Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 90, 24 June 1946, Page 4

Local and General

Wasted Words There is a humorous redundancy in the regulations regarding the "taking or killing" of opossums which probably goes back to the days when they were first imported, and were regarded as having great commercial possibilities. Theft of an opossum in those days might have ranked as a crime, and killing one would have been looked on as a national offence. Nobody has succeeded so far as is known in skinning an opossum without killing it, and even if it could be so treated and released to grow another skin it would be a barbarous deed with severe penalties today. The original necessity for the archaic wording of the regulations seems to have passed, and the Government Printing Office could save money by the excision of one of these terms. Any person "taking" an opossum today without killing it would be looked on as a lunatic.

Forthcoming' Mission Lecture

Rev. A. H. Scriven, General Secretary to the Methodist Missionary Society of New Zealand, will give a most interesting and inspiring film talk in the Methodist Hall next Wednesday evening on the epic courage and devoted service of the New Guinea natives during the period of the Japanese invasion. Many incidents depicted were taken under fire, but the whole will tell how these natives. helped so grandly to repel the invaders and thus to save Australia and New Zealand.

"Very Privileged People" "They were very privileged people to receive a carton of cigarettes; I find it difficult to get one packet," said Mr F. H. Levien, S.M., in the Auckland Magistrate's Court, when Mrs Mary Green was charged with failing to close her shop at 1 p.m. on a statutory closing day. It was stated that defendant supplied a carton of cigarettes to a family after closing hours. Mr Clarke, for defendant, said the carton represented a month's supply for the whole family. The defendant was fined £l.