LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A Glorious Sight. Victoria Street, Masterton, now presents a glorious sight, through the flowering of Japanese cherry blossom. The spectacle is one which is worth going a long way to view. Patrols and Traffic Inspectors.

At the monthly meeting of the Wairarapa Automobile Association it was resolved that in future the Association’s patrols would not assist traffic inspectors in apprehending drivers lacking licenses and certificates of fitness, and that whenever traffic inspectors required the co-operation of the patrols the consent of the association must be first obtained, the secretary to be empowered to give the Association’s consent.

Injured in Motor Accident. Injuries necessitating her removal to hospital were received by Mrs Ellen McCallum, aged 65, Pukekohe West and William Thomas Dazeley, aged 67, Pukekohe, in an accident at Otahuhu last night. They were driving southward in a light motor-car when the vehicle came into violent collision at an intersection with a heavy lorry. Mr Dazeley, who was driving, received shock, concussion and an injury to an arm. Mrs McCullum was injured on the head and knee and received concussion. The motor-car was practically wrecked.

Last-'minute Sensations. “There will be last-minute sensations produced by our opponents,” the Hon A, Hamilton said in his broadcast address from Wellington last night. ‘That is a detestable method of fighting. If anything is worth believing, it can be brought out publicly before the last few days of a campaign. Let all matters come out into the open and have the light of truth and reason shine fully upon them. What is not fit to lay frankly before, the public a month before polling day is not fit to produce at the last minute. These last minute methods are a despicable feature of modern political life.”

Conscience Money. No fewer than eight persons have been troubled by uneasy consciences in New Zealand recently, a notice in the Gazette issued last week bearing the following statement by the Secretary to the Treasury (Mr G. C. Rodda): —“I hereby acknowledge receipt of the' following amounts forwarded by persons unknown as consciencemoney to the New Zealand Government,” and a list of the amounts received follows. The sums range from 2s 6d to the Post and Telegraph Department to £5 to the Land and Income Tax Department, six departments benefiting in all, the Railway Department receiving three sums.

Labour Party Dance. The Masonic Hall, Masterton, was well filled last night, when the social committee of the Masterton Branch of the New Zealand Labour Party held a very successful dance. Mr E. Esler was a capable M.C., and the Blue River Dance Band kept things going with a swing. A Monte Carlo competition was won by Miss Z. Jensen and Mr R. E. Wilton; Supper was served by the ladies committee, under the direction of Mrs P. Dixon. During the evening,; Mr J. Robertson thanked the dancers for attending, and expressed his. confidence in a Labour victory on Saturday at the polls. Mr Robertson was accorded musical honours, followed by three hearty cheers. . Fatal Accident. When he was struck by a descending lift at Queen's Wharf, Wellington, at about one o’clock yesterday afternoon, Mr T. H. Gillings, carpenter, 267 Ohiro Road, received severe head injuries causing almost instant death. The lift was a temporary one erected to hoist building materials for the alterations being carried out on the Wellington Harbour Board’s premises ■ at the entrance to Queen’s Wharf. Mr Gillings, who was employed by the board, was working on some scaffolding beside the lift and apparently put his head through a gap in the shaft to speak to another worker while the lift was descending. The Free Ambulance, which was summoned at once, arrived a few minutes afterward, but life was found to be extinct. Vandalism in Bush.

Criticisms of wanton destruction of native flowers and foliage in bush near motor roads was expressed in Auckland by the Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon W. E. Parry). Motor travellers must feel a deep admiration for the- beauty which the native bush, flowers and surrounding pastures gave at this time of the year, he said, but they must also feel critical when they saw pieces of beautiful clematis picked from the trees which they entwined and left to wither on the roadside. “I saw some examples of this unthoughtfulness on Friday,”- said Mr Parry, “and I feel I am not asking too much of our people to think of the charm to the eye and mind the clematis and ferns give when growing unharmed in the bush.”

Shooting of Sheep. Over a period of a month, 13 ewes have been shot on the East Coast Commission’s station (Poverty Bay). According to the police, the facts disclose wanton killing, as no attempt has been made to remove any meat from the carcases. A month or two ago several lambs were shot at Whangarei, but ir this case the animals killed were fullgrown ewes. The first report received by the police was to the effect that seven ewes had been shot. Later in the month two others were reported to have been killed, and then one on Monday morning. It is learned that a further three sheep died in a similar way. All the sheep had been killed by being shot in the head or neck, and each carcase bore traces of having beer shot at twice with a small calibre rifle. School Teams’ Spirit. “The Christ’s College teams, and T think the bulk of New Zealand school teams, play their matches in the best spirit, a most important factor because there has been for some time past too great a tendency to forget the game in looking for a win,” said Mr C. M. Turrell, president of the Christ’s CollegeOld Boys’ Association, at the annual dinner of the association. “This is not peculiar to New Zealand or to schools, and I sometimes marvel at newspaper references to our national contests. The losses are exaggerated into national tragedies. The winning of the rubber overshadows all else, and th<? game is forgotten as a game. Christ’s College and similar schools can check this sort of thing by sending out men into our various sports who will play games for the game’s sake, without too much concentration on the prize,”