LOCAL AND GENERAL

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22214, 6 March 1942, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Cycling Without Lights For cycling at night without lights, Jean Noline Ramsay and Keith White, in the Timaru Magistrate’s Court yesterday, were each fined 10/-, with costs 10/-. Quick Response When the Napier Post Office opened last Saturday morning £197 was required to fly the National Savings flag. In response to an appeal by the chairman of the National Savings Committee five citizens provided the money to permit the flag to be flown for the seventh consecutive week. Bequest to Salvation Army By the will of the late Mr George Gladding, company director, £3OO has been left to the divisional commander of the Salvation Army in Auckland to be devoted to the reduction of the mortgage owing on the Congress Hall in Grey’s Avenue. Mr Gladding died on February 7, leaving an estate 'hat has been valued at under £5OOO. “Remember the Fighting Men” “Remember the Fighting Men” is the slogan of the 1942 “Win the War” Appeal in which Canterbury hopes to raise £250,000, said the Mayor of Geraldine (Mr D. C. McKechnie) at a conference of patriotic chairmen in the Geraldine-Temuka zone. The fighting men were carrying the heaviest end of the stick, he said, and, even if the appeal meant hard work and personal sacrifice for collectors and organisers, he knew that the people of the zone would give both their time and money ungrudgingly. Ex-Servicemen as Reservists Since the Auckland District Manpower Committee began hearing the appeals of married men without children several cases of returned soldiers from the last war have come forward. A number of the men were still well within the military age and admitted to the committee that they saw service in 1914-18 by misleading the authorities with regard to their ages. In several cases the appellants merely sought a postponement of entry into camp and were quite prepared to serve again. Example of Greeks The opinion that the private people of the Dominion should make more active preparations for defence and take the present international situation more seriously was expressed by Sergeant J. W. Calvert, of Hamilton. Sergeant Calvert said he greatly admired the Greek people for the way in which they shouldered the burdens cast upon them by the war. Old men, and women, for instance, constructed a road 1000 miles long over mountainous country, including a portion of Mount Olympus, in two months. The only tools used were picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. Mufti Allowances The question of a mufti allowance for men discharged from the armed forces was again discussed at a meeting of the Auckland Metropolitan Patriotic Committee on Tuesday night. The Distress and Rehabilitation Subcommittee. reporting that it had had 80 applications to deal with last month, said that several were cases of hardship arising from the fact that no mufti allowance was granted to discharged navy, air force, or home service men. It was decided to make representations to the authorities for a mufti allowance to navy and air force men on the same basis as the army and to home service men up to £5 after 12 months’ service. Mobile Cinema The annual meeting of the New Zealand Motion Picture Exhibitors’ Association, which was held in Wellington recently, approved arrangements made by the executive committee of the association for the raising of a fund to provide a mobile cinema unit for the use of the N.Z.E.F. overseas. Approval had been received from the Patriotic Fund Board, and the objective was £2OOO, it was stated. Members of the association present supported the fund by making substantial promises and a resolution was carried giving enthusiastic support to the fund. The meeting also agreed to the payment of a cheque for £5OO to the Minister of Finance as a contribution to the interest-free war loan for the duration of the war and six months thereafter. Cocksfoot Taken on Roadside The action of a Lumsden firm of contractors in operating a header harvester or drum stripper in harvesting cocksfoot on the roadside in the Winton district was discussed by the Southland County Council. The county clerk (Mr H. C. Gimblett) reported that he had written to the contractors pointing out that the standard arrangement in the county was that althougn the county was the controlling authority on behalf of the Crown and had a right to the cocksfoot on the road, it allowed the farmer to harvest the cocksfoot on his own road frontage or make such arrangements as he thought fit for the disposal of the crops. He had asked the contractors for information about the county roads worked with the implement and the names of farmers who had granted permission for harvesting the crop on their road frontages. He had received a reply stating that tljree farmers had granted permission. It was decided to emphasise that the farmers had first right to the crop and it was necessary to obtain their permission before doing any harvesting on the roadside. Spreading of Rumours The dangerous possibilities of passing on rumours in these days was stressed in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, by Mr A. M. Goulding, S.M., when a man and a woman were charged with passing on, in a manner likely to prejudice the efficient prosecution of naval operations, what purported to be information concerning the condition of a merchant vessel. The man had heard the rumour—which had no foundation in fact—that a ship had been sunk, and repeated it to the woman, who mentioned it in a letter she was writing to her son overseas with the forces. In actual fact, the ship came into port ' the following day. The normal censorship of outward letters disclosed the breach of the regulations. The magistrate said the public should clearly understand that such matters were serious, and must be treated seriously. In the present case the information had not been correct, but it would be very dangerous if correct information in a letter fell into the enemy’s hands. Had the circumstances been different he would have been tempted to impose a term of Imprisonment.