Local and General News

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21959, 10 May 1941, Page 6

Local and General News

40 Years’ Service After 40 years’ service as a member of the Raglan County Council, Mr A. CohoUrne, of Port Waikato, is retiring. He will not be a candidate at the elections next week. Football and Service A new condition governing eligibility for play In the senior grade of the Matamata Rugby SUb-ufilon’s competitions has been imposed as a war measure. The annual meeting of the Union decided that senior players must be members of the Home Guard, the E.P.S., the Territorials, or a similar allied organisation. Court Crier’s Mistake The solemnity of Supreme Court proceedings was interrupted during a trial in Wellington when the clerk of the Court suddenly cried out: “Will you remove your hat, please.” There were several chuckles from members of the public when someone at the back of the Court shouted: “It’s a lady.” Boy Injured T. Wong, Stafford Street, a pupil of the Timaru Main School, suffered concussion when he fell from a cycle at the corner of North Street and Cralgle Avenue about mid-day yesterday. He was Conveyed by ambulance to the Public Hospital, where his condition last night was described as satisfactory. It is understood that he was double-banking another boy on the cycle. Sunny Timaru That "Sunny Timaru” is no empty slogan has an enthusiastic witness in Miss M. G. Havelaar, president of the National Council of Women, Christchurch, who addressed the annual meeting of the South Canterbury branch yesterday. “When I left Christchurch this morning there was a thick fog,” she said. “Here in Timaru it is a summer’s day. It is always the same when I come to Timaru.” Church Army Work Surprise at the number of young people who were willing to give their services to the Church Army was expressed by Captain S. R. Banyard, director of the Church Army in New Zealand, in an address to the Council of Christian Congregations in Auckland recently. Captain Banyard said that, though the Church Army was a young body in New Zealand, having been formed about five and a half years ago, there was already a staff of 45 hi various parts of the Dominion. Hidden Hoard Found While working among the ruins of a row of houses after a raid on a town in the west of England, six members of a rescue party discovered what is believed to be a miser’s hoard. They recovered £6OO in Treasury notes and nearly £2OOO in share certificates. The damage to the houses was so great that there was no indication exactly where the hoard was hidden. It is believed the owner was a man who lost his life in the raid and who for many years posed as penniless. London Sangfroid “We get constant daylight raids from Nazi planes in singles and pairs,” writes a Londoner to a friend in Auckland. “Last Friday a raider came over Regent street. The guns in Hyde Park got into action, and shells were bursting all round us. I was looking out of our office window, and although this schimozzle was going on overhead I could see the people in the street below walking about and stopping to look in shop windows as though nothing was happening. The indifference of the people to daylight raids is amazing. Realism Fear of invaders is apparently stronger in the young New Zealander than is generally realised. On a recent Sunday a member of the Home Guard was advancing with rifle, across Ashbury Park, while on manoeuvres. “What are you doing with the gun?" asked a child leaning on a bicycle. “The enemy’s over there,” replied the guardsman. The child leaped on the cycle and disappeared in a cloud of dust. According to later reports he arrived home and breathlessly told his mother the dramatic news of the arrival of “the enemy.” Not Favoured When asked if he would recommend the Government to make advance payments of 15 per cent of value of dairy produce after 42 days in store, the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. J. G. Barclay, told the South Auckland Daffy Association, Hamilton that he was not prepared to do so. The Minister said the industry had had no difficulty in getting finance at present through the ordinary channels. Guarantees to-day were impossible, in view of the world situation, but if the produce was not shipped the Government would come to the aid of the industry. Its policy was to maintain a reasonable standard of living for everybody. Conscientious Home Guardsmen In the far north people are enthusiastic about their Home Guard. The small township of Awahui, estuary port of Kaltaia, boasts 200 guardsmen. Many of these are Maoris, and though some live 30 miles from headquarters they rarely miss a parade, riding on horseback over clay tracks and along beaches of Doubtless Bay to carry out their training. An Auckland visitor to the native settlement of Whatuwhiwhi, near the northern end of Doubtless Bay, was surprised early one morning to see a Maori guardsman marching by himself on a lonely beach with a baton as a rifle. He shouted vigorously orders at himself, not omitting a few terse epithets when he failed to carry them Out to his own satisfaction. Magistrate Retires Tributes to Mr W. R. McKean, who retired from the position of senior stipendiary magistrate in Auckland last week, were paid at a farewell gathering of members of the Auckland Magistrate’s Court staff this week. Mr McKean has had 21 years’ service on the Bench in Auckland. Mr F. H. Levien, who is acting as senior magistrate, said Mr McKean had fulfilled the oath to administer justice without fear or favour. Mr J. Morling, S.M., referred to the courtesy and kindness with which Mr McKean had treated the staff. Mr McKean, who received from his fellowmagistrates and the staff a standard lamp, said he did not recall an occasion in all his years of service on which a trust in his staff had been misplaced.