Town Talk

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 66, 19 March 1937, Page 6

Town Talk

Bequest to Hospital. A bequest of £5OO from the estate of the late Mrs. Ada Bayly has been received by the Wanganui Hospital Board. Details were supplied to members at yesterday’s monthly meeting and appreciation of the gift was expressed. It was decided to hold the amount in trust to be used for some future building requirements, the name of the iate Mrs. Bayly to be suitably commemorated. No Parochialism The fact that there was no spirit of parochialism in duscussions at the board table was mentioned by the chairman, Mr E. F. Hemingway, at yesterday’s’ meeting of the Wanganui Education Board when a Palmerston North member spoke in support, of work at a country school, which was urgent, being undertaken before work in his own district. This absence of parochialism was a matter for congratulation, said the chairman and was the spirit which had always actuated the board in its discussions. “It is something of which we may be proud,” said Mr Hemingway. “The Wanganui Education Board is probably the best conducted education board in the Dominion.”

Maternity Training School. Formerly known as St. Helen's, the Jessie Hope Gibbons Maternity Hospital has been approved as a training school for maternity nurses, according to notification received from the Health Department at yesterday’s monthly meeting of the Wanganui Hospital Board. The home will enter into its new status as from May 1. The minimum staff will comprise a sister-in-charge, two junior sisters and from five to six trainees. The chairman (Mr. W. Broderick), said that the fact that the board would be able to give midwifery training would be a greater incentive for nurses to remain in Wanganui. In the past the board had lost many who had gone away for their training. Free Ambulance. According to the monthly report of the transport officer and secretary (Mr. D. E. Gulleryi, received at yesterday's monthly meeting of the Wanganui Hospital Board, the St. John Free Ambulance 'Wanganui) Incorporated attended 63 cases last month. Ten of these were accident and 53 medical and surgical. The ambulance vans travelled 1168 miles, the locality of the cases being as follow: Wanganui City 48, Fordell, Parewanui, Wangaehu and Marton two each, and Bulls, Raetihi, Heaton Park and Makirikiri one each. One case was conveyed from Kaponga to Wanganui and another from Waverley to Patea. Since the inception of the service, the vans have transported 1640 cases, the total mileage being 23,000. School Term Holidays

Advice was received from the Education Department at yesterday’s meeting of the Wanganui Education Board that the alterations in the terms and holidays for 1937 provided that the first term should end on Coronation Day, May 12, and that the second term should commence on May 31. The winter vacation would, therefore, consist of 12 school days instead” of 10. Other dates would remain unaltered. “It is rather a pity that the department has taken in hand the matter of holidays,” commented the chairman, Mr E. F. Hemingway. “The Education Boards are competent to do the work, but it is no good of protesting. In view of the late opening of the schools I do not think that the holidays should have been extended.”

Activity at Airport. Yesterday morning the Western Federated (N. 1. Flying Club's Moth ZK-ABP was flown to Palmerston North and return by Mr. J. Colway with Flight-Lieutenant lan Keith as passenger. At mid-day the ’plane was flown to Dannevirke by Mr. M. King, with Mr. E. Whiteman as passenger, the machine arriving back at Wanganui at 3.40 p.m At 3.45 p.m. Mr. C. Plumtree arrived from New Plymouth in the Moth ZK-AAX with Mr. Sanders, of South Africa, as passenger and proceeded on to Wellington, en route for Hokitika, in ZK-ABP. At 5 p.m. Mr. M. King, accompanied by Mr. C. Chavannes as passenger, flew to Hawera and return. Mr. A. Salter, ground engineer to the Western Federated (N. 1. Flying Club, arrived from New Plymouth late in the afternoon in the Moth ZK-ACZ. This afternoon the two Moths will be flown to Hokitika for the official South Island air pageant.

Motor Cycles Criticised. “My opinion of the motor-cycle is that it is the worst machine you could possibly put a boy on,” remarked Mr. A. S. Coleman (Rangitikei), when the question of a new motor-cycle being purchased for running errands was under discussion at yesterday’s monthly meeting of the Wanganui Hospital Board. Mr. T. C. Kincaid (Taihape): “I am going to defend this mode of transport, Mr. Chairman. I rode one for 15 years and had no trouble. I started when I was 16 and don’t think I am any the worse for it to-day. It is a cheap way of getting 'about and I'm going to move that a motor-cycle be purchased.” Mr. W. J. Rogers moved an amendment that the board purchase a small car instead, and advanced the opinion that such a vehicle would prove ot considerable help to the board. “Mind, I’m not saying this because I want to ride in it,” Mr. Rogers added with a smile. After a discussion the board decided of the question for them to be enter“Flying Flea” Flies.

The "Flying Flea” belonging to Mr. C. Aitken, of Marton, which was on exhibition at the recent North Island air pageant at Wanganui, was tested yesterday afternoon at the Wanganui Airport by Flight-Lieutenant lan Keith, pilot-instructor to the Western Federated (N. 1. Flying Club. After a few preliminary trials in which the engine failed to produce its maximum revolutions, the small machine was flown some distance across the landing ground at a height of about five feet and, except a tendency to slip to the left, behaved well. The “Flying Flea.” which is built according to the specifications of M. Henri Mignot, the French aviator, is powered by a 35 horse-power two-cylinder horizontally opposed Bristol Cherub aero engine. Although the New Zealand Government will not issue certificates of airworthiness to “Flying Fleas,” this type of light aircraft has become popular in England and the Continent, where many of the machines havp registered very good performance