LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Finances Satisfactory. The Martinborough Borough Council finished the year with a credit balance of £954, according to a financial statement presented at last night’s meeting by the Town Clerk, Mr G. C. Willis. The General Account was in credit to the extent of £287, which was considered very satisfactory.

Ganger Awarded Damages. Damages totalling £649 2s 7d were awarded in the Supreme Court at Wellington yesterday to Frederick Ferdinand Wind, a ganger, for injuries received in a blasting accident at Sutherland Crescent in November last. Defendant was the Wellington City Corporation.

Easter Letter Telegram Service. A special Easter letter telegram service between New Zealand and Great Britain has been introduced commencing from today until Easter Monday. Messages must be of a greetings or social nature. The rate is 5s 6d for ten words, and 6 2-3 d for each additional word. Clothing for Refugees.

A generous response was made to the appeal by the Women’s National Welfare League for clothing for refugees in the war area in China. A total of 328 garments was forwarded to the Women’s Chinese War Relief Association in Wellington. The League desires to thank the donors for their gifts. Sydney Scout Jamboree. Advice has been received by the Dominion Scout Commissioner, Mr Hector Christie, to the effect that the cost of transporting Scouts to the Sydney jamboree in December will be only £lB p. boy instead of £24 as anticipated. It is expected this will result in a larger contingent sailing from New Zealand. St. Matthews Scouts.

At a meeting of St. Matthew’s Scout Group committee, held last evening, a vote of £5 was made towards the travelling expenses of five Rovers attending the Dominion Rover Moot being held at Timaru at Easter. The last moot was held in Masterton. The local Rovers will be under the leadership of Rover Leader G. L. Thomas. Birthday Revival.

Observance of Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12’is to be revived in Hawke’s Bay. The hospital board decided at the meeting recently to arrange for a church service for nurses on the nearest Sunday, May 15. It was also decided to invite interested schools to send parties of girls to visit the board’s hospitals. Smash and Grab Raid.

A smash and grab raid in which watches valued at about £9O were stolen from the premises of J. B. Lauchlan, Ltd., watchmakers and jewellers, Woodward Street, Wellington, was made in the early hours of Sunday morning. It is thought that the thief oi- thieves waited for the police constable on duty to get well out of earshot before breaking the window and snatching the watches. Fertiliser Consumption. The Dominion’s annual consumption of fertilisers has increased by 35 per cent, in the past 10 years, and now amounts to between 650,000 and 700,000 tons. Of this quantity probably 200,000 tons are used for cropping of all sorts. That leaves 500,000 tons at the most for pasture topdressing. In New Zealand we have 17,000,000 acres of improved grasslands, almost all of which could well benefit by regular topdressing. The fertiliser available and used is sufficient to provide on an average 661 b. an acre for that purpose. To provide but one hundredweight an acre a year the Dominion should have to raise its fertiliser supplies by 50 per cent., or 340,000 tons yearly. Butterfish for Goitre. That the fish which were most valuable, because of their iodine content, for the control of goitre, were mistakenly rejected as food by New Zealanders was claimed by Mr David Graham, in an address to the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Where marine foods were widely used there was little goitre, he said. Greenbone, butterfish, kelpfish, or kelp salmon had been proved by the researches of Professor C. E. Hercus to contain 25 times as much iodine as oysters. Yet because the fish had green bones and a blackish appearance people would not eat it, and sufferers from goitre would rather endure the complaint than be bothered cooking it. The prejudice against it was unfounded, because it was very tasty. Air-minded Dominion. 1 Since August 66 young New Zealanders have come to England to join the Royal Air Force, says the Manchester Guardian. That Dominion seems intent on becoming the world's most air-minded country. Two New Zealanders, Miss Jean Batten and Fly-ing-Officer A. E. Clouston, have between them carried off the chief flying awards oi 1937 —the gold medal of the International Aeronautical Federation, the Segrave Trophy, and the Britannia Trophy. Captain J. W. Burgess, who took the Imperial Airways flying-boat Centaurus on a record 30.-000-mile survey flight to the Antipodes, is a countryman of theirs. The latest New Zealand flyer to get into the headlines is Mr H. L. Piper, who piloted the upper component of the Mayo composite aircraft on its crucial first separation flight.

A tall American strolled into the small country hotel. “Say,” he drawled to the proprietor, “has my baggage turned up yet'.’” The proprietor seemed slightly surprised at the inquiry. but. placing a warning finger on his lips, he whispered: “Yes. sir; your wile is in the coffee room.