Local and General

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3305, 4 June 1931, Page 4

Local and General

The Waipa Rugby Union’s games in the senior grade next Saturday will complete the first round for the championship.

Dazzled by the head-lights of a three-seater car on a country road near Leeston one night last week, a hare leaped' frantically in the air to save itself from being run over (says the Press). It crashed through the wind-screen of the car, passed between the two occupants, and dropped dead in the middle of the seat. The inside of the car was littered with broken glass, but the driver and passenger were practically unhurt. The professional feather-weight contest between Tommy Donovan, New Zealand champion, and Archie Hughes, champion of New South Wales, staged at the Auckland Town Hall last evening, was won by Hughes on points at the end of the full fifteen rounds. The contest, which drew the largest house to a boxing match for some months past, was quite interesting, but a little disappointing in that it was characterised by too much clinching and infighting. The slogan, “ Use More Wool,” wil be widely used during the early par of July, the prime movers in this direction being farmers’ wives, who, whilst their husbands are attendin; the annual conference of the Farmers’ Union, will use every endeavour 1 create a bigger demand for fleeces from the sheep (states the Wellington Evening Post). This is a natural corollary of a week’s boosting of New Zealand-made goods, such as the recent one, and is an endeavour to further the same idea. The greater the demand for wool the better it will be for the sheep farmer and the better for New Zealand as a whole.

“Churching the Mayor” has come to be regarded as a necessary corollary to a Mayoral investiture after the municipal elections, and in the cities and many towns throughout the Dominion special church services were held on recent Sundays. It is interesting to note that Te Awamutu is to follow suit next Sunday, when his Worship the Mayor and Councillors will attend divine worship at St. John’s Anglican Church at 11 a.m. It is understood members of other local bodies are also being invited to attend the service, while it is probable that members of some of the public bodies of the town will also take part.

Over 90 members attended a luncheon held yesterday at Hamilton to mark the first reunion of the Technical Old Boys’ Association. The president, Mr R. Smith, occupied the chair. The school principal, Mr W. Fraser, was present, and spoke approvingly of the idea to hold annual reunions of old boys of the school. Many of the boys, he said, now lived in the country and the reunions would give them an opportunity of keeping in touch with the school. It was decided to make the reunion an annual function. Two football matches were played in connection with the reunion. Past boys defeated present boys by 17 points to 3. The second match was between Town and Country and resulted in a win for Town by 3 points to 0.

A burglar was active in Te Awamutu during Wednesday night, for the back doors of two Alexandra Street business premises, those of Messrs W. J. McCreddy (Popular Cash Stores), and J. Hanna (cycle works) were damaged. Entry was not gained to McCready’s,' though the catch of the lock was broken and part of the door itself splintered badly. At Hanna’s the door was forced open, the lock being broken, and it is understood a sum of money is missing. The police are investigating. _ Owners of property would be wise to doubly secui'e their premises, and deposit money and other valuables in safe keeping, until such time as Uie burglar is apprehended. is the second occasion within a few months that McCready’s store has been similarly interfered with.

A great many people during the week-end rush to register, their motor cars and re-new their driving licences must have experienced a feeling of impatience at having to answer so many questions on the official forms. The fact is that the more highly organised society becomes the more intensified, apparently, does the interest of the State in the individual become. By the time he has filled in his income tax and land tax returns, hr unemployment registration form, and so on, and the school records of his medical and dental history have been collected, the' State is possessed of a personal history that with the addition of a finger print would almost fill the reqirements of a police dossier. Is it really necessary that so man questions should be asked? At all events, the reason for them ought to be fairly obvious, otherwise they are apt to provoke irritation. Why, for example, is it necessary for the Motor Registration Department to know how many miles a man has driven his car during the past twelve months ? well ask him how many gallons of water he has put into his radiator, how many punctures he has had, how many times he has rued the da he ever thought of buying a car.

Not only dairy farmers but all New Zealand will be profoundly disappointed that the Government has been unable to reach any agreement will the Canadian Government to permit reciprocal trading. Our particular interest is, of course, in the very large outlet for New Zealand butter which has been closed by the prohibitive duties imposed by Canada. Even if Mr Forbes showed a lack of finesse in the opening negotiations, it appears that he has since spared no effort to reach an accommodation but has been met by something very like a stonewall. In the circumstances, however regrettable and unprofitable trade retaliation may be especially beitween two partners in the British Commonwealth of Nations, New Zealand will probably approve the withdrawal of special privileges to a country which has annulled those having any meaning to us. And if what is Canada’s loss is Britain’s gain, it will be all to the good as a practical application of the motto to “ Buy where you sell.”—Dominion.