LOCAL AND GENERAL

Chronicle (Levin), 5 December 1946, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

More Wool Research Workers More researcn workers ror Wool Research Stations throughout New Zealand will be trained early in the I new year, reports the New Zeai land Wool Board in a recent stateuienc. Tliere lias oeen a shorEage of suitable research personnei, jund a plan, already approved, for I the training of more workers will I oe actecl upon.

Toys for CORSO A fine seiecuun of toys has been fmade by the Junior Brancn of the jRed Cross Society, which* was jiecently formed in Levin, with the jassisoance of two Horowhenua i College ciasses. This is tne Diancn s 'rirst effort and the toys are to be ■ given to CORSO. They are at pres- | ent on display in the window of the Moderne Beauty Salon and wni remain there lor inspecuon Dy jthe public until Saturday. i Parents' Meeting i haren^s oi ^ members of the girls' marching teams also _ those /parents of girls who are willing to ' join teams to be formed are invited \o a meeting to be held in the bandroom tomorrow evening at 3 o'clock to form a parents' committee of the Horowhenua Association. j Last evening members of the j association attended an enthusi- ; astic meeting in Shannon with the ! result that teams will be formed in that town in the near future. Wanganui Butcher's Gift I A generous gift oi £3u0 worth of ! meat for Britain had been made by j a Wanganui retail , butcher, the I secrctary of the Wanganui Famjine Emergency Committee (Mr. S. 1 Partridge) announced yesterday- : The meat had been held in cool istorage at the Castleclff abattoirs i pendmg a possibie shortage of that ; particular class of meat locally, but ut was not now required. It has |been handed over to the famine j committee, and will be shipped to | Britain as soon as possibie.

IJ.S.A.'s Small Businesses 1 Desplte the familiar picture of ! the United States as the home of ! large industry, about 45 per cent. i of the total business employment in ! the United States was engaged in i enterprises hiring fewer than 100 ; persons each, states New Zealand ! Commerce, official journal of the I Associated Chambers of Commerce ; of New Zealand. There were ■ approximately 3,000,000 such small ! businesses in the country, while . only 38,000 businesses employed i more than 100 workers each and ; only 3300 more than 1000 each. Wrapping Paper Shortage J There will be a greater shortage of wrapping and tissue paper "a nh cardboard in New Zealand during | the next year than there has evei | been, according to Mr. H. V. Ever- ; ton, of Neil Crooper, Ltd., who has •just returned from a business , trip to Canada and United States. j He said Canadian manufacturers ! were making allocations of papei i which were about equal to 1946

! supplies, to various countries. This, 'however, was much less than preI war levels and there would be insufficient supplies to meet the .demand.

! Hospital Wards Closing j News that the suigicai and medi- ! cal wards of the Waimarino Hos- ! pital at Raetihi were to be closed i this week because of staff short • jage caused widespread concern ! throughout the county yesterday. jlt was ascertained at Raetihi that ) jit is intended to transfer the 22 jpatients in the hospital to Taihape jand Wanganui. It is intended, j however, to keep open the matern- | iiy ward at the hospital. Of the present staff of five sisters, four are leaving with no replacement, and eight aides are also required to bring the staff personnei up to full strength. j Kingfishers Not Harmtess Kingfishers are not the harmless birds many people believe, and two further instances of this were seen by Mr. A. L. Nalder, an inspector under the Scenery Preservation Act, and a vice-president of the Wanganui Acclimatisation Society. Inspecting reserves, Mr. Nalder saw a duck with a clutch of young, and the duck seemed to be very much disturbed. The reason was obvious ' when a kingfisher came diving down, and tried to collect one of the ducklings. The mother put up a frenzied resistance, and, although the kingfisher managed to stun two of the young, it could not make off with its prey. Further up the river Mr. Nalder saw another kingfisher in action, att&cking a yellow eye which had hatched ei'ght young.