Local & General

Chronicle (Levin), 8 September 1949, Page 4

Local & General

Wasp Menace. Children throughout the Auckland Education Boards' area, from the third standard upwards, are to be lectured on the wasp menace by a horticultural inspector from the Department of Agriculture. Safety At Crossings. Greater safety for pedestrians using authorised crossings is the aim of draft legislation to be cohsidered at the annnal Dominion traffic conference in Christchurch next month. Suggested additions to the traffic regulations provide for motorists to cut speed when approaching a crossing and to ailow right of way to any pedestrian "within the crossing on the half of the roadway on which tne vehicle is authorised to travel." Re-Burial In France. The French sloop, Francis Garnier reached Sydney on Wednesday morning on its way to New Zealand where its crew will exhume the body of a French warship's captain (Commander J. Gilbert) . Commander Gilbert died in action in the Pacific during . the last war and his body was biiried in an Auckland cemetery. The sloop will take the body to France for re-burial. The Francis Garnier will remain in Sydney for a week on a goodwill visit. Milk Powder And Matches. Unusual circumstances resulted in the admission of Graham Broome, aged 20, faetory worker, of Waitoa, to the Waikato Hospital suffering from burns. He was one of a group of young men in a room in the Waitoa dried milk faetory. One of the group threw fine milk powder into the air'and another ligjhted matches. The powd,er exploded and Broome received superficial burns. His injuries were accentuated by the application of water. His condition is not serious. A Fatal Game. A small boy, wounded on Monday when playing "wars" with others about his own age, died yesterday at the Hutt Hospital as the result of a head injury. He was William Reynolds, aged 4, of 13 Poole Street, Taita. About five small boys were playing Mth the iron rods which are the quarter-inch type used for reinforcing concrete. Reynolds stooped to pick up one of the rods and was struck by another rod, believed to have been darted from the top of a shed. He was admittecl to hospital shortly after the accident, but died at 10 a.m, yesterday. Lurline For Empiad. A suggestion that the Lurline, sole Matson passenger ship "at present in service should be run to Auckland for the Empire Games in February next, has been made to the Matson Navigation Company, San Franciseo, by the Auckland Provincial Public Relations Office. It has been pointed out that the Aorangi, the only available vessel on the New Zealand run, is fully booked for the trip, arrivirig in Auckland on January 10 and leaving on April 4. The office suggests that the running of the Lurline would be a financially sound proposition and be a gesture that would be appreciated in. New Zealand.

"Voluntary" Labour. "Here in Czechoslovakia everyone works six ddys a week, and 'voluntary' labour brigades are arranged during the weekends," writes a Prague resident to a friend in New Zealand. "The brigades , are to help the hardestworked groups like the farmer and miners," he continues. "They also woik in the forests, and do part-time faetory jobs. The workers in the brigades are never paid — they give their services as a 'voluntary' gift from the people to the State. Children also work in the weekends. and during school 'hplidays. Boy and girl students must both attend • at least 15 of the brigades each year; if they do not. do this they are prevented from continuing their studies."