Town Talk

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 174, 24 July 1936, Page 6

Town Talk

Primary School Destroyed. The Wanganui Education Board has , ( received advice that the Oroua Downs 1 primary school was totally destroyed 1 by fire on Wednesday night. Oroua Downs is situated on the Sanson-Fox-ton highway. J 1 School Committees’ Association. £ A branch of the School C mmittees Association was formed at a . eeting of school committees in Wanganui on J Wednesday night. Two members ol the Palmerston North ocanch were t presented and outlined the working of the association. The Wanganui branch will cover the territory bet veen the i Patea and Pvangitikei Rivers. Mr. O. t R. Cathro was elected secretary, pio { ‘ tern. The olticers of the branch will j be elected at a meeting io be held in ( the future. Electrician,’ Association. •' “The Three Phases of a Wireman’ ( was the subject of an address to the ( monthly meeting of the Wanganui | Electricians’ Association by Mr. W. j B. Alexander. Mr. Alexander dealt with the first phase, apprenticeship, and stressed the need for co-opera- I tion between the apprentice, the jour- t neyman and the employer during this c stage of training. The series will be c continued at a later meeting. It is 1 hoped that at the next meeting Mr. f P. D. England will give an address v on his recent visit to tne G.E.C. c works. I v 2 Driftwood on South Beach. p Following a decision reached at a recent meeting of the Wanganui liar- c bour Board, notice has been given that f the removal of driftwood or timber cf | any kind from the South Beach is t prohibited. This move was the out- i come of a discussion of the erosion c which recently occurred at the South t Spit. The opinion was advanced that, r if driftwood was allowed to lie on the j beach it would have the effect of col- • lecting sand and building up the shore, thus preventing erosion. Fine i weather yesterday enabled further j sandbags to be placed in position i where the sea threatened to again in- • vade the river during the stormy; weather earlier in the week. Exodus of Shipping. Fine weather yesterday enabled three vessels to complete cargo opera- i tions and sail for their 1 destinations. The auxiliary nioturvessel Hauturu sailed at 9 a.m. for A Onehunga direct, her trip to Picton ! being cancelled. The m.v. Gale spent 1 a busy day at the Town Wharf and sailed late last night lor Wellington and southern ports. A further ae- 1 parture was the intercolonial steamer , 1 Gabriella, which completed discharge p of her Newcastle coal cargo at the * gas wharf and left on the night tide 1 for Westport. Loading operations J with the freighter Port Dunedin, also delayed owing to heavy rain earlier in the week, were resumed in the roadstead. Bad Whitebait Season. Throughout the Dominion whitebait ,are looked upon as a delicacy and the opening of the season is awaited eagerly each year by those with a palate for this worm-like fish. The season for whitebait opened on July 1, but as a result, of the flooded condition of the streams from which the fish are produced, only very small supplies have been received. In con- 1 versation with a “Chronicle” reporter 1 yesterday, a city fish merchant said ‘ that he had had many enquiries for 1 'whitebait but it was impossible to 1 secure any supplies. From what he f had heard a similar position apper- ( tained in other centres. Large supplies of the delicacy are netted in the f Manawatu River near Foxton, but ' this river has been discoloured for several weeks. i Girls’ College Acconiinodatino. An assurance that the Minister cf j Education (Hon. P. Fraser) , visit Wanganui in the near fu’. ire j was contained in a letter receive! at yesterday’s monthly meeting of the { Wanganui Girls’ College Board of | Governors. The letter was in reply to a communication sent to the j Minister urging that additional accommodation be provided for pupils j of the college. The Hon. P. Fraser replied that in company with the j Director of Education he would have pleasure in discussing the matter , when he visited Wanganui. Mr. W. J. Rogers said the Minister had in- ; formed him that he would be coming to Wanganui shortly. He understood the Minister had urgent business in Dunedin, but Wanganui was next on . the list. Wanganui Girls’ College. In r.er monthly report to the Boar.l of Governors, Miss A. C. Tizard, principal ol the Wanganui Girls' College stGZ-'l that at present the college has 349 secondary pupils and 50 primary. Fifty of these are boarders an I in addition there are 66 piano pupils. The repur.’ added that the Royal Academy mu«ic examiner will be at tne college next week, when 13 Candida . js for the piano and four for singing will sit. “We have had several interesting visitors during the month,’ the report continued. “Miss Russell-Fergusson gave a recital of Hebridean songs, Dr. Rolls, who has recently returned from Palestine and Abyssinia, lectured on those countries, illustrating his address with some beautiful ’antern slides, and Miss Garland, the New Zealand secretary of the Barnardo Homes, tolc. the girls of the beginning of Dr. Barnardo’s work in London.” The report was adopted. Historic Aviation Feat. To-morrow marks the anniversary of one of the greatest feats in the history of aviation, the first air crossing of the English Channel by M. Louis Bleriot, the daring French pioneer of the aiv. On July 25, 1909, Louis Bleriot, who had spent many years experimenting in heavier-than-air machines, took off from near Clais with the English coast his goa and his life in the lap of the Gods Thirty-seven minutes later he landed at Dover to the cheers of an admiring throng. Bleriot’s machine was a fragile-looking monoplane of his own construction, powered by a small engine of low horse-power, which a pilot of to-day would hesitate to taxi around a landing field, let alone take into the air. To-day large multi-en-gined 'planes pass over the same channel <ivery day in al] kinds ot weather carrying passengers, mail and cargo of all descriptions.