GENERAL NEWS

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 January 1948, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS

Justified False Alarm. A justified false alarm was responded to by the Wanganui Fire Brigade at 8.46 last night. The call was to the rubbish tip in London Street. Shortage of Paint “Paint is so hard to get at the present time that every drop has to be used,” declared a witness in giving evidence in a case in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday regarding the theft of paint. Waterside Affairs Mr. T. Hill, national secretary of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union, was a visitor to Wanganui yesterday morning ana addressed a stop-work meeting of members of the Wanganui branch. He I ter left for New Plymouth and will visit Napier before returning to Wellington. Ruapehu Erupts According to a Wellington visitor who passed through Wanganui yesterday, Mt. Ruapehu suddenly erupted about midday last Friday, after it had been quiet for some months. The spectacular shot, reaching between 4000 ft. and 5000 ft., was apparently only steam, said the informant, for ten minutes after there was no sign of any further activity. Child Injured. Abrasions and slight concussion were suffered by John Mercer, aged 6 years, when the bicycle he was riding was involved in a collision with a motor car on Christie’s Hill, Virginia Road, yesterday afternoon. He was taken to the Wanganui Hospital, where he was treated as an outpatient. Excessive Speed of Car Evidence that the defendant had travelled along Somme Parade across eight intersections at a speed of 40 miles an hour and at one stage had reached 45 miles an hour was given by a traffic inspector in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday when George Edward Johnson was charged with travelling at more than 30 miles an hour. A fine of £2 and 10s costs was imposed by Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M. Tobacco Supplies Arrive Stocks of tobacco which were due on January 16 have at last arrived, stated a city tobacconist yesterday. They consist of New Zealand cigarettes and pipe and cigarette tobacco. Although English cigarettes are at present to be obtained easily, they will not be for long as licences to import have not been granted this year. The move had been made to save dollars within the British Empire, all English cigarettes being made from American tobacco. Regatta Boats Damaged. A singles clinker racing boat belonging to the Union Boat Club was damaged at the Wellington regatta on Saturday afternoon when it was caught by a gust of wind while resting on the ground. The boat has now been repaired for the Wanganui regatta on Saturday. The club’s best and best boat was also damaged. The Aramoho Boating Club, which has had a run of bad luck this season with its boats, also had its best and best four damaged at Wellington by a gust of wind while it was resting on trestles. Flying Statistics. On an average day the aircraft operated by the New Zealand National Airways Corporation fly 12,628 miles, of which 11,873 miles is in New Zealand and 755 miles in the South Pacific. These figures, based on the corporation’s services as at December 31, 1947, add up to 4,151,776 miles a year. The mileage is divided up as follows: New Zealand internal passenger services, 3,704,376; railway freight charters, 172,432; Pacific regional flights, 274,768. Early this year, according to a statement by the corporation, a fleet of Dakota freighters will introduce an air freight schedule on the corporation’s main trunk routes. The aircraft are also available for charter for £24 for every 100 miles flown from base and back to base. Charges For Races. Charges for admission to the Wanganui Jockey Club’s steeplechase meeting on the Queen's Birthday. May 24, 1888, provided for a fee of 3s for horsemen and buggies (including driver) with a charge of Is for every other passenger. Foot passengers were charged Is and children under the age of 12 years were admitted free. The charge for admission to the grandstand, including the saddling paddock, was 10s, and to the “gallery,” 2s 6d. “Those were the days,” commented an old Wanganui sportsman when referring to the paragraph on this meeting in the “Chronicle” last week. “One got much more fun from a irieeting than to-day. When one got tired of the horses there was always the bookmakers to watch.” Heavy Stock Traffic There has been a heavy volume of stock traffic on the railway in the Wanganui district, but the greatest volume was reached during the weekend. On Sunday four special trains of 229 wagons' transported 18,300 lambs from farms throughout the Wanganui district to the freezing works as far north as Waitara and as far south as Wellington. The largest of the trains was a 96-wagon unit which collected lambs from Marton and Feilding for Wellington. Another train had 66 wagons and carried Taihape stock to Wellington. A third took 35 wagon loads of sheep from Marton and Taihape to Waingawa, Masterton, and the fourth went from Marton to Waitara. in each efise there were approximately 80 lambs to a wagon. The daily movement of sheep by rail at present is about 10,000 lambs.