LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1938, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Poverty Bay Oil Well. The New Zealand Petroleum Company advises that the Totangi borehole (Poverty Bay), which was started on October 12, had reached a depth of 527 ft on November 1. The stratum penetrated is sandstone core. Samples are being taken every 100 ft. Slip Cleared.

The slip on the railway line between Kaitoke and the Summit was cleared yesterday afternoon and normal traffic was resumed. The only train to be held up by the obstruction was the northward bound morning mail train. New Election Record. At the 1938 General Election 92.85 pei' cent of the number of voters on the effective roll exercised their franchise. This is a record for the Dominion. The total effective roll number.was 994,199. The number of valid votes recorded totalled 917,689, and there were 6396 informal votes cast. The total number of votes cast was therefore 924,085, and the number of electors who did not vote was 71,114.

Armistice Day. An official notice published in the Gazette issued last evening, requests citizens and traffic-control authorities throughout New Zealand to observe on Armistice Day (November 11) the practice adopted in this Dominion on former similar occasions—two minutes’ silence from 11 a.m., and the suspension of all vehicular traffic during that period. If a service is held it is suggested it should take place at the local cenotaph or war memorial. Dairy Production Down.

In common with other parts of the North Island, practically all the dairy companies in the Wairarapa are experiencing a season in which production is below the average. Of late, however, the position has improved somewhat and it is hoped that the beneficial rains will see the figures rise to something like normal. In some districts farmers have experienced heavy losses of cows through paralysis, which affects them in the back. Christmas Lamb Trade.

The first draft of Wairarapa lambs for the Home Christmas trade were killed at Waingawa last week. The lambs killed out exceptionally well, and in the main the quality and condition of the first line showed an improvement on last season. Sheep and lambs in the Wairarapa have done well this season, and a good year is anticipated by export firms. Poor prices are likely, however, to be the order. By the middle of this month the killing season at Waingawa will be in full swing. Child Falls out of Motor Car.

Falling out of a motor-car, the door of which suddenly flew open, a three-year-old- child, Billy Kerikeri, Havelock North, received a fractured skull on the Taupo-Rotorua highway yesterday afternoon, later being admitted to the Rotorua Hospital in a very serious condition. The child was travelling in a car together with William Mold, the driver, Mrs Kerikeri, mother of the child, and two other Havelock North residents, when the door suddenly opened. The child was thrown violently to the bitumen road, being picked up badly injured. Loder Cup Competition.

The executive of the. Forest and Bird Protection Society has nominated the president, Captain E. V. Sanderson, as a New Zealander worthy of having his name inscribed on the Loder Cup. The cup, which is open for competition to the whole of New Zealand; will be awarded to the person or organisation who, or which, in the opinion of the committee, has performed the most meritorious act during the year ending on November 30 next, or whose work has culminated in that year in furthering the sentiments of the donor as expressed on the cup itself, ‘to encourage the protection and cultivation of the incomparable flora of the Dominion.” Church Facing a Crisis.

“We realise that the Church is facing a crisis,” said Dr Salmon, Director of Youth Work, at the Presbyterian Assembly at Dunedin yesterday, when discussing references to evangelism in a report of the life and work committee. “We are living in an age where the drift is toward collectivism and we should be thinking in terms of evangelism,” he said. “The church isn’t in touch with a large section of people, and the time has arrived to make a definite attempt to contact with the people. We are out of touch with a large section of the medical profession and organised labour.” He suggested that the Church should make a demonstration by Christians meeting in the face of all “isms” and making a vital impact on the minds of various dynamic groups. This was a matter of urgency at this time, when there was such a ferment of social and political ideas.

Died by the Roadside. A verdict of death from acute dropsy of the lungs associated with disease of the heart muscle was returned by the district coroner, Mr E. Gilbertson, J.P., at an inquest at Upper Hutt yesterday into the death of Eleanor Dinnan, widow, aged 62, who was found dead on Pinehaven Road, Silverstream, at 7 a.m. last Friday. The evidence showed that Mrs Dinnan came from Pahiatua and had been staying with her daughter, Mrs A. Bending, Silverstream. She went to Wellington last Friday morning to see a sister who was leaving for Australia. She was to arrive back at Silverstream by the 10.15 p.m. train and had arranged for a taxi to meet her at the station. However, she did not arrive by that train, and it was presumed that she was staying with friends in Wellington for the evening. Next morning she was found dead on the roadside. She had apparently arrived by the midnight train and decided to walk to Mrs Bending’s home—a distance of a mile and a half.