Local & General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 23, 20 February 1948, Page 4

Local & General

Evening Classes Again Evening classes at the District High School begin again next month. Teachers will be enrolling pupils next Tuesday evening at the school. Scout Rally Cancelled Due to the infantile paralysis restrictions not being lifted in time to allow Scoutmasters in the Bay of Plenty to train their troups to a rally standai’d. the Scout Association has had to cancel the rally that was to have been, held in Whakatane at the end of April. Fertiliser Orders Farmers are notified by advertisement in this issue that orders, in writing, for phosphatic fertiliser for crops and unexpended top-dressing rations for the 1947-48 fertiliser rationing year which ends on June 30, 1948, must be received by vendors on or before March 13, 1948. P.B.A. Lucky Not A House The fire brigade was called out on Wednesday morning at 9.45 to combat a fire they had been directed to, near Dr. Maaka’s residence in Commerce Street. On arrival they found no fire and no one to inform them where it was. After two hurried phone calls, the fire was located on Mr Conway’s section on Hillcrest. Luckily a small tank was on the property and the brigade was able to draw sufficient from this and their own supply, to put the fire out before it spread much further. Power of the Press “What do you rely on most for forming your opinions: magazines, newspapers, books, radio broadcasts, or some other source?” This question was posed recently in a Gallup Poll taken in England. The answer? 58 per cent, said that they relied on newspapers, 41 per cent, on the wireless, 13 per cent, on books. Fast Blade Shearer What may-be a record for blade shearing in the South Island is the 230 sheep shorn by Mr B. Loffhagen, a 24-year-old blade shearer, at Mt. Peel Station m the Geraldine district Loffhagen worked eight hours 40 minutes recently to turn out 230 full woclled ewes. He worked upder the normal conditions of the shearing shed. Appeal Against Award The New Zealand Taxi Proprietors’ Federation has appealed to the full Court of Arbitration against the new Dominion award for taxi-driv-ers issued just before Christmas by Judge Stevens, deputy-judge of the court. The award, which came into operation on January 1, and operates for six months, grants taxidrivers for the first time a 40-hour week. It was the first award issued in Wellington by Judge Stevens. Caught In Call Box A Tauranga woman was a victim of rather unusual circumstances on Monday, when she entered a telephone booth and closed the door. On trying to leave, she found that the lock had apparently broken and all her efforts to-force the door open, failed. She finally telephoned the Post and Telegraph Department, and a member of the staff later managed to release hpr by removing the lock. Getting Glass Off Roads A suggestion that the price of beer be increased by Is a bottle, the Is to be refunded bn the return of the empty, was suggested by the secretary of the Wellington Automobile Association (Mr W. A. Sutherland) in a humorous interlude at the association’s meeting recently. “This would serve the dual purpose of relieving the bottle shortage and of removing broken glass from the highways,” said Mr Sutherland. “Yes,” interjected a member, “and it would reduce the sale of beer too.” ‘ Five Sundays This Month This year there will be five Sundays in the current month which happens once and, at most, twice in a life-time of the avenage person. It only takes place ih a leap year and then only when the first day of the month is a Sunday. The last time there were five Sundays in February was in 1920, and the previous occasion to that was in 1880. The normal interval is 28 years, but when the end of a century is included than the interval is lengthened to4o years. The next time there will be five Sundays in February will be 1976. t Engineer Shortage New Zealand’s limited facilities for' training professional engineers, and salaries whi»ch would not keep them in the country once trained, have been criticised by the president of the Professional Engineers’ Association (Mr R. S. Maunder). A number of engineers in New Zealand have recently receiyed questionnaires from the” British Ministry of Labour' and National Service, which is conducting a survey of technological and scientific manpower. Mr Maunder thought the questionnaire to be a result of a report to the British Government that by 1950 there would be a shortage of 10,000 scientific workers in Britain, and by 1955 the figure would be 25,000 X,