LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 January 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Unseasonable- Weather. Masterton is still experiencing unseasonable weather. During the 24 hours ended 9 a.m. today. 9 points of rain were registered, while a frost of 3.3 degrees was recorded this morning. Wairarapa College.

An imposing brick and concrete fence has ben erected at the Cornwall Street entrance to Wairarapa College, while bricks from the dismantled pavilion have been used to good effect in improving the drive. Work on clearing-up and laying out the grounds is proceeding apace. Government Houses.

Good progress is being made by the contractors with the erection of the twenty State houses on the western side of the town in the vicinity of Cornwall Street. Mastertn. Some are almost ready for occupation. A fully equipped children’s play ground is also being laid out near the new block of houses. New Zealand’s Centennial. From the start of the new financial year in April a beginning will be made to mature official plans for the celebration of New Zealand’s centennial commencing at the end of 1939. The organisation for the big event will be. probably, the largest ever attempted in the Dominion, the Government, all local and kindred bodies uniting in the work to give it the national scope the occasion warrants. Profitable Pea Harvest.

A harvest of peas grown on the 70 acres of flood silted land in the vicinity of Poplar Grove. Pakowhai, Hawke’s Bay, for canning purposes, averaged three and a half tons to the acre, and gave a total of a quarter of a million cans of peas. The value of the crop to the grower was £54 an acre, which, considering that the land was in use for only three months, was an excellent return. During the period when the peas were being picked, no fewer than 500 persons were given employment.

Meeting of Cabinet. The first meeting of Cabinet for the New Year was held yesterday, the only Minister absent being the Leader of the Legislative Council, Mr Fagan, who is a member of the Executive Council without portfolio. Cabinet sat in the morning and afternoon. The Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, in an interview last evening, said Ministers had returned after the holidays in fine fettle. Routine business had been dealt with and general policy discussed. Cabinet will meet again tomorrow.

Election Petition. It is understood that formal withdrawal of the petition against the return and election of Mr C. W. Boswell as member of Parliament for the Bay of Islands is to be lodged with the Registrar of the Supreme Court in Whangarei today, when the legal recess ends. The petitioners stated that Maoris were wrongly included on the roll, that there were cases of minors voting and that the public declaration of the number' of votes received by candidates was incorrect. A sitting of the Election Court for the hearing of the petition was originally fixed for January 17.

Tw.enty-four' Hour Strike. After having been on strike for 24 hours, men at the Kamo Collieries Ltd.’s mine at Whangarei, resumed work at about 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Trouble developed between the mine management and the men on Monday afternoon when five men who had taken extended leave during the weekend were stood down for a further day. The men concerned had been engaged on one of the trucking shifts and members of the other trucking shifts struck in sympathy, throwing the whole mine out of operation and rendering 70 men idle. However, when the five men agreed to recommence work at the time stipulated by the management late yesterday operations were started again.

State Reading Policy. Praise of the Public Works and Transport Dapartments by users of the highways which he had heard during the Christmas and New Year holiday period was referred to by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Parry in a statement on his return to Wellington yesterday. This, he considered, was sufficient to justify all connected with the policy, administration and work of these departments feeling proud of their achievements. “Gone, or are going, are all the dangerous bends, rutty and pot-hole surfaces of roads north, south, east and west,” Mr. Parry said. "Today a motorist, or a cyclist, exercising ordinary care—which means safety—can obtain with little effort a maximum of pleasure travelling almost anywhere over the network of roads in the Dominion.”

Whenuapai Military Aerodrome. Substantially assisted by mechanical appliances and working two shifts, rapid progress is being made by the contractor with the levelling excavations necessary for the establishment of the new aerodrome for military purposes in Whenuapai, ten miles from Auckland. The area comprises about 680 acres and trees, cross-fences and other obstructions have been removed for the construction of four ; runways of approximately 1800 yards in length, placed to permit of landings by aircraft according to the direction of the wind. Tenders have already been called for the erection of hangars. The scheme involves considerable reading and this is being undertaken by the Public Works Department. Several roads on the area will

j be closed. Industrial Harmony. After an address in Christchurch by the Minister of Labour. Mr Webb, oil the. plan for creating an advisory council of industry, several speakers expressed appreciation and promised support from the organisations they represented. The gathering included representatives of such bodies as the Federation of Labour, the Canterbury Sheep Owners’ Union, the, South Island Freezing Companies’ Association, the Alliance of Labour, the chamber of commerce, and the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. A further

meeting is to be called through the local office of the Labour Department. Several times in his address Mr Webb appealed for greater harmony in industry so that employers and workers might get together and assist the Government in working for industry's common good. He discussed many aspects of employment, including public works, the supply of farm labour and the use of youth to run modern machinery which displaced men. and the nature of the activities of Labour Department inspectors, whose aim was to have as few court cases as possible.