LOCAL AND GENERAL

Chronicle (Levin), 1 April 1946, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Construction Plan "A comprehensive construction plan is being drawn up eovering .the whole of New Zealand and ip.cl.uding irrigation, reclamation, and , erosion ,problems, drainage, hydroelectric development, afforestation, and co-ordination of transport routes," said the Hon. J. Robertson at Masterton. Mr. Robertson said that the first-line jobs included in the plan were the Rimutaka tunnel and land reclamation at Lake Wairarapa. Decreased Rainfall Rain fell on no less than fifteen 4,ays during 'March, according to J recordings taken by Mr. H. Harvey, | and the total for the month was 4.17 j inches, a£ compared with 6.14 in the ; same month of 1945. The lowest ! temperature was 34 degrees recor.djed on March 8, while the highest was on March 13, when the mercury rose to 78 degrees. The rainfall for the first quarter, ending March 31, j was 10.33 inches as compared wfth J 13.84 inches for the same period in j 1945. ! Kountif ul Walnttt Crop I A bountiful crop of wainuts is i maturing in most distriets of I Hawke's Bay Province this year, j indicating that this is .one class of ! produce which- has benefited from j the exceptionally dry .conditions. j Wainuts so far harvested have been j singulariy free from disease. With i imported nuts almost miobtainable j during rece-nt years, wainuts have | become keenly sought by manufac- ! •turers of numerous iines of food- | stuffs, particularly eonfectioners I and small-goods bakers. Growers ! report receiving numerous inquiries from Wellington flrms for large consignments of- high-gr.ade wal- ' nuts. Heavy Losses of Peaches I A week of rain tol'lowed by excep- | tionally humid weather has caused j very heavy losses among la-te variety I bottling peaches in Hawke's Bay. In some instances [ dry rpt infected Jscores of bushels'of peaches wthin a few hours, and fnmdreds of eases I of infected fruit haa to be repacked j and dumped. One Hawke's Bay firm handling large quantities of fruit lost nearly two tons of Gold-en Queen peaches last week. Retailers found that their losses in stone fruit were so high as to rnake hand- • ling of peaches entirely unprofit- | able. In consequence many growers j were left with large quantities of ! rapidly-deterioiating fruit on their hands. Supjplies of Timber It was reported at a meeting of the North Island >Sawmillers' Distributing Association that at least 1,500,000 feet of timber are at pr.esent lying in sawmillers' yards awaiting transport by rail." It is cleai • that the critical bottleneck in timber supply is not at the point of1 production, but in the inability oi' tlfe Railway Department to suppljtransport facilities, it is stated. Foi the past three months the position has steadily deteriorated, notwithstanding all the representations which were made to the responsible authorities. With the additional c-laims on transport now being made by other priority users, ther.e is every reason to fear that .deliveries of timber may be further impeded. -Peace Stamp Saies Exceedingly brisk business was experienced at the Levin Post Offic.e this mornbig in the sale of the pictorial peace issue of New Zealand postage stamps. The office opened at 8 a.m. for the purpose, an hour earlier than usual, and the counter was crowded with eager purchasers throughout tlie morning. The commemorative cover which has :b.een prepared is being issued free. E.ach ^design has a special signifacance, but together they fell a story pf patient enduranee and nobl.e sacrifi.ce on the part of the nation during six iong years of war. There are eleven . denomjnations, including tribut.es to the yar-ious seryices, to the people of Britain and the workers on the home front. The Royal family is featured .on one desfgn, and others express the .spirit oi thankfulness and rememibranee .and faith in the principal of constiitur tional government. All the stamps were designed by Mr. James g.erry, of Wellington, who has preylously designed a .considerable n.umb.er of ' New Zealand stamps. The ahnual meeting of the Levin — ^Kuku Bobby Calf Pbol takes place at 8 p.m. to-piorrow in the Ohau Hall. Following the ro.utine business Mr. Hastings, organiser of th5e N,Z. C.o-Qperative Pi'g Marketing Aesociation, \yill screeh beautifully cqloured moving talkie pi.ctures on the Gre.at L.akes pf Cahada, their indu$tr|es and metho.d§ of transport, and on the saimon rnn in the Fraser River. j

Admiral Lord -Louis Mountbatten, G.C.V.O., H.C.B., D.S.O., A.U.C., Supreme Al'lied Commander, SouthlEast Asia, and Lady Mountbatten, D.C.Vfi, C.B.E., and their offlcial party arrived at Ohakea about 8.15 i a.m. to-day by Avro-York and ■Dakota C47 aircraft. They were met on arrival by the jMinister of Defence (Mr. Jones) „ ! representing the Prime Minister, the |High Commissioner for the United Kingdom (Sir Patrick Duff ) , the ! Chiefs of Staff of the three services | and the Under-Secre-tary of Internal Affairs (Mr. J. W. Hennan) . Following breakfast at an Air Force mess at Qhakea they left in cars for Wellington, where they arrived at 11.25, .twenty-five minutes ahead of schedule. The cars passed through Levin at 10.10 a.m. Ther.e was a .State luncheon in honour of Lord Mountbatten at Parliament House at 1 p.m. He had a fuil round of .engagements this afternoon, while this evening a | civic reception will be tendered to j Lord and L.ad.y Mountbatten. At 18 a.m. to-morrow, Lord and Lady Mountbatten wil'l leave Wellington by car for Paraparaumu aerodrome, from where they ■wi.fi leave gn hour later in an Air Force Lodestar for Ta-i-eri Aerodrome, Dunedin. They have a fuil list of engagements in Dunedin following their arrival there about noon. Wednesday will be spent in Christchurch, and they are d.ue back in Wellington on Thursday. Their itinerary provides for their arrival a-t Paraparaumu by air from Wigram at 10.30 a.m. From Paraparaumu they will travel by car to Government House, where they are due at appr.oximately 11,30 a.m. A services cocktail party in honour of Lord .and Lady Mountbatten will be held between 5 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. on Thursday. They will leave 'Goyernment House by motor-car for Rongotai Aerodrome at 8.25 p.m. on Friday, and proeeed by air to Ohakea, where they will transfer to their own aeroplane and proeeed to Auckland. Saturday and Sunday wili be spent in fishing at the- Bay of Islands.

1 Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was born on June 25, 1900,. is the son of Prince Louis of Battenburg, and a cousin of King George VI. His mother was the daughter of Queen ^Victoria. Lord Louis is a reai fighter-. He is one-third "sailor, one-third : soldier and one-third airman. He-is lean and tall, stands six feet four inches and was a striking figure in 'World War II, his epic of *adventures being equal to any hero of the war. ) 1 Prince Louis, of Battenburg, who 1 was of Austrian birth but later became a naturalised British subject, was Admiral of the Fleet when World War I broke out. He had to fesign his German name and his eonnections with his brother-in-iaw, who was Grand Admiral ,of the German Fleet. During the war he gave up his Austrian titles and changed his family name to Mountbatten. His son, Louis, kept up the name of Mountbatten, and joined the Royal Navy.ht 13 years of age. He fought his first 'actioii when he was sixteen, and when World War I ended he was,a sub-lieutenant., In 1922 he married the wealthy Edwifia Gynthia Temple. . In this war Lord Louis CQmincnded ihe destroyer Keily, which was damaged in action five times. In 1939 his ship struck a ' nilne, but reached home safely. A few 'inonths later it stopped a torpedo in • the North Sea, but he again lie reachea safety. While' Kelly was being reconditioned he commanded the Javelin, which also was torpedoed, but he brought lier back too. He returned to the Kelly and while off Crete during the' evacuation she was sunk by 'dive hombers. In 1943 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in Burma, and did outstanding wor-k pushing tlie Japs back. There is some talk of Lord Louis being the next Governor-General of Canada. The visit to New Zealand which he commenced to-day is not his first, for in 1924 he eame to the Dominion with his friend, the Prince of Wales, now the Duke of Windsor. Lord Louis has truly shown that royalty can still lead an anny to battle.