LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Child Injured. David Anthony, aged 8 years, of Mangamahoe, was admitted to the Masterton Hospital yesterday with a cut on his head which he received through bumping his head against a water tank. His condition is satisfactory. Drunken Motorist Fined. A plea of not guilty to being in charge of a car in Bowen Street, Wellington, while in a state of intoxication on December 24 was entered by Kenneth James Hartshorne Waller, an insurance executive, aged 33, when he appeared before Mr W. F. Stilwell, S.M., in the Wellington Magistrates’ Court, yesterday. After the evidence had been heard the magistrate, commenting that it was not a bad case, entered a conviction and fined defendant £lO, with 10s costs and £2 2s medical expenses, His licence was cancelled for twelve months. New Zealand Home Defence. If the Pacific situation continues to improve the coming year holds the prospect of some reorganisation of the Army insofar as the home defence forces are concerned. This may possibly take the form of some scheme whereby the large formations are reduced to certain percentages of war establishment with those men released from camp or called up but not yet posted to camp keeping their military efficiency or acquiring it, as the case may be, by means of regular parades on the lines of the pre-war territorial training or annual camps of such duration as may be considered necessary to have all the men who would be required in an emergency fit to take their places efficiently in units at short notice. Raft Washed Ashore. A ship’s raft, fully equipped with provisions, which it is believed would last about three months, and with oars lashed to the structure, was discovered washed ashore at Camerons, West Coast, last week. After some of the stores and the oars had been removed ,by residents, it was again washed out to sea. Elaborately fitted up, the equipment included brass railings. The raft is believed to have been washed off a vessel, as the oars, which are being examined, had not been used. It is possible that the raft had drifted a 'considerable distance, and it is stated that the currents are such that it may have come from the Australian coast or even as far away as the Solomons. The name of the vessel is inscribed on the equipment.

Reaction After Christmas. Reaction after Christmas buying set in yesterday in Wellington, and apart from grocers, butchers and similar dealers in household necessities, few shops did much business. Many of the smaller establishments cjealing in goods not likely to be in demand did not open in the city or suburbs. The great majority of offices remained closed, and many of the professions will not reopen till after New Year. The slackness in trade was reflected by the streets, where comparatively few people were about except for pleasure. Child Welfare in Russia. Dr. J. Wolf Rabkin, speaking in Cape Town recently/ on child welfare in Russia, said that Russia had gone further than any other country in the scientific study and application of this branch of social science, states the “Cape Times.” No book, for instance, could be written and published for children in the Soviet until ■ it had been passed, firstly, by an eye-special-ist in order to ensure that the print was correct for children, and secondly by psychologists for its contents. Waiting rooms in hospitals or dispensaries were comfortable places with easy chairs and pleasant furnishings, said Dr. Rabkin, and stairs often had an armchair halfway up for those who felt the pull. Women playing an equal part with men in the medical and other professions had been responsible for these touches, said Dr. Rabkin. Sir Bernard Pares, Vincent Sheenan, Margaret Potter and other writers on Russia, have made similar statements from time to time. Dissatised Boy Scouts. Grave dissatisfaction has followed the employment by commercial vegetable farmers in the Pukekohe district of Boy Scouts from Auckland who went into camp at Bledisloe Park and were engaged from December 15 till December 23 for six hours a day on surrounding farms. Since the scouts returned to their homes for Christmas complaints have been made by the parents that the remuneration of the boys, who took all their gear and paid for their keep, was much below what they had been led to expect, being as little as ss, and it is alleged in some cases much smaller amounts, for seven days’ work of six hours a day. When inquiries were made of officials of the Boy Scouts’ Association it'was stated that the organisers of the camp were no less indignant than the parents of the boys. Members of the Franklin Growers’ Association stated last night that the boys were paid at the ruling piece rates, and that the amounts earned depended entirely oh their own efforts.