LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Diphtheria Cases. Two cases of diphtheria were reported to tlie Health Inspector al Masterton over the weekend. Model Aeroplane Contests. In connection with the model aeroplane contests held at Wanganui over the weekend. Mr W. G. Perry, of Masterton. was the winner of the petrol model precision contest and not Mr W. R. Perry as reported yesterday. Members of the Kestrel Club, Auckland. also took part in the contest. Prisoner Escapes. For the second time within three weeks. Robert Clarence Clarke, labourer. aged 19. escaped from the prison camp at Rangipo, near Tokaanu, Between Sunday night and early Monday morning. He made his previous bid for liberty on December 15, but was recaptured the following day while making his way through dense bush some miles from the camp. Exchange of Money.

Although some New Zealanders had had trouble in changing money in Australia. Dr C. A. Taylor, of New Plymouth, who returned from Sydney recently, said he had no difficulties in that respect. He had a letter of credit issued before December 5, the date on which the New Zealand Government placed restrictions on the sending of money overseas without a permit. Creating National Asset.

“Money spent upon the development of recreation grounds is undoubtedly creating a national asset,” said the Minister for Labour, the Hon P. C. Webb, when referring recently to the expectation that when the Government’s national sports organisation functioned next year, there would be renewed further demands for sports and other areas. The Minister said he never had hesitated to supply all the labour needed for such purposes, since he considered that every town and city should have a wealth of open spaces for the people. Mountain Memorial.

A stone cairn and bronze memorial tablet were erected last week by members of the Tararua Tramping Club at Cave Camp on the western side of Whitcombe Pass in memory of Mr Norman Dowling, Wellington, who lost his life in an accident near the camp early last year. The bronze tablet was carried across Whitcombe Pass from the Rakaia Rivet' by Messrs S. Davis and D. Freeman, who were with Mr Dowling when he met his death.

Duty on Christmas Parcel. To be placed in the position of an importer of goods from overseas was the experience recently of a Masterton resident who received a parcel of Christmas gifts from relatives in Scotland. Every year such a parcel arrives, with gifts for all members -of the family. This year, three propelling pencils for the three sons were included. First intimation of that fact was received from the Customs Department with a formal demand for the payment of 12s 9d Customs duty. ’Protests to the Department were unavailing and the 12s 9d duty on articles totalling £1 jn value had duly to be paid, for the official reply stated that the goods were “imported” by the recipient. “For next Christmas,” said the recipient of the parcel, “it would seem that the new import regulations will be applied to gift parcels and we will be prohibited from receiving any Christmas presents from abroad unless a licence to ‘import’ them is issued by the Department.” New Zealand’s First Exile.

New Zealand’s first political exile came here in 1839 aboard the New Zealand Company’s advance expedition’s ship “Tory.’/ He was Dr Ernst Dieffenbach. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he had fled to England to avoid persecution for his potitical opinions in his native Germany. In London he got in touch with the New Zealand Company and was engaged as naturalist on their- expedition going out under Colonel William Wakefield to ’spy out the new land. Dieffenbach was a qualified doctor. He proved himself a geologist and explorer. He made the first ascent of Mount Egmont, visited the thermal regions, the Chatham Is* l lands, and the country north of Auckland. He compiled a workman like Maori grammar and vocabularies. He returned to England in 1842 and the next year published his two interesting volumes of travels.

Rat in Department Store, A large rat was the chief actor in an extraordinary incident in a busy department store at Greymouth. Chased from the back of the premises by some excited male members of the stall, the rat dodged about the feet of shrieking shopgirls and shoppers. It even dived over the feet of an astonished policeman who chanced to be talking to the manager of the store. Finally, the rat scurried into the manner's office, where the manager made repeated but futile swings at it, first with a broom (which broke), and then with golf clubs. The store’s cat, with an unblemished record as a ratter, was pressed into service, but, after one disdainful glance at the cause of all the commotion, the cat leaped up on to a chair and took no further interest in the proceedings. The hunt ended dramatically with loud cries from a youth in the office. The rat had apparently climbed up a leg of his trousers. The youth suffered scratches only, but the rat was eventually killed.

Quarrels on the Seeteufel. Mr Colin Moore, who joined the crew of Count von Buckner's yacht Seeteufel in Auckland, said, when he returned to Sydney early in December in the Nieuw Holland, that there had been differences of opinion on board, and that that had been one of his reasons for leaving the vessel. Mr Moore said that a dispute had begun a few hours after the Seeteufel left Cairns, when a young stowaway ,a photographer, was found in a lifeboat. Apparently he had been on board from the time the Seeteufel left Sydney. Count von Luckner put the stowaway ashore at Thursday Island. The dispute continued during the voyage, and on one occasion blows were struck. At Sourabaya an inquiry was held before the German Consul. Later a member of the crew was sent by the German authorities to Batavia to join a ship bound for Hamburg. Count von Luckner cut short his tour of lhe Dutch East Indies during the crisis in September, and, following the order to German shipping to return home, headed the Seeteufel for Europe at full speed. The Count was of the opinion that the affair would blow over, but he obeyed orders to return.