LOCAL & GENERAL

Western Star, 25 February 1938, Page 2

LOCAL & GENERAL

The mutton-bii'cl s were very numerous in Te Wae Wao Bay on Thursday, and could be seen in countless numbers feeding on sardines. , .

The St. Mary’s Sunday School picnic will take place to-morrow at the Riverton racecourse, children to meet the 9 o’clock bus at Robertson’s.

Two excursions will visit Riverton Rock s to-morrow. The All. Saints (Invercargill) and Woodlands picnics will he held, th 0 latter being postponed from Wednesday. ,

Owing to the continued spell of dry weather, mining operations at Round Hill have been considerably curtailed. Miners state that they have never before experienced such a long spell of dry weather.

We understand the Public Works Department will take step's’: to widen the Riverton-Orepuki road. Th© roadway from the Riverton bridge for about one mile is altogether too narrow, and is a menace to both motorists and pedestrians.

The w.eather for the past three months . has been the driest recorded for many years past. The rainfall for December was 3 1-5 inches, January 1.6 inches, and for February up to date 2-sths of an inch has fallen. Rain fell on two days during the present month.,

Thursday was the hottest day recorded since 1925, the temperature being 86 degrees. A nor’-westerly wind made conditions very trying for residents. There is a serious shortage of water throughout the district, and rain is Urgently wanted both for farm and domestic purposes.

Mr D, D. Macdonald, of Nightcaps, has been elected to the vacancy on the Wallace County Council caused by the death of Mr G. W. E. Stroud. Mr Macdonald, who is one of the original members of the Ohai Railway Board, was returned unopposed. He will represent the Wairio riding on tli© council. ,

At a largely-attended meeting of delegates of the New Zealand National Party held at Mnrbon the other night, Mr E. B. Gordon wa s chosen as the official National. Party candidate to contest the Rangitikei seat at the General Election. . There were four nominations. The s eat is at present held by Mr Ormond WilAon.

Easter is late this year—Sunday, April 17. Last year it fell on March 28. Ash Wednesday—first of the 40 days of Lent, the Christian penitential season which precedes Easter—will be observed on March 2. Five years hence/ in 1943, there will be another late Easter, with the observance of the festival on April 25, which i s also Anzac Day. There will be an unusually early Easter _in 1940, when it will fall.on’ March 24, but it will not occur’ so early again for ten yeark

Sealing of portions of the MiltonQueenstown. State highway at Alexandra and between Clyde and Cromwell will be begun by the Public Works Department soon. The method of surfacing will be similar to that being adopted on the Gore-Invercargill highway and will start with the oiling of the present surface. Motorists should travel at a low speed where»thei work is in progress, Particular care will be necessary in the ClydeCromwell Gorge where there is little working space and special regulation of the traffic 'will be necessary.

Increases made in the strength and personnel of the British Navy in Accent months had led to a shortage of young officers in the mercantile marine, said Mr Derek Hall, a cadet of the m.v. Durham, in an address to the Christchurch Businessmen’s Club recently. Young officers on merchant ship s who held commissions in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve were being asked to join the Navy proper, and 32 from his own company had accepted commissions with the Navy or the Royal'Air Force in the last year. Some difficulty had been found in filling their positions, and it was now realised that it was necessary to prevent the possibility of a shortage of officers.

The visit of Count von Luckner to New Zealand in his yacht has aroused some curiosity as to whether the New Zealand Government would take up any particular attitude regarding the arrival in the Dominion of so prominent a representative of his country, with a remarkable record of war exploits. Inquiries have been made in official circles, and it did not seem as if any particular consideration had been given to the matter. Count voq Luckner jg not likely to receive official recognition, but it is also equally clear that, as in the case of any other tourist who homes from overseas and observes our laws, he will be made welcome, while flier© is no doubt that a number of, New Zealanders who took part in the Great War will be interested to meet so redoubtable a former opponent.

The Australian full-blooded aboriginal is doomed not-to survive the century the flying doctor, Dr Allan Vicars, sorrowfully told Melbourne ltotarians last week. A Stone Age people of the Stone Age period, they were now confronted with white civilisation, and they “just could not take it.” Dr Vicar s said that after contact with aborigines during a period of 10 years in the north, he was sure no amount of care or kindness from whites could save this lovable and interesting race, Not the least peculiar, reason for this wag the fact that though the black thought he understood “white felJar ways,” he really did not understand them at all. Clothes to a bktck were merely ail. ornament —he did not regard them as things to be changed, cleaned, or cared for. The blacks could pot pmler,stand tli© diseases which killed them off by the dozen even on the far nop’-west stations, wherp these people were W e U treated. The. aborigine’s intelligeitCiP wijs not of the. low order usually attributed tp |)ii|i, lip wps actually descended from the samp stock n s ourselves, for tho aborigines migrated from the Mediterranean shores when Austra- 1 Ija was joined by land bridges to Asia. Nature bad forced them to become nomads, and this doomed race lived to-day when* no eflmr human could exist, because they were the best bushmeu and ■ ( natu:ulijti in the world,

On the application of solicitors in the Southland district probate or letters of administration have been granted in the following deceased persons’ estates by Mr Justice Kennedy:—Jame s O’Connor, of Kingston Crossing, fanner (Bowler, Bannerman and Howells); George William Ernest Stroud ) of Wreys Bush, farmer (W. G. and J. Tait); Emma Sophia Sievwright, of Waikiwi, married woman (Stout, Lillicrap and Hewat); John Macdonald, of Manapouri Station, fanner (Webb, Allan, Walker and Anderson); Patrick O’Neill, of Wyndham, labourer (C. E. Davey).

Approximately 20,000,000 young trees will be planted out in nurseries during the. coming season under a planting ]»rogramme of the State forestry staff. This js part of a five-year afforestation plan arranged by th© Government, details of which were given by the Minister in charge of State. Forests, the Hon F. Langstone. Mr Langstons said the planting of exotic trees in. forest reserves in different parts of the Dominion was by no means the whole of the programme or the problem. The necessity for protecting native forest* was equally important. “The story of bush destruction in this country is a sad one,” said Mr Langstone. “We all know how such natural wealth has been abused instead of being wisely used. It cannot be over-emphasised so that such bush slaughter may not be allowed to happen again. The time has arrived when this small nation must become tree-conscious and every effort made to repair the errors of tile past. Foremost in thi s national work is fire prevention. In spite of. the great publicity given during the holiday season to the Government’s appeal for the utmost care, ‘fires occurred again and again on the outskirts of forests, wherever the public had access. I wish,” added the Minister, “to draw public attention to the fact that the need for care with fire does not cease with the holiday season.”