LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 October 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Fire in a Cupboard. A fire in a cupboard in the kitchen at Sedgley Boys’ Home was responsible for the Masterton Fire Brigade being called out at 8.45 o’clock last night. The flames were put. out by an extinquisher before the brigade reached the scene and what little damage occurred was confined to the cupboard and its contents. Natural Gas at Hastings. A chance strike of a pocket of natural gas by contractors who are boring for artesian water in the Hastings Civic Square gave rise to much conjecture in Hastings as to the possibilities of mineral resources beneath the town. The gas pocket was tapped at a depth of 110 feet, and gave out after the pipe bore had been driven a little further. The gas was apparently contained in a small pocket which was ounctured by the pipe, and was not under high pressure, for although the noise of it escaping from the too of the nipe was sufficient to be heard above the noise of the motor operating the boring apparatus, the gas gave a flame only about a foot high when it was ignited by a match. Postal Facilities. Because many Auckland city pillarboxes were in awkward positions that necessitated mailmen having to turn their vans in busy thoroughfares, the postal authorities have made alterations in the location of boxes, and planned others. A case in point was the one at the north-eastern corner of Wyndham and Albert Streets, which has been renlaced with a rectangular box attached to the telephone Dole at the south-eastern corner of the two streets. The changes will make for more efficient handling of the mail, and there will be a greater measure of safety for the van drivers.

“Leaving It To Sleep.” “What is the Government’s attitude toward the country quota?” asked a young man in the audience, at the conclusion of a meeting addressed by the Hon. R. Semple, Labour candidate for Wellington East, at Seatoun last night. “That question has got whiskers on it, my boy,” replied Mr Semple. “The Government hasn’t given the country quota one minute’s thought. We are leaving it where it is, as far as I know. We have never discussed it in any shape or form. It is not worrying us; there are bigger things worrying us. We are leaving it sleep where it is—in peace and simplicity.” The toll of the motor. “New Zealand has gone for 16 days without a single death on the road. The Dominion has just created a record not only for itself, but also probably for the whole world,” said the Minister of Transport, the Hon R. Semple, in a statement yesterday. Mr Semple said it was a record period of freedom from fatal road accidents since the accident statistical system was started. “During the first seven days of October last year 10 persons lost their lives in road accidents,” said the Minister. "Not a single week in the past 18 months has passed without a traffic fatality, and in one week last year, 13 lives were lost on the roads. In the 18 months there have been few, periods of more than four days free from a'fatal road accident,and' the record span was one of six days, in July last year. Last month produced the lowest accident figures since December, 1936, there being 12 road deaths, compared with 17 in September last year.”

Southland Dairy Season. “After the extremely dry season in Southland the flow of cream to the factory slackened materially and our intake has been 26 per cent less than in the previous year,” said the annual report of the Southland Dairy Farmers’ Federation, Ltd. “The season was only partially responsible for this drop, a strong influencing factor being the number of dairymen either going completely out of dairying or reducing their operations within a compass that eliminated the necessity of labour outside the farmer’s own household. Now, whatever may be the underlying motive for this action, the fact remains that there has been a falling off in dairying activity in Southland and whenever a serious departure from any regular course in agriculture takes place it is invariably proved that the change has been brought about because the particular course has ceased to pay as well as other tried methods or prospective avenues.” Private Oyster Beds? Advice that the chamber’s opinions upon oyster cultivation as a private enterprise were receiving consideration has been received by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce from the Minister for Marine (the Hon. P. Fraser). At the beginning of August the chamber wrote to the Minister drawing his attention to the recommendation of the Sea Fischeries Investigation Committee that settlers in districts where the Government was not in the oyster business should have the right to lease the foreshore abutting their land for the purpose of cultivating oysters and asking what action was going to be taken. In his letter the Minister has stated that a reply was deferred for consideration of the committee’s findings, which were far-reaching and worthy of deep consideration before a definite decision could be given. At present he could do no more than assure the chamber that the matter was being considered.