LOCAL AND GENERAL

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3471, 26 May 1934, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

All interested in the proposal to secure an aerodrome for Te Awamutu district should make a point of attending the special general meeting of the Te Awamutu Aeno Club next Monday evening.

It was stated at Te Awamutu Electric Power Board meeting yesterday that Pukeatua 1 district householders had more electric stoves installed than any other part of the Board’s territory of the same area, with the exception of Te Awaiputu borough. It was explained that Pukeatua district obtained supply at a date later than Borne of the others, and the people there had a fuller knowledge of the benefits of electric stoves when the opportunity came for them to install the up.-to-date equipment.

During the course of Wednesday’s meeting of the Waipa County Couniil Cr Peacoalc remarked that figures tabled indicated that the ridings which own their, own motor lorries find it more profitable than to use the trucks owned by the council. At his suggestion, the matter was referred to the Finance Committee for a report, it being remained that the proposed abolition of ridings would come into consideration.

Confirmatory advices have been received that Mr and Mrs Albert Russell, who have attained such fame in Auckland and Wiellington as leaders of “community sings,” will be coming to Te Awamutu on June Bth to co-operate with the local branch of the Woman’s Division in holding the first public “community sing” held in Te Awamutu for a long time. Needless to say, all efforts are being made to ensure the success of the venture which has been arranged with the object of aiding the Mayor’s Relief Fund.

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that like the New Zealand Legion itself the people are not very fond of parties and certainly not sufficiently fond of them to permit this intrusion of another into a field that is already adequately filled. The nervousness of the present parties at the suggested entry of the Legion does not mean that it would be a formidable factor in politics for the present parties are very liable to exaggerate dangers to themselves just as they are liable to exaggerate their prospects as witness the great confidence of Mr Sullivan that Labour/ must win the next election.—Christchurch Times.

\ The local Boy Scouts organisation . has received preliminary information relative to the proposed participation of 200 to 300 New Zealand Scouts (including 20 from Waikato) at the Pan-Pacific Jamboree to be held in Melbourne at the end of the year —from December 27th to January 10th, to be precise. Quite a number of applications have already been made for inclusion in the Waikato party. It is expected the contingent will sail from New Zealand about December 21st and reach the Dominion again on January 22nd. Following the jamboree approximately a week’s touring will be undertaken in Australia. The over-all cost of the trip is expected to be £25.

Otorohanga advices state that, while playing a friendly game of football on Thursday, Owen Bayley, aged 27 years, tripped and sustained a fractured leg, necessitating his removal to the Waikato Hospital, where his condition was reported this morning to be quite satisfactory.

“You are certainly in a unique position,” remarked the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, when addressing the Hunterville District Committee of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, on Wednesday night. “As Minister of Pensions,” he said, “I have ascertained that the Pensions Department has had no requests made to it by your committee, and that there has been little or no correspondence between the department and the committee during recent years. That shows,_ I take it, that both are happily in agreement over the fixing of the pensions claims of the district.”

A couple of Te Awamutu district disciples of Isaak Walton enjoyed some excellent fishing in Lake Rotoiti earlier in the week. On Thursday evening they captured half-a-dozen excellent trout, including one weighing llilbs, and others ganging between 7ibs and 81bs. The lljlb.fish was captured with a home-made fly, and it provided excellent sport, and, incidentally, excellent eating, too—so we are told! That same angler, during a visit to Rotoiti last Easter, achieved the distinction of catching the largest fish taken from that body of water during the holiday season, so he has some reason to feel proud.

Quoting from a return just prepared, and not yet published in the Blue Books of the State, the Minister of Pensions, Hon. J. G. Cobbe, showed on Thursday that the number of war pensioners increased by 210 during last financial year. Enumerating the figures of war, pensioners in different classes, the Minister said that in March, 1933, the number of disabled ex-soldiers receiving the pension was 13,163; in March this year there wene 13,448 (increase 285). Wives and other dependants of disabled ex-soldieijs numbered for the x’espective periods 1744 and 1988 (increase 244), and wives and other dependants of deceased soldiers 6197 and 5878 (decrease 319). The totals were 21,104 and 21,314, a net increase of 210.

Alluding to the recently-announced plans of the Government for the strengthening of the Defence Forces of the Dominion, the Minister of Defence, Hon. J. G. Cobbe, told a large gathering of returned soldiers at Hunterville last Thursday night that it was wrong for anybody—as some critics had done—to view the Government’s plans in the light of stimulating war. It must not be forgotten, Mr Cobbe said, that New Zealand to-day was practically defenceless. The plans, of which he had given particulars at Auckland recently, were, in these world-troubled days, to change that position. All that was being done was to provide the Dominion with protection invthe event of any emergency, which he hoped would not arise. After all, he said, a man locked the door, of his house or business premises, not expecting a robbery, but to provide a measure of protection against robbery. That was what New Zealand was doing in strengthening its defence forces.