Local & General

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 26, 2 March 1948, Page 4

Local & General

Galatea Bridges Last Tuesday the County Council adopted a works committee recommendation that a temporary bridge be constructed on Taranui road and that the construction of the other Galatea Estate bridges be held over until the materials become available to build them in concrete. Tall Fescue Menace Following discussion in which the menace of tall fescue to stock was stressed, the Whakatane County Council decided at its last meeting to ask the Department of Agriculture if that grass could be added to the second and third schedules of the Noxious Weeds Act. Real Generosity A very thoughtful gesture was made recently by the Whakatane Young New Zealanders’ Club. They donated £25 from the entry fees of a competition to the Whakatane branch of the Crippled Children’s Society. This gesture was entirely spontaneous. All’s Well That Ends Well As the fishery patrol boat pulled out from the wharf recently with its load of sight-seers, a small boy apparently thought it better “to be late than never.” He arrived as the cutter was a few feet from the wharf and made a leap for it, falling short and into the water. However, he was fished out and got his ride. Text-Book Shortage With the extra number of school children detained in Whakatane by the re-introduction of the infantile paralysis bans who would normally attend school at Auckland, booksellers here are finding it hard to secure enough text-books to meet the demand. Another thing that is aggravating the position is the grave shortage of paper on which to print the books. Souvenirs Of Rock-Blowing Keen public interest in the blasting carried out at the Heads and at the wharf recently is shown by the way people are making sure of maintaining the memory of those spectacular explosions. A complete set of photographs of the operation on view in a stationer’s window in town has aroused considerable interest and found many buyers for prints. Instructive And Useful? Over 20,000 white butterflies were collected by Masterton school children in a competition organised by the Spare Time Activities Club, an organisation founded to provide instructive and useful amusement for school children during school holidays. The winner of the senior competition ■ was Hamish McNeilage, whose collection totalled 3900. The junior winner was Colin Burt, with 1405. Rangitaiki River Bridge It is not possible at the present time to say when the Works Department will be in a position to call tenders for a new bridge to replace the one over the Rangitaiki River at Edgecumbe, according to a letter the County Council has received from the Ministry of Works. Detailed plans for the new bridge are now nearing completion and, if. the steel and cement position eases, further consideration will be given the matter in a few months’ time. Cooled Customers It is said that one needs a cool head in times of tension. Whether this saying was invented by the manufacturers of ice cream is not known, but two very small . boys took it literally recently. They had each bought a large family pack of ice cream, and had gone and sat on the bank of Quay Street in the scorching sun, to await the blasting of the Matatua Rock, bright eyes fixed intently on the middle distance, tongues rhythmically busy.

Encouraging Art Iceland is the artist's Utopia. Most homes proudly display at least one landscape by a living painter. A parliamentary council has bought some 400 works of contemporary art for the national gallery, pays regular salaries to some of the outstanding painters and other artists and gives grants to others.