LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 June 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Helping Fire Fighters. As the result of a decision at last night’s meeting of the Masterton Fire Board, business firms in Masterton are to be asked to deposit keys at the Fire Station, to be used in the event of fires occurring at their premises. It was stated that the practice was in use in other towns, and saved considerable expense by obviating the necessity for breaking open doors. Lapse of Insurance Policies. During a period of five years, 43,000 life insurance policies of a face value of £16.000,000, and 132.722 industrial policies of . a face value of £7.000,000, were allowed to lapse in the Dominion, according to a statement made by Mr A. H. Nordmeyer, M.P. (chairman of the Parliamentary committee on national health and superannuation), in an address at Ashburton. The point was raised when the speaker was discussing the possibility of the average man being able to provide for himself in old age.

Clerical Workers’ Union. The annual meeting of the Wellington Stock and Station Agents’ Clerical Workers’ Industrial Union of Workers was held in Wellington recently, when the following officers were elected for the ensuing year;—President, Mr W. C. Richards; vice-president, Mr G .E. MacLachlan; treasurer, Mr N. W. Fookes; committee, Messrs A. H. Burgess, K. J. Shapleski and W. L. Young; auditor, Mr G. L. Clark. Motorists in Court.

Over 100 motorists were charged in the Auckland S.M. Court on Wednesday with breaches of the Motor Vehicles Act. Two magistrates. Mr W. R. McKean and Mr C. R. Orr Walker, were engaged throughout the morning hearing a wide variety of offences, the large majority of which were for failing to possess a driving licence or a warrant of fitness or for parking beyond the time limit. Fish in Water Taps. “I was getting fish through my taps some years .ago,” said Dr E. Robertson, when the question of the purity of the water supply to the swimming baths at the Epsom Girls’ Grammar School was being discussed by the board of gover- ■ nors of the Auckland Grammar School. •‘I took some mutilated eels to the town clerk and told him that I did not want that kind of thing in my kitchen sink. . I think the position has improved since then,” added Dr Robertson. Insurance Companies Pay. “The day has gone when an endeavour can be made to conceal from juries the fact that it is an insurance company that is going to pay, and not the defendant,” said Mr Justice Reed in the Supreme Court at Auckland. His Honour was addressing a jury in a case in which a claim for damages was brought against a motorist, and he warned the jurymen that they should entirely disregard the fact that it was an insurance company that had to pay, and not let it weigh with them. ■ A Smart Turnout. When the quarterly meeting of the Masterton Fire Board concluded about 9.30 o’clock last night, members of the board proceeded to Vivian Street, where the chairman, Mr Trevor Beetham, gave an alarm of fire by breaking the street box. With commendable promptness an engine and a full complement- of firemen were quickly on the scene of the supposed fire. Board members were well satisfied with the smart turnout of the brigade. Brewery Profits and Wages. When it was contended in Conciliation Council in Christchurch that the employees were, - figuratively speaking,getting nothing out of the brewery industry, although large profits were being declared, Mr A. D. Duncan suggested, with a smile, that every man was at least being offered half a gallon of beer a day. Mr H. E. Denton, one of the employees’ assessors, replied, amid laughter, “Whenever they wanted us to do something silly in the war they lined us up and gave us a rum ration.” The applicants maintained that such a liquid return was no substitute for cash, and that the breweries had just concluded a most successful year, one of the principal causes of which had been the higher wages received in the community. Palmerston N. Nationalists. The annual meeting of the Palmerston North'branch of the New Zealand National Party was held in the Empire Hall on Thursday evening, Mr H. G. Mills presiding over a large attendance. The annual report disclosed a very sound position, with membership steadily increasing week by week, indicating that an unprecedented interest is being taken in political affairs by electors. The executive committee has been active throughout the year, and with the assistance of other members has built up an enthusiastic and efficient organisation. A strong and representative executive committee was elected for the ensuing year, and aftei- the completion of formal business a short address was given by the National candidate, Mr J. A. Nash. Sea Ruins Work. Ten days' pounding by the angry seas which whipped the Otago coasts during the last fortnight or so has ruined the foreshore protection work which was being carried out at Oamaru by the Railway Department, and 12 months’ work has been wiped out. The work will be carried on, however, and the line of piles will be continued as far as possible along the foreshore. Huge blocks of concrete, each weighing 12 tons, will then be skidded out from the bank so that a good slope will be obtained. The blocks will be arranged in two tiers and the slope to the top of the bank will be one in two and a half. In the meantime. 700 to 800 tons of stone is being dumped daily as a protection. This is being obtained from Enfield and Sawyer’s Bay.

An Early Accommodation House. An interesting letter written by Mr John Groves at Castlepoint in 1855, extracts from which were published in the "Times-Age” recently, referred, amongst other things, to the extreme scarcity, in those days, of accommodation houses for travellers. "Where •I am living,” Mr Groves wrote, ”is a house for accommodating travellers, for we are in the centre (of the route* from Wellington to a township called Ahuriri (Napier). It is about 120 miles to either place and there is no other public house from here to Ahuriri and but one between here and Wellington.” Some curiosity has been expressed as to the location of the one "public house" between Castlepoint and Wellington at that time. Since the coastal route would be the one in question, it is thought that the location may have been Lake Ferry. Some pioneer or descendant of pioneers may have precise information on the point. If so, the facts would be well worth publishing.