Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 36, 29 December 1944, Page 4

Local and General

WristEet Watch Competition The wristlet watch .competition run by the V.A.D. was won by Miss Colleen Mexted of Edgecumbe. Patients Not Forgotten A pic,rising feature of the Christmas festivities,, was that both the Boys Brass Band and the Caledon - ian Pipe Band turned out on Friday evening and played on the greens outside the, Wliakatane Hospital. That the gesture was- appreciated by the patients was evident by the warm applause, which greets ed each item. Throughout both performances, patients could be seen leaning out the windows, and making the best of the occasion. Boys Band Gesture Prior to their playing at the Whakatane Hospital on Christmas Eve, members of the Boys' Band marched to the residence of Mrs Mayo in Lovelock where they played several selections on the lawn. This thoughtful which has been done several times in the past a was a further indication of the' high regard in which the late Mr Mayo who founded the. band ) is still held by the boys. Concrete Footpaths Said a Christmas visitor to a BEACON representative yesterday : "There is one thing which I consider Whakatane has much to its credit and that is the amount of concrete curbing and footpath extension in the Borough. For a town of its; size I consider that it is very well advanced in this respect. The concreting is neat and regular and reflects a good deal of credit upon the Borough staff." Pea-Picking Championship The New Zealand pea picking championship, with a first prize of organised by the Waimea Vegetable Growers' Association, was Avon by Miss Valma Patterson aged 20 who picked 433%1b in 6*4 hours' working time. Her tally w T as 27 kerosene tin buckets which was> a

comparatively poor figure, on account of the below average crop on the field where the. col petition was held. Her best tally this season is 36 buckets, equivalent to about 75 pecks. The champion's two elder twin sisters. Misses Joan and Ladell took the second and third prizes of £10 and 5, with 4281b and 4231b respectively. The competitors were all local and numbered twenty. Travellers by Rail Elsewhere in this issue the Railways Department remind train travellers that the Coal Saving Timetable, will be reverted to on Monday January Bth. Passengers who have made preliminary application for seat reservations covering their re-, turn journey are also reminded that they should apply for their reserved seats numbers up to 14 days before return journey date. In this connection, booking office receipt for the deposit paid upon advance application for reservations clearly states that "the deposit is accepted conditionally on seats being available for reservation" and that "if car and seat, numbers are not inserted at time of issue this receipt must be handed in at booking office prior to departure of train for in-, sertion on same."

Whakatane»and Opotiki A humourous note was struck by Mr Charlie Gordon at the farewell gathering last Friday evening to Mr 'Pete' Sisam when he referred to the long-standing feud between Opotiki and Whakatane. In his opinion, he said it had been largely a newspaper war though he had fallen in with the. sentiments recently expressed by the Whakatane paper— "the Lighthouse, or whatever you call it," The sister towns of the Eastern Bay should get he, declared. It was the only way they could progress. It was no longer true to refer to Whakatane as Briar Town. He knew that they had long since, overcome that menace. Whakatane was now infested with ragwort and if they wanted any help to control that Opotiki would see what it could do. He mentioned the interesting controversies regarding the. course of the highway and the potential aerodrome, and hoped that Opotiki could also lend a hand in this direction (?)