Local and General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 31, 30 September 1946, Page 5

Local and General

Presumed Killed In the most recent list of servicemen previously missing, and now presumed killed in action, appears the name of Pte. A. T. Kelly, Opotiki.

Spreading Weed Killer By Air The possibility of aircraft being used to distribute weed-killing compounds in badly-infested areas in /

the Dominion was mentioned at the 1 Hawke’s Bay County Council meeting. If this were done on a national basis it would be the answer to the council’s problem, commented the county clerk, Mr W. J. O’Connell. “It is very pleasing indeed to note that the Department of Agriculture is giving us a further grant of £1250 for the eradication of variegated thistle,” said the chairman, Mr R. Harding.

Demands of Democracy “It is worth noting that democracy carries with it no guarantee of its automatic permanence or survival,” said Sir Patrick Duff, Brit- s ish High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, in an address at Levin. “If it is to flourish it needs a deep and well-prepared soil and a propitious environment, and on the top of that, never-ending cultivation of personal character and personal self-discipline. It should never be forgotten that, because it demands more from each individual citizen, it is far and away the hardest form of government.” Stream Diversions At the last meeting of the Whakatane County Council, a letter was received from the Minister of Works regarding the Council’s offer to vert the Waioho Stream. The letter stated that as the County Engineer (Mr C. H. Brebner) had Already submitted plans of the proposal, the matter would be dealt with when the time arose to con-/ struct the new State highway between Awakeri and Taneatua. The Council decided to reply to the effect that as its land drainage proposals in the area concerned were being held up pending the Department’s decision, it would be appreciated if this could be expedited. Tough Commandos At Largs, in Scotland, where the commandos were trained, some of the'toughest ment in the British Isles, many of them with 15 years of convictions behind them, were taught to be tougher, said Mr J. F. Fardell in an address in Christchurch. The commandos paved the way for D day by sabotage raids of ' the French coast, while the Dieppe raid was a full-scale test to see whether a landing force could seize and hold a port. The commandos showed that this was impracticable, and, therefore, the Normandy beaches were chosen for the big landing. “But for these tasks,” saM Mr Fardell, “we had to train an army of thorough-going thugs, could and would rip up a German sentry from bottom to'top before he knew what was coming; now, the problem is to untrain them again.”