LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Theft of Masonic Equipment. Expensive articles of Masonic equipment were stolen by an intruder from the Masonic Hall in Remuera Road, Auckland, on Monday night. Landing Competition. On Sunday, Mr J. Wenden, of Greytown, won the landing competition at the Hood Aerodrome, ' the prize, an hour’s free flying, having been donated by Mr W. Paku. Billiards and Snooker. Billiards and snooker games in the Y.M.C.A. Cup competition will be continued tonight, when the Y.M.C.A. B team will play Daniell’s. Next Tuesday night, Pioneers and Y.M.C.A. A will meet. Rush for Flats. An indication of the housing shortage in Wellington is given by the rush to rent a projected new block of flats in Oriental parade, near the central fire brigade station. All the flats were let before the foundations were set. There are to be 18 flats in the block, which will be three storeys in height. Hawke’s Bay Football "learn. The Hawke’s Bay representative football team will arrive in Masterton on Friday night and will meet the Wairarapa fifteen at the Memorial Park on Saturday afternoon. On Saturday evening the visitors will be the guests oi the Red Star Football Club at a dance in the Arcade Hall, this being the official function of the Wairarapa Rugby Union. A Gifted Cartoonist. During his stay in London, Mr Harold Whittle, the pianist, who has now returned to Wellington, on several occasions met Mr David Low, the celebrated cartoonist, whose home was Christchurch. Mr Whittle said Mr Low was probably the strongest cat - toonist in the world at present, and New Zealand should be proud of him, as he had no superior in this department of art. “Tantamount to Treason.” “A failure to vote is tantamount to treason,” said Professor R. M. Algie, organiser of the Auckland Provincial Freedom Association, in an address at Auckland, in referring to the apathy of many electors. The failure of people to vote, the speaker continued, was injuring others as well as themselves. The correct attitude should be that, instead of electors having to be conveyed to polls in motor cars, they should allow nothing to keep them away. Women in Parliament. Many of the occupants of the galleries in the House of Representatives during the closing stages of the Ad-dress-in-Reply debate last evening included delegates attending the conference of the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union, and precedent was over-ridden in order to give them seating accommodation. They occupied seats in the gallery reserved exclusively for Legislative Councillors, on the floor of the House, in the men’s public gallery, and in the weekly Press gallery. The only previous occasion on which women have been on the floor of the House that those with a long Parliamentary association can recollect was when makeshift seating arrangements were made in the room used as a chamber after the fire that destroyed Parliament Buildings in 1907. Fear Complex. A suggestion that statements emanating from Government members were responsible in a large measure for scaring the people was made by Mr R. A. Wright (Independent, Wellington Suburbs), when speaking in the debate on the Address-in-Reply in the House of Representatives last night. “We have heard a good deal about what the Prime Minister calls ..fear-complex,” said Mr Wright. “We are told that those who are opposed to the Government are to create fear in the minds of the people, that they are using language likely to mislead, and that, in fact, they are doing everything that is contrary to fair play. Well, I agree there is a fear complex in New Zealand. I go further and say that every thoughtful man and woman in this country is suffering from it. The position is due largely to statements made by Government members themselves.”

Bomber Overturns. When the three Vildebeeste bombers from the Air Force station at Wigram were on a training flight to Auckland yesterday morning, one developed engine trouble, necessitating a landing at an emergency aerodrome at Lake Grassmere, a Blenheim Press Association message reports. The two other machines followed it into the landing, the second, which was caught by a heavy gust of wind just as it was coming to rest, being overturned. Rough southerly weathor was prevailing at the time, with sleety rain, and one of the other machines had a narrow escape from a similar mishap. All the planes, which were under the command of Flight Lieutenant Cohen, carried a complement of three, but no one in the damaged bomber suffered injury. The damage to the machine consists of a broken propeller blade and cjpmaged wings. The damaged machine will be taken to Christchurch by road. The other two planes will probably fly back to Christchurch instead of continuing the flight to Auckland. The Arbitration Act. Work done under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act during the year ended March 31 last is reviewed in the annual report of the Department of Labour, presented in the House of Representatives. Industrial agreements filed totalled 77, as compared with 60 the previous year, and awards of the Court of Arbitration numbered 216, as against 127 the year before. The report states that awards and industrial agreements actually in force on March 31, 1938, totalled 598. On the corresponding date of the previous year the number was 469. Statistics were also given in the report showing the work performed by commissioners and conciliation councils. Industrial agreements totalled 77, as compared with 60 in the year 1936-37, disputes where recommendations were substantially accepted or agreements reached and referred to the court to make awards numbered 145, as against 206, and disputes where partial settlements were arrived at and referred to the court to make awards, totalled 98, as against 67 the previous year.

Slight earth tremors were registered in Australia during several nights recently. Local enthusiasts explain that it was 1 only Bradman digging himself in.

The St Matthew’s Collegiate School Parents’ Association will hold its annual fancy dress party for children on Saturday, July 16, in the School Assembly Hall, commencing at 2.30 p.m.