Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 178, 10 November 1941, Page 4

Local and General

Very Short Sitting

Only one case was on the list when Mr E. L. Waltcn, S.M., took the bench on Thursday morning at the monthly sitting of the Te Puke Magistrate's Court. John Stephen Vant (Mr Hookey) who pleaded guilty to a charge of driving a motor vehicle without a current warrant of fit-' ness, -\vas fined 10s and costs. Important Meeting On Wednesday night the annual meeting of the Winter Show Association is to be held in the Borough Council Chambers, when a balance sheet and report will be presented officers elected and future activities discussed. The president, Mr A. J. Canning, has expressed the hope that a large number of citizens will attend the meeting and support the Society which is so valuable to town and district. "Just in Time" "Your client has done his duty to his country just in time. The child was born on the same day as the. Gazette containing the ballot was published. The appeal will be allowed," said the chairman of the Armed Forces Appeal Board in Christchurch to counsel in allowing an appeal by Mrs E. Bartlett for her husband, Richard Samuel Bartlett, on the grounds of status. Mr A. C. Cotterell, for the appellant, said that her husband had no wish to dodge his obligations. "He is not required because he is not a member of the division," said the chairman. Southland's Racehorse The Southland Provincial Patriotic Fund owns a racehorse, but it is apparently not thought to be a potential winner, judging from an item on the asset side of the balancesheet presented at a meeting of the Southland Provincial Patriotic Council. This read: "Racehorse Forecast —nominal value £1." However, one member assured the meeting that Forecast was worth a bit mere than that. The horse was presented to the fund with the idea that it might be used to raisie money by means of a raffle, but so far no raffle has been arranged and the horse remains the property of the fund. A Charmed Life Panzer Divisions, pincers movements, mechanised divisions may mean a lot to some people but the terrors of mechanised traffic failed to upset one of our feathered friends on Thursday when a tiny chick pheasant wandered into the centre of our well known speedway ■ —Commerce Street. Quite oblivious of all hooting, screaming of overtaxed tires and so on he placidly held his position in the centre of Ihe road. Two cars passed right ovei the chick yet he unconcernedly flapped his juvenile feathers and ambled off,in his own time—still in one piece. Newspapers Criticised "If there is one thing which annoys me, it is the way our press headlines the crimes of the Maori people," said the Rev. Father Riordan, in an address to the Hastings Rotary Club., "We often see such I headlines as 'Maori drunk in charge' and so on. They would not dare to put 'Irishman drunk in charge,' or 'Englishman drunk in charge,' or God help them if they pult 'Scotchman drunk in charge'," he continvied, amidst laughter. "The press could do more good by telling the good things about the Maoris and making known the difficulties under which they live," he added. Conscientious Objectors Outspoken views on the subject ol conscientious objectors followed the presentation to the extraordinary Dominion Council meeting of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association in Wellington of a recom* mendation from a special committee on conscientious objectors to the council that the New Zealand Returned Services Association did not recognise an objection to- military service on conscientious grounds, and that suitable service should be found for such persons with the armed forces. Among those, who took part in the debate were the president, the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C, and Miajor-General Sir Andrew Russell, past president, both of whom opposed the recommendation, which was almost unanimously defeated.