Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 182, 5 July 1940, Page 4

Local and General

Scenic Reserve. A sccnic reservation of 404 a-creS in the Te Puke district has been declared under the Scenery Preservation Act. The area' lies between the Rotorua-Paengaroa road and the Papamoa hills. Short Shrift. A would-be has forwarded us for publication, an 'article' entitled 'How the war should be conducted'' by E.M. The covering missive winds up with the cryptic demand 'howmuch do I get for this?" Our answer is "ten yards start. Ed." • connect with an overseas steamer. Arbor Day. Stressing the national importance of tree planting, the Government has requested local bodies to organise suitable celebrations on Arbor Day, which will be observed this year on Wednesday, August 7. Where climatic conditions make that day unsuitable, local bodies are invited to observe some other suitable day in August. This Benzine Business. The further reduction in benzine rations caused some concern to the Whakatane Rugby sub-Union at its meeting on Tuesday evening. The president said that the Union would find itself hard pressed to fulfill its engagements and a delegate was of the opinion that representative teams would have to use bicycles for their travelling. Waiotahi Road, The work of straightening the Waiotahi road from the beach to the Waiotahi store is still in progress and a considerable amount of work has already been done. Widening work has been started on the road skirting the beach where the bank sloped towards the beach. Concrete posts are being used as a foundation for the bank which is to be brought up to road level. The work of cutting through the hill at the end of the bluff is nearing completion and a large amount of spoil has to be removed and used to build up the new road which runs in a westerly direction towards the toe of the next hill which is also being cut away. It is expected that in early start will be made on the new bridge across the Waiotahi river alongside the present structure. Gear for this work will be brought from the bridges at Torere which are nearing completion. A Fat Bounty. Several of the British submarines which have torpedoed enemy transports in the Skagger-Rak and Kattegat must have earned a tidy sum in bounties, but it is doubtful if any of them will land such a windfall as did El 4 in the last war, write.l a London correspondent. While cruising in the Sea of Marmora, the El 4, which was commanded by Lieuten-ant-Commander Boyle, V.G., had the luck to torpedo the Turkish transjsort Gul Djemal with 6000 sol 1 - diers on board. At the usual rate of £5 sterling per enemy soluier, the E1.4 w r as entitled to the colossal sum of £30,000, and a claim for this a-< mount was promptly lodged with the Admiralty. The Prize Court turned down the claim on the grounds that the Gul Djemal was not defensively armed. But Commander Boyle later produced proof that the transport was armed with field howitzers, and on appeal to the Privy Council succeeded in securing the full award. His victory was hailed with great delight by El 4's ratings, many of whom had got into financial difficulties on the strength of the expected windfall.