ITEMS OF INTEREST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 2, 27 August 1943, Page 2

ITEMS OF INTEREST

RolJs Closing Shortly Supplementary electoral rolls will close 011 August 30, and applications for enrolments must be. in the hands ol the registrar of electors or in his post office box by (5 15.m. on the day of the issue of the Avrits. ihc main rolls closet! on Ju'y 12 and, electors who have received acknowledgment cards since then arc 011 the Supplementary Roll. Those who are eligible and who have not enrolled are reminded of their obligations to see that their names, are on the Supplementary Roll as .soon as possible. Airgraph Not New Idea ! "Curiously enough, the airgraph idea isn't new," stated Mr J. B. Priestly in the 8.8.C. series ".Britain Speaks." "A similar method, was successfully tried during the .scige of Paris in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1. Messages were printed on a board,, and then the board Avas. J photographed on film. At the other 1 end, the films Avere enlarged on a screen by a magic lantern and then the messages Averc written down and afterwards delivered. But what, you will ask, took the place of the airplane —how Avere the films (loAvn to and from the besieged, city? The anSAYcr is—by pigeon."

National War Savings Quota successes for last week show that the Wcstport postal" (lis-, triet achieved pride of place in the National War Savings contest., every town in the district attaining or exceeding its allotted quota. One hundred and ninety-eight places were successful, including all the principal centres and in lf> out of the 18 postal districts the full district quota was obtained. Yes, We Have Some Bananas! ! According to a Rugby message, a Royal Air force Halifax bomber, missing after a raid on Milan, arrived back at its base in the north of J-.ngland recently. The cre.w were in khaki shorts and shirts and the aircraft was loaded with bananas, grapes, lemons and melons. They had just come from North Africa ! When the Halifax was on its way to Milan the oxygen supply began to fail. The crew dropped their bombs on the target, but it was* clear that they could not manage the return flight over the alns. The captain, a Norwegian, decided to fly on to North Africa, and the navigator quickly worked out a course for the 700-mile trip. The bomber had been posted as missing, and among those who welcomed it 011 its return was the navigator's father who had gone to the airfield to news of him.