incredible at that time that this great military genius, who had for years dominated Europe, could ever be defeated and his vast dominions wrested from him and restored to their rightful owners. The defeat of the Spaniards in Andalusia, the retreat from Moscow, and Waterloo sealed Napoleon’s fate and the hegemony of Europe. History again proved that attempts to subdue smaller nations of different race, successful as they might be through force and strength of armaments, are doomed to inevitable failure. Just as surely as Napoleon was defeated in 1812, so will Hitler be before this war ceases.”