LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Bankruptcies. , Nine bankruptcies were recorded in the Wairarapa in 1940, as compared with three the previous year. Of the nine this year, one occurred this month. New Serial Story.

A new serial story entitled “Announcer’s Holiday” by that brilliant author Vai Gielgud, the popular 8.8. C. announcer, commences in today’s “TimesAge.” It is an outstanding story, full of movement, thrills and engaging personalities, and has more than a touch of humour.

Sunday School Burned Down. The 52-year-old Sunday school building alongside Christ Church, Taita, was burned down early on Saturday morning, the Lower Hutt Volunteer Fire Brigade, which received a call at 1 a.m., being able to do no more, because of there being no water supply, than save the church itself, which is 95 years old. Seaman Drowned.

Jumping overboard after his vessel had left Portland wharf and attempting to swim ashore, . Able Seaman Frederick Smith, aged 31, married, with three children, Auckland, was drowned on Saturday afternoon. Smith, a member of the crew of the Miena, was seen to jump overboard when the vessel was 150 yards from the wharf. He sank after swimming a short distance.

Station Busy. The Masterton Railway Station was the scene of great activity on Saturday afternoon when local members of the First Hawke’s Bay Regiment returned home after their three months training at Dannevirke and Palmerston North camps. The parking yard was packed with cars and the station was crowded. The men all looked sun-burnt and fit after their stay in camp. Candidates for Priesthood.

Five young men, candidates for the priesthood, were ordained in St Paul’s Cathedral Church, Wellington, yesterday morning by the Bishop of Wellington, the Right Rev H. St Barbe Holland. They were the Revs G. P. Cook (Karori), P. M. Gourdie (Petone), V. W. Joblin (Masterton), K. J. Stewart (Khandallah) and H. Taepa (Masterton). There was a' large congregation and the solemn rite of ordination was concluded by Holy Communion, semi-choral.

All-Purposes Patriotic Fund. “With considerably more than £400,000 in hand, we can now say that the half-million is in sight,” said Mr J. Abel, honorary Dominion organiser of the £1,000,000 all-purposes patriotic appeal, on Saturday. The total in hand is given as £410,570. The amounts for the various zones are:— Auckland, £113,900; Canterbury, £74,000; Otago, £63,500; Wellington (provincial), £57,070; Hawke’s Bay, £37,000; East Coast, £24,000; Southland, £14,500; Nelson, £9500; Taranaki, £8100; Westland, £4900; Marlborough, £4lOO.

Conduct of Police Officers. The opinion that there was no impropriety in the conduct of the police officers concerned is expressed by the members of the Commission of Inquiry appointed to inquire into the circumstances of the recent prosecution of a young woman for having unlawfully permitted an illegal operation to be performed on her. The inquiry was the outcome of some remarks made by the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) when the young woman appeared before him in the Wellington Supreme Court for sentence. The members of the Commission were his Honour, Mr Justice Ostler, Mr H. H. Cornish, K.C., Solicitor-General, and Mr H. F. O’Leary, K.C., president of the New Zealand Law Society. Their report was released at the weekend by the Prime Minister and Minister in charge of Police, Mr Fraser. Broadcasting of Weather.

“Radio broadcasts of weather information- either in plain language or in international codes will be discontinued as from today,” states the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones. “The Government has been reluctant to take this step earlier because of the 1 value of the weather broadcasts to the public, particularly to the shipping and farming community, but to ensure that the enemy can gain no possible advantage from this information it has been decided to discontinue the weather broadcast services,” said Mr Jones. “This decision will involve the suspension of the aviation broadcasts, the Dominion and district forecasts, and the special farmers’ forecast. The shipping forecasts in plain language and in international code will also no longer be available. In the meantime no change is being made in the forecasts and reports distributed to newspapers, post' offices, harbour boards, shipping companies, and so on.”