LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 January 1944, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

In Good Fishing Order. The main rivers throughout the Wellington district are in good fishing order, reports the Wellington Acclimatisation Society. Nurse Fatally Injured. Two nurses were injured, one fatally, when a jeep in which they were riding struck a stone wall on the seaward side of the waterfront road, near Khoimarama Wharf, about 10 o’clock on Wednesday night. They were Aleida Johanna Barbara Bonnie Smit, aged 22, of Point Chevalier, who died in hospital, and Ann Maud Aplin, aged 24, of Charles Street, Napier, who suffered concussion and facial injuries, and is in a serious condition. When the jeep hit the wall both nurses were thrown on to the hard stone beach 15 feet below. Three other occupants of the jeep, including the driver, were not injured, as the vehicle skidded alongside the wall and swung back to the road. Born Farmers. A visitor to the most recently developed parts of the Waikato thinks from what he saw of old Maori plantations that the natives must have gone in for intensive cultivation. He says there is evidence that they, were not devoid of knowledge of manuring, and believed in deeply working the soil. He is convinced, too, that the Maoris must have been born farmers. Inland Waikato, he says, must have been at one stage densely populated by Maoris, specially near the many waterways and lakes, where there were evidences of the closest settlement. Huge heaps of shells of the fresh-water pipi had been carried there by the Maoris, and had not been deposited by Nature. Bu'- Drivers Warned. A warning that it would be necessary to invoke the provisions of the law regarding illegal stoppages of work if the Auckland bus drivers carried out their decision and failed to work the buses on Sundays except for essential workers, was given last evening by the Minister of Labour, Mr Webb It was reported in a message from Auckland, published yesterday, that the Auckland Drivers’ Union had decided at a meeting the previous night to support the bus drivers’ resolution to carry only essential workers on Sundays till the proprietors agreed to the. demands of the workers for double time payment on Sundays, a guaranteed minimum of eight hours’ wqrk, and no change in the present roster for days off.

Returned Personnel Welcomed. The best welcome which could be given to men returning from overseas would be given by their own people, said the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, when welcoming a party of New Zealand furlough personnel, the majority of whom were soldiers arriving home, after being confined in Italian prisoner-of-war camps for approximately two years. One nurse and seven W.A.A.C. V.A.’s who had completed two years of hospital duty in the Middle East were also with the group “If you feel you can’t go back to your old job, or settle down to. changed conditions—contact the rehabilitation officer in your district,” advised the Minister of Rehabilitation, Major C. F. Skinner, who said that other drafts had not been disappointed when seeking similar aid. Committees established in each district were helping with adjustment problems, and there was still a big job on hand for those at home in helping to back up the men still overseas. Marketing of Pip Fruit. Nearly 100 orchardists of the Auckland district at a meeting yesterday considered the Government's tentative proposals for a new marketing scheme for pip fruit for this season, and, after hearing the explanations of officers of the Internal Marketing Division, unanimously rejected the proposals in toto and would not consider nominations for the committees till a scheme acceptable to the industry was put forward. A resolution carried included, a request to the Prime Minister immediately to reopen negotiations with the directors of the Fruitgrowers’ Federation, who had always been recognised as the mouthpiece of the industry. That guaranteed prices must form the basis of any agreement between the pip fruit industry and the Government, and that no scheme which departed from that principle could be acceptable to the industry, was the decision of growers in the central area of the Nelson district, at a meeting held at Tasman til discuss the new marketing scheme.

Fly Plague. Auckland’s fly plague has been repeated, especially in the Eay of Islands, where flies of the larger varieties predominate. Masterton is at present experiencing the worst fly plague for several years. Presbyterian Church Services. Services will be conducted at the Lansdowne Presbyterian Church .on Sunday at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. by the Rev. R. Dickie, who will also preach at Kopuaranga at 2.45 p.m. Large Families. The descendant of a pioneer family at Waiuku, speaking of the decline in the birth rate, tells how in. the “good old days” one married couple could boast of having 24 children to look after. The offspring of this large family were now scattered over a wide district. More recently one family at Waiuku totalled 22. Absenteeism in Industry. Absenteeism in North Island industry is partly accounted for by the difficulty of securing steamer accommodation. Many North Island holidaymakers stranded on the West Coast are unable to return by any of the three steamer services before the middle of the month, says a Press Association message from Westport. Not in Demand. “There are plenty of people travelling, but no one wants his luggage carried,” said one of the porters at the Auckland railway station recently. Old women who ordinarily would not carry a postage stamp, he commented ruefully, performed Herculean feats in carrying their luggage to the train. “The thoughts of the coming holiday must give .them energy and strength,” the porter added as he watched one man struggle along manfully with a heavy bag in each hand. Trade Mission Tour. A trade mission from the Eastern Group Supply Council in India is at present visiting Australia and will leave shortly for New Zealand. The delegation is headed by Mr. lan Elliot', chairman of the British Ministry of Supply Mission in India, and includes Major-General R. P. Pakenham-Walsh, Director-General of War Provisions, Eastern Group Supply Council, Mr. F. Harrison, supply and munitions expert of the British Supply Ministry, and Major Sir Thomas Burney, staff officer to Major-General Pakenham-Walsh.

Literary Competition. A surprising response was made by men and women of the armed forces in New Zealand and the Pacific to a scheme originated last year by the Army Education Welfare Service and (he National Broadcasting Service to give service personnel the opportunity to express their latent literary talent. Entries for a competition for radio plays, short stories, descriptive sketcheq, narrative poems and lyric poems closed on December 1. Prizes offered ranged up to 20 guineas. The lyric poem section attracted 142 entries, while 40 entered narrative poems. There were 83 short stories, 39 descriptive sketches and 39 radio plays. Army Labour. Four hundred men from the Central Military District were engaged on harvesting in December, a similar number will be similarly occupied this month, and demands for Army labour have been received to cover up till April. No complaints about the men’s work, with one exception, have been received at district headquarters. On the other hand, there are records of general appreciation and of farmers paying the men a bonus in appreciation of their work. One Wairarapa fanner, when the gang had finished on his place, took them all to dinner at an hotel and treated them in a manner that was .an appropriate finish to hard toil in hot conditions. The one complaint was from a farming contractor, and it was strongly contested by farmers in the same district who had used similar labour. The men arc drawn from those eligible for territorial service.