LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 December 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Toheroas and Oysters. ...The toheroa beds on the beach between the Otaki and Waikanae Rivers are closed till January 15 by a regulation issued in last night’s Gazette. Another regulation fixes the opening oi the season for Foveaux Strait oysters as February 15 instead of February 1 as formerly. Charge of Assault.

Charged in the Magistrates’ Court. Wellington, yesterday, with assaulting Cyril Norman Wallis, causing actual bodily harm, Stephen Gregory Crowley, salesman, aged 26, pleaded not guilty and was committed by Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail was allowed.

New Ramp Opened. Without ceremony of any kind the new ramp near Kaiwarra, which gives the first alternative entrance to Wellington was .opened for general traffic for the first time yesterday morning. The event was an important one in the history of traffic ways in the city, as it will eventually mean the diversion ol a large proportion of the incoming and outgoing traffic from Thorndon Quay, which has had almost the sole responsibility in that regard ever since Britannia (Petone) ceased to be and Wellington was decided upon as the chief white settlement on the shores of Port Nicholson. Educational Films.

Advice has been received by the Minister in charge of the Tourist and Publicity Department, Mr Langstone ■that 16mm. films supplied by his department for visual training have been shown to approximately 8000 children in the State .of Montana, Colorado Kansas, Wyoming, Idaho, Dakota anc Nebraska during the months of September, October and' November. This form of education, said the Minister, was much utilised in the United States of America and many universities, and State education authorities were kept supplied with 16mm. films by the-New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department. Weka Pass Deviation. The new road leading into Weka Pass from the south end will probabl) be open before the end of the month. This advice from the' district engineer of the Public Works Department (Mr F. Langbein) was reported to the executive of the Canterbury Progress League by the highways committee. The report said that all the excavation work had virtually been completed and the only work left of any importance was the erection of a bridge across one of the gullies. A contract for this would be let soon. It was expected, the report added, that work would soon be commenced of eliminating the level crossing at Waikari. Caterpillar Pest.

Young maize, potato, tomato and other tender vegetable crops growing on farms in Northern Wairoa districts have been attacked by caterpillars, according to reports received by E. H. Arnold, instructor in agriculture ai Dargaville. As far as can be ascertained, the caterpillars are of the species which usually attacks pastures in the late summer and autumn following floods. It is feared that trouble is likely to be experienced throughout that district wherever crops are being sown, and on this account farmers are being recommended to use poisoned bait.

Large Shoal of Eels. A huge shoal of eels, which took :■ long time to pass a point in the estuary of the Waikato River, and was sc thick that an outboard motor could not be started, was observed by a Pukekohe resident, Mr W. Porter, who returned from a holiday spent in camp on the shores of the Waikato Estuary. The noise made by the eels awakened Mr Porter late at night. He stated that the fish were swimming very close together. Fishing lines were thrown out. but the eels would not bite. Maoris in the district told Mr Porter that the eels had probably been down to the sea to spawn and would not bite when returning in shoals. Return from Abroad. Mr P. N. Denton, Oriental Bay, Wellington, who returned from a world Lour on Tuesday, and who was one of the Wellington delegates to the Rotary International Conference held in San Francisco earlier in the year, speaks of the wonderful feeling which permeated that great gathering in that attractive city within the Golden Gate From California he, with his wife, and daughter, Miss Molly Denton, visited Canada en route to England. While they were in the United States of America there was a good deal of watersid trouble, but the general belief was that the worst of the depression was behind them and there were better times ahead.

Home by Aeroplane. A Union Airways Lockheed machine was chartered yesterday by eight Public Works Department employees on Great Barrier Island to fly them to Auckland for Christmas. The journey, which by steamer takes six hours and a half, was completed in 25 minutes. The machine piloted by Commander White, with Mr A. N. Patterson as copilot, left Mangere Aerodrome at three o’clock in the afternoon. There were two women passengers who are to spend a holiday on the island. The machine landed at 3.30 on the new aerodrome, no difficulty being experienced. The distance to the island by air is about 60 miles. The return journey was accomplished in even faster Lime than the outward. With eight Public Works Department employees, a woman, and a boy a.s passengers, the machine left the island al 3.50 p.m., and reached Mangere at 4.15. The men are engaged in the construction of an aerodrome and roads on the island, and had not visited Auckland for some months.