LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 March 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Malicious False Alarm. The Masterton Fire Brigade received a. call to Johnston Street at 11.15 p.m. yesterday, but on arrival it was found that some person had broken the street alarm box. Staff Picnic. During the week-end the staff of the Wairarapa Electric Power Board, accompanied by friends, journeyed to Riversdale for the annual staff picnic. The. perfect weather made bathing a pleasure. Baseball was played on the beach and was thoroughly enjoyed. Band Display. Several thousand people gathered at Newtown Park, Wellington, yesterday afternoon for a massed bands display in aid of the Warwick Humphreys Trust Fund. The Mayor of Wellington, Mr T. C. A. Hislop, was present on the dais to take the salute and welcome participants. Twelve bands, comprising some 300 bandsmen, took part. Taranaki Rail Cars. A rail-car service between Wellington and Taranaki will be inaugurated on Sunday, April 16, according to an announcement by the Minister of Railways, Mr Sullivan, on Saturday. The time-table had not yet been decided, he added. The rail-car would not have the reduced gear ratio for which the department had been waiting and would not negotiate the grades as fast as when the new gears were installed. Extensive Bush Fire.

After a week of comparative freedom from scrub fires, the Hutt Valley was illuminated last night by flames from an extensive bush fire in the vicinity of Pomare Road, Belmont. This fire, along with several other smaller scrub fires on the western hills further up the valley, had the appearance from the main highway of giant bonfires and made a great ■ spectacle, lighting up the hills for miles. The Lower Hutt Volunteer Fire Brigade fought the Pomare Road bush blaze for an hour, by which time it was diverted to the valley beyond, and danger to properties in the vicinity was averted.

Railway Rolling Stock. Every possible effort to overcome the shortage of rolling-stock was being made, said the Minister of Railways, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, on Saturday at New Plymouth, in reply to recent complaints of the shortage of trucks throughout the North Island. During 1931-35, he claimed, the rate of scrapping of rolling stock had been much more rapid than the rate of construction. The department since then had redoubled its efforts, but with the intensification of work came an intensification of demand so that the department was not getting the full advantage of its increased work.

Fire Brigade Conference. In addition to brigades visiting Wanganui for the demonstrations there are about 130 delegates in the city for the annual conference of the United Fire Brigades’ Association of New Zealand, which opens today and finishes tomorrow. The church parade, a feature of all annual fire brigade demonstrations, was held yesterday and in the evening a concert was held in the Opera House, when the Wanganui Garrison Band played selections. Mr H. Braggins is representing the Masterton Fire Brigade at the conference. The brigade is no competing in the demonstrations but the Carterton brigade is represented by a team. Possibility of Slump.

The possibility of something like a depression occurring soon was mentioned by Mr L. Brinkman, manager of the Christchurch branch of the Bank of New Zealand at a farewell gathering to Mr H. E. Garth. Mr Brinjcman referred to the difficult times with which Mr Garth had had to contend during the slump in his capacity as assistant manager at Christchurch. “That experience will no doubt stand him in good stead if anything like that comes along again,” said Mr Brinkman. “I don’t want to be a pessimist; but it looks as though something like it will come along, among the farming community at any rate, this winter.”

Air Pageant at Westport. The second air pageant conducted by the Westport Aero Club was held on the North Beach Aerodrome on Saturday and saw an assembly of planes, the variety of which has not previously been seen on the West Coast, a Press Association messages states. Features of the pageant were crazy flying by Mr E. Clark, of Christchurch, and formation flying by three visitiing Royal New - Zealand Vickers Vildebeeste bombers from Wigram. An announcement was made by Mr E. H. Thompson, director of Cook Strait Airways, that Westport would shortly be included in the Wellington-Nelson-West Coast service. This would be as soon as the new aerodrome on South Beach was completed and fully equipped.

Onions for Australia.

The] largest shipment of onions ever sent from New Zealand is carried by the Wanganella, which left Auckland on Satuday for Sydney. The shipment comprises approximately 10,000 cental bags, weighing over 450 tons. Several consignments have already been shipped from Auckland to Australia this season. Following this shipment, the quantities dispatched locally for the Australian market will be much smaller, as the bulk of the crops have been harvested and the greater part of the remainder will be held by growers for the Auckland market. Shipments will continue to be sent from the Christchurch district, where crops are just beginning to be harvested. The demand has been caused by the recent drought in Australia, where a proportion of the crops was ruined. Victoria, which supplies two-thirds of Australia's requirements of onions, had its production this year reduced by more than half, Exhibition Lighting. The cost of the exterior lighting of the Centennial Exhibition, the contract for which was placed last week with the British General Electric Company, will be just on £20,000. This is the biggest contract of the sort, it is believed, ever to have been placed in New Zealand. The lighting scheme will be utterly different from anything seen before in Australia or New Zealand. It will incorporate mechanism only recently devised, and imported into New Zealand for the first time. It will require sufficient lamps to illuminate the main north road from Wellington to Auckland and sufficiently electricity to light a city of the size of Palmerston North. The exact sum estimated for the exterior lighting is £19,904. Of this sum a very considerable portion will be spent upon New Zealand materials, and New Zealand workmanship and labour. It is expected that £9,000 will be spent in New Zealand.