LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 January 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Provincial History. An official history of the Wellington Provincial district is being written by Mr Alan Mulgan as a centennial project. Chinese Children Relief Fund.

The Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, acknowledges a donation of £4 to the Chinese Children’s Relief Fund from Mr and Mrs C. A. Carmine. Grass and Rubbish Fires.

The Masterton Fire Brigade received two calls yesterday afternoon, one at 4 o’clock to a grass fire in a vacant section in Cornwall Street and the second at 4.20 o’clock to a rubbish fire at 54 Bannister Street. No damage was done to property. College Days Recalled.

The Hon W. Perry, M.L.C., raised a laugh in the Municipal Social Hall last night when acknowledging a vote of thanks moved by the Mayor, Mr T. Jordan. “I cannot help having a jibe at my old friend and schoolmaster, Tom Jordan,” he said, adding: "In the last two minutes he has given me more praise than I received from him in the two years I was at Wellington College.” Plague of Rats.

Rats of large size and various hues are much in evidence in one part of Ponsonby, Auckland, the infested area being the site of an old tram barn at Wallace Street, which is now covered with houses and flats. During recent weeks residents there have remarked on the large number of rats seen. One resident counted five playing round his back lawn, and another morning, when a householder opened the back door, he saw a rat of remarkable size sitting on the back verandah. It is supposed that the concrete foundation of the old barn was the original home of a rat colony, which appears to have increased considerably of late. Power for Mangonui.

The first shipment or electric power poles to arrive at Awanui for the reticulation of the Mangonui County is on hand. The Bay of Islands Power Board, which has just begun the reticulation of its large territory, has arranged for the landing of power poles at various points within the area. Those landed at Awanui will be used for the Kaitaia area and the western part of the Mangonui County. The board’s survey gang is at present working in the Kaikohe district, but will later move to the Kaitaia area. A construction gang is expected to start the reticdlation of the Kaitaia area in about two months’ time.

Thorough and Suspicious. The German Government is thorough and suspicious. Even the modest stamp collector’s letters are subject to rigid censorship before permission is granted for them to proceed out of Germany to their appointed destinations. Only in one way—strictly enforced —can this be avoided at times. Prominent on the envelopes containing letters from stamp dealers, appears the ungainly word “devisengenemigung.” This, translated into the more familiar English, means quite simply that the transmitter has the permission of the authorities to exchange postage stamps. How many New Zealand stamp collectors would appreciate such thoroughness to the full? Farming in England.

“Farming in ■sngw.nu is in a bad way, much of the poorer land is going out of cultivation, and during my visit I saw many derelict farms,” said Mr R. J. Richards, headmaster of Christ’s College, who has returned to Christchurch after a visit of six months to England, in an interview. He supported the view expressed by Canon S. Parr on his return last week that English farming was going back, saying he considered that it did not pay the English farmer to grow many of the things which were imported from overseas. “I heard high praise for New Zealand butter everywhere I went in England,” Mr Richards said. “The people prefer New Zealand butter to Danish butter, and they also prefer it to English farm butter. When this is so it is hardly to be expected that there will be much encouragement for the English farmer.” Sport in Japan.

With the exception of cricket, the Japanese took part in the same sports as New Zealanders, said Mr H. Ogasawana, of Osaka, when discussing his country in an interview in Christchurch. In addition, the American game of-baseball was very popular, being played all the year round. Skiing and skating were also very popular sports, and there were a large number of ski clubs in North Japan, where there was ample snow for. this sport during the Winter. Mount Fujiyama (12,391 feet), about 100 to 150 miles from Tokyo, was climbed by many persons, including tourists, during the summer, but was not safe for mountaineering during the winter. Another much-visited place was Hakone, where the hot springs were on a much larger scale than those at Rotorua. Sea fishing was more popular than river fishing, the rivers in Japan being much swifter than those in New Zealand, he said.