LOCAL AND GENERAL

Chronicle (Levin), 20 September 1946, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Church's 100th Anniversary The 100th anniversary of the opening of Saint Mary's Church, New Plymouth, will be celebrated on September 29. Beer For Troops in Japan • Approximately 30,000 dozen bottles of lager beer will be shipped from New Zealand to the J-Force in Japan for Christmas, depending upon the number of bottles that can be obtained. Post Office Destroyed The Post Office at Parakao, 30 miles from Whangarei, was totally destroyed by fire early yesterday morning. A small wooden structure, the post office provided for about 90 district' telephone subscribers All the usual exchange apparatus, as , well as the usual post office equipment, was destroyed. From the Past "Our pen has written that war has concluded, but has it? True, actual fighting between the principals has been suspended under the terms of the armistice, but the treaty of peace is not yet signed, and in the meantime Europe is in a turmoil of unrest, faction varring against faction, and Bolshevism spreading its cancerous growth all over the world."' This is an extract from the annual report of the Auckland Provincial Industrial Association for 1918-19. Crippled Children Benefit The New Zealand Crippled Children Society, under the estate of the late Dorothy E. Timson, of Dunedin, has benefited by approximately £6000. This was announced by the president of the Society, Sir Charles > Norwood, at a recent meeting of the executive council of the Society. ."-A donation of £100 has been receiyed from Mr. H. Bolton, of Wellington, and Sir Charlps. expressed the gratitude of the Society for such public recognition of the work being carried out throughout New Zealand on behalf of crippled- children. Sunspot Gronp Returns After a relatively quiescent period since the end of last month , the sun is again showing signs of great activity. The record spot group which was first seen at the end of July made its second return to -the visible hemisphere at the week-end. At its previous return, in the middle of August, it showed signs of approaching dissolution, ' but it is now as vigorous as forrfterly, although not covering such a large area of the sun's surface. It is easily visible without optical magnification, and passed the sun's central meridian to-day. Two other naked-eye sunspots passed the centre of the disc on Sunday. UNRRA Offieial in Austria After 18 months .with Unrra ;.ih Europe Colonel J. : D. Cottrell, "Of Dunedin, has returned to New Zealand for a short visit. A doctor, he was appointed Director of Health for the Unrra mission to Austria, after serving with the Second N.Z.E.F. in Italy. Describing his work in Vienna, Colonel Cottrell said that in addition to the routine work of the mission he had to look after 45,000 displaced persons in a camp near Vienna. The city had been badly damaged by the war and life was not yet back to normal. The main difficulty was the lack of food. Austria was being supplied to the limit of the credit allotted by Unrra, but food was still short. "The health of the population remains fairly bad," said Colonel Cottrell, "but it is slowly and . steadily improving as the quantity of food increases. Tuberculosis is very prevalent. As the food position gets better so will our health work decrease." Absorption of Wool It was now believed in well informed wool circles that the early prediction of 12 years, and since estimated at eight years, for the absorption of the world wool surplus, was highly excessive, said' the chairman of directors. -of Messrs. Wright, Stevenson and Co., Ltd. (Mr. J. T. Martin) at the annual meeting of.the company. A recent cable from the National Association of Wool Manufacturers stated that the textile mills had consumed 312,000,000 lb. of scoured apparel wool in the first six months of 1946, equalling two and one-third times the average quantity consumed in the corresponding period for the years 1935-39. The world's manufactured stocks had never been at such a low state. It was hoped the mills in European. countries, which. in pre-war days. jmported 3£ million bales or just half the world's exportable surplus, would soon be working again at full capaeity.

Water Supply Cut-off Between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.. tomorrow repairs are to be made to a water supply main in Levin, and as a result the pressure -.will be affected and the water will-be discoloured. Residents are advised to keep a supply of clean water for drinkmg purposes. "Ran" Jacob in Maori Team Continuing his rapid rise to prominence in the -rugby football world, "Ran" Jacob, of Otaki, has been honoured by his seleetion in' •the New Zealand Maori team to play Manawata at Palmerston North to-morrow. During. the present season "Ran" has played for the Victoria University senior team, which won the Wellington 194.6. championship, and also reprejsented the North Island Universities in their match with the South Island Universities, a game in which "Ran" scored two tries. •