LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Road Race Cancelled.

Owing to the lack of entries due to possible competitors being absent on school holidays, it has been decided to cancel the Jock Nutt memorial road race this year. Mawley Park.

Mawley Park camping ground has been exceptionally well patronised over the Christmas and New Year holidays and visiting motorists have expressed appreciation of the splendid camping facilities provided in picturesque surroundings. Escape from Jail.

Arrested on warrant on Monday for failure to pay a fine of £5, a prisoner escaped from the Greymouth jail at noon on Tuesday and has not been located. The prisoner, who was serving a sentence of seven days’ imprisonment, was given work in an outbuilding and a quarter of an hour later was missing. Yachting Contest.

The first event of the 1939 New Zealand Idle Along yachting championship. sailed at Nelson yesterday, resulted in one of the finest races ever witnessed on the harbour. A masterly display of sailing resulted in a win for the Wellington boat, Tornado, with Rose Marie (Bay of Plenty) second, and Mayfair (Nelson) third. Scotsman’s Tragedy.

To lose a shilling and to find a halffarthing while looking for it, would not worry the average person very much. They might even consider themselves fortunate to find such a rare coin. But that this should happen to a Scotsman, visiting his home town, Dunedin, seems little short of a calamity. Loudly he bemoans the loss of lljd, and is determined to return and have another look for his shilling. Not so Unlucky.

Today, Friday, January 13, is allegedly an unlucky day, but one young Masterton car salesman has not found it so. Two hours’ work this morning resulted in the sale of a new and a second hand car. Incidentally, tne market for cars in Masterton has held up well after the holidays and in spite of import restrictions and so forth, people still apparently have sufficient spare cash to invest in motor cars. Forced Landing.

Through losing his way in a thick Cog while flying from Blenheim to Masterton yesterday morning, Mr D. Stewart, a member of the Wairarapa Aero Club, had to make a forced land-ing-in a field at Makara. Residents said that the Moth aeroplane which Mr Stewart was flying circled several times before landing. Through cattle being in the way slight damage was done to a wing of the machine, and this will have to be repaired before the aeroplane is flown. The pilot was not injured. Lives Saved by Blood Transfusion. Nearly 30 lives have been saved by members of the North Canterbury branch of the National Blood Transfusion Service of New Zealand, who provided 116 donors for blood transfusions during 1938. Eighty-five of the calls were to the Christchurch Public Hospital. The Canterbury branch has a membership of 187, including 152 men and 35 women. The honorary medical adviser of the branch, Dr. Edgar Thomson, has resigned as he has been given an important position in Australia. Friday, the 13th.

What is regarded by superstitious people as potentially one of the most unlucky days of the year is today, Friday, January 13. Friday has always been thought of as a bad day on which to begin a journey, job or undertaking. As it is also the 13th, which is an unlucky number, the coupling of the two together, as they are today, forebodes ill for superstitious people. It is the first of the two occasions this year (the other being October 13) when this date and day of the week coincide. Advertising Results.

A classified advertisement which appeared in the “Times-Ages” on Tuesday for a lost hub cap of a car, has brought forth three such discoveries. The one advertised for was found in Carterton. another was found by a subscriber at Clareville and to-day a telephone call from a subscriber at Te Wharau reported one found in that district. All were lost before Christmas and the advertisement appeared only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Smoke from Australia.

Dull cloudy weather with an unusual orange-yellow light experienced in Auckland during yesterday is presumed to have been caused by smoke from Australian bush fires which has drifted across the Tasman Sea. The westerly disturbances ruling at present have evidently carried the smoke across the oceah, forming a thick haze in the sky. This phenomenon was experienced some years ago when the Commonwealth Meteorologist said that smoke could travel further than ■ o New Zealand from Victoria. A smoke haze was also reported from Whangarei.

The Doctor’s Bill. As one of several medical mon in Dunedin who commented on the position said, there must be higher ideals among patients in Dunedin than in New Plymouth, where some patients have ceased to pay their doctors bills because of the Social Security Act. Seven Dunedin doctors were asked whether the pending introduction of the Act was influencing their patients over payment of their bills, and each unreservedly said that their accounts were being paid promptly, though reservations were naturally made at this time of the year for the shortness of ready cash occasioned through holiday spending.

Casein Factory to Close. The pioneer factory for manufacturing casein in New Zealand, which js owned by the New Zealand Casein Company, Ltd., at Aramaho, will close at the end of this month as a result of the falling off in supplies. Most of the supplies which the factory formerly received and which can be used to manufacture cheese have been diverted for that purpose, as this is found by suppliers to be more satisfactory under the Government’s butter and cheese purchase scheme. The balance is not sufficient to warrant keeping the factory open. The factory has been operating for 25 years, and about three years ago, when it was employing 50 men, its output for the season was as much as 1500 tons. At the beginning of this season it was expected that the output would be about 900 tons, but it is understood that the company manufactured only about 300 tons.