LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 August 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hospital Apparatus.

The Wairarapa Hospital Board, at its meeting yesterday, decided to purchase a gas and oxygen apparatus for the operating theatre at the Masterton Hospital. The cost of the apparatus, which is most modern, and is considered very necessary, is £l5B 10s. Children in Hospital.

The Women’s National Welfare League advised the Wairarapa Hospital Board at its meeting yesterday that Miss Brockett had volunteered to instruct children in the Masterton Hospital in handcrafts. It was decided to thank the League for its assistance in the matter. Subsidy on Hemp.

A subsidy on hemp exported at an average maximum rate of £7 10s a ton —the highest subsidy paid by any Government to the flax industry, is announced in a letter to Mr G. L. Lowry, M.P., from the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon D. G. Sullivan, following representations by the Foxton Chamber of Commerce.

Vapour Street Lights. “At the request of the Masterton Borough Council, a scheme for the further extension of the mercury vapour street lighting on the north and south ends of Queen Street is receiving consideration,” stated the engineer, Mr H. B. Keenan, in his report at today’s meeting of the Wairarapa Electric Power Board. Animals for Zoo.

Several large consignments of wild animals are expected shortly for the Wellington Zoo. Three American bison, a black bear and two brown ones, and a family of beaver, gifts of the Canadian Government, are awaiting shipment from Vancouver. A leopard and a number of monkeys, cranes and pheasants of various species are coming from India, and several wallabies from Tasmania.

Appeal to Schools. The Wellington Education Board, at its meeting yesterday, agreed to a request from the New Zealand Council for the “adoption” of Chinese Refugee Children, that an appeal be made to all schools under the board’s jurisdiction to “adopt” Chinese orphans by paying £4 a year for their upkeep. The New Zealand Educational Institute has been asked to undertake the work, which will thus be handled by the teachers. Farmers’ Union.

A recommendation that one provincial executive be set up for the whole of Hawke’s Bay, with its centre at Waipukurau, was made in a resolution carried at a conference at Waipukurau of nearly 30 delegates from branches of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union in northern, southern and central Hawke’s Bay, presided over by Mr J. D. Ormond, jun., chairman of the Waipukurau branch. Power Board Staff.

’ “At the present time we are extremely busy and understaffed in all departments,” the engineer, Mr H. B. Keenan, reported at today’s meeting of the Wairarapa Power Board. “Owing to the lack of skilled labour, we cannot keep abreast of the work in hand and coming foi’ward,” he added. “We have reached a stage in the central area when it is necessary to ask consumers to wait three months before starting with the. work.”

Chairman by Lot. Chance was the final factor yesterday in' the selection of a new chairman for the Auckland Education Board, in succession to Mr T. U. Wells, who has retired.. The two nominees, Messrs C. R. Munro, and W. J. Campbell, each had six vote's. The secretary of the board, Mr D. W. Dunlop, who presided for the election, exercised the powers conferred by the Act governing the elections, and drew Mr Campbell’s name from a hat. The board passed a resolution expressing appreciation of Mr Wells’s services as chairman. Railway Deviation.

Steady progress is being made on the Okoia-Turakina ’railway deviation, which, when finished, will save four miles, many long grades and steep curves in the Wellington-New Plymouth line. The deviation work extends for ten miles and includes two tunnels, one short and one long, and many steep cuttings. There are approximately 180 chains of tunnelling to be done, and about one-third has been accomplished in about 15 months. The remainder of the work on the deviation is estimated to take about another three years. Pure Accident. “It is a very sad and dreadful tragedy indeed. I am satisfied that it was a pure accident,” said the coroner, Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., after hearing evidence at the inquest into the deaths of Mrs Vera Esma Lawson and her three children, Joan, aged 13, Peter, aged 9, and Gladys, aged 6, whose bodies were recovered from a motor car submerged in Auckland harbour as a result of an accident on the evening of July 27. The car had been driven by her husband and father of the children, Harold James Lawson, printer’s foreman, who escaped through the window of the car and made heroic attempts to rescue his family.

Zoo Tragedy. The bison which has been for many years a sober and sedentary resident of a sequestered corner of the Newtown Zoo, recently threw off his accustomed lethargy and, careering wildly round his hillside paddock, stumbled over a tree root and broke his neck. The bison was kept in a steeply sloping paddock at the back of the Zoo, where he spent his time grazing with ultra 1 - bovine phlegm and chewing theS cud. Visitors usually devoted small time to gazing at his shaggy bulk on account of its invariable lack of activity. Recently, however, he took to galloping wildly round the padock, and presumably when doing so tripped over a projecting root and fell. He was found by the keepers with his neck broken, obviously by a. violent impact. Sale of Bulls and Rams for Meat. A prohibition on the sale of bulls and rams for human consumption is to be sought by the Christchurch City Council. A report to the council on Monday night by the by-laws committee said, that during the depression the Government had passed a regulation allowing rams and bulls free from disease to be passed for local consumption, the carcases to be branded “ram” or “bull’’ on the outside of the four quarters. It had been pointed'out that a retailer could remove these brands or sell the unbranded parts as ox beef or wether mutton, and such a thing encouraged exploitation. As a by-law could not override a Government regulation, it was considered that the Government should be asked to delete this regulation. The suggestion was approved by the council.