Town Talk

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 23, 28 January 1938, Page 6

Town Talk

Club Picnic The annual picnic of the St. John’s Workingmen's Club is to be held on Sunday. February 6, when club members will travel up-river by two steamers. One of the vessels is to pick up passengers at Aramoho. White Butterflies Gardeners in Wanganui complain that white butterflies are becoming more plentiful and the damage to crops by the pests has increased accordingly. It was suggested by a gardener that the butterflies breeu in ake ake hedges, and the numbers of the pests that have been observed about this native bush give foundation to the theory. Croquet Tourney Ends. The New Zealand croquet championships, which were commenced on the Wanganui and Gonville greens on January 17, were brought to a conclusion yesterday afternoon. With the exception of last Monday and Tuesday, the games were played in ideal weather. Last Monday was the only occasion on which the weather necessitated the postponement of play. Citizen’s Bequest. Under the will of the late Mr Frederick Webb Jones, £lOO has been left for the Sarjeant Gallery for the < purchase of a picture depicting a I religious or sacred subject. In addii tion bequests of £lOO each have been I made to the Herald sick benefit fund, -the Wanganui Methodist Church Circuit fund and the home mission fund of Trinity Methodist Church. These bequests will not be available during the lifetime of Mrs Webb Jones. New Air Mail Schedule Consequent on the alteration of the Palmerston North-Wanganui feeder air service as from next Monday, mails for dispatch from Wanganui by , air will close at 8.45 a.m. daily, in- , eluding Sundays. Mails will be dispatched to Blenheim, Christchurch, Dunedin, Palmerston North and Wellington. Connections will also be made at Palmerston North with the air mail services to Napier, Gisborne, New Plymouth and Auckland. Vandals at Work Beautification and improvement of Wanganui’s civic centre has occupied the attention of the city authorities recently. It is regrettable that there should be persons bent on undoing work that has been done in this direction. On Tuesday a number of begonias were planted in a plot near the Sarjeant Gallery, but yesterday morning these plants were discovered uprooted and thrown about the neighbouring lawn in callous fashion. Cost of Fires During summer months grass fires comprise the greatest number of outbreaks attended by the Wanganui Fire Brigade. The cost of attending a call can be reckoned at £5, and it can easily be realised the amount involved in suppressing even minor fires. False alarms in Wanganui are few, and the majority of these are justified. In larger centres, however, malicious false alarms are a constant source of concern to the brigades. Human V’alues.

“The farmers are demanding a compensating price for their production of butter and cheese and I am quite in agreement with them, but is not a child of more value to the nation than a ton of dairy produce and therefore why should mothers not unite to demand a compensating price for their production of a new child?” demanded Miss Mary Graham, of Wellington, amid loud laughter and applause during the course of an address at Aramoho last evening. Benefit of Mechanisation

The main object of the mechanisation of the New Zealand defence forces is to obtain greater efliciencj and manoeuvrability combined with increased speed and range of opera* tion. With the horse-drawn artillery and supplies, an army can only move* at the rate of from five lo seven miles an hour provided that the days joufney did not exceed 30 miles. With mechanised transport, an army could move at 30 miles an hour, covering 100 miles a day comfortably.

Last Day of Holidays. Monday is the last day of the summer school vacation for primary school pupils in the Wanganui Education Board’s district for the 1938 academic year will be commenced, next Tuesday morning. After six weeks spent out-of-doors in glorious sunshine, few pupils will take kindly to their studies although the ordinary school curriculum will not be adopted until the end of February. Secondary school pupils, however, still have another week’s holiday and will not resume their studies until the following Tuesday. Severe Test of Floor. Eight heavy units of the mechanised section of the New Zealand Defence Force provided the floor of the Drill Hall with a severe test of strength when they were parked in the building yes crciay afternoon and again last night When two of the heavy army trucks were driven across the floor while the vehicles were being parked during the afternoon, the floor rocked considerably and many of the boards uttered ominous creakings but withstood the heavy load. These lorries are very heavy vehicles am! [ their weight was increased, conid-jcr-ably by their loads of equipment. Shells as Souvenirs. A demonstration of the assembly of two Vickers’ guns was given m front of the Drill Hall last evening by gunners accompanying the convoy of mechanised units of the Zeifi.i.id I Defence Forces. Several rounds of blank ammunition were tired from one of the guns and as soon as the men received the order to remount their lorry there was a wild scramble of young boys to collect the empty shells. For a minute or so a veritable football scramble went down on the bitumen until every shell had found a proud owner.