LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 April 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Grass Fire. The Masterton Fire Brigade was summoned on Saturday afternoon at about 2.45 o'clock to a grass fire in a vacant section'in Miriam Street. The outbreal-. was extinguished before any material damage was done. Scout Camp. One hundred and forty rover scouts, from all parts of New Zealand, encamped for the Easter week-end on the centennial jamboree site at Heretaunga, Hutt Valley. They carried out a course' of training to qualify them as camp officials at the jamboree next December. The camp commandant was Mr Dennis Johns, Auckland. Sir Robert Clark-Hall, Christchurch, attended as" Dominion Commissioner for Rover Scouts, and Mr J. E. F. Vogel, organiser of the centennial jamboree, was also in camp. Labour and State Lottery.

The widespread interest that is being taken by Labour Party branches in the question of establishing a State lottery is shown by the fact that no fewer than 46 affiliations have sponsored the following remit which is to come before the annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party which opened at Wellington today: “That the Government be asked to give serious consideration to the institution of a State lottery or failing this that a plebiscite of the people be taken. The profits to be devoted to the hospitals, charities, Social Security, physical fitness campaign, or the defence of New Zealand.”

Mud Wrestling Banned. Mud wrestling as a novelty event in the programme of the Te Kuiti Amateur Sports Club on Saturday was banned by the Commissioner of Police, Mr D. J. Cummings. The event had been advertised by the club for many weeks. Special mud free from stones and sand had been mixed and the wrestling ring prepared. The event was to have been contested in a sea of mud. The president of the club, Mr L. R. Decastro, telephoned the commissioner in Wellington, seeking an explanation of the decision. The commissioner, however, was adamant, and said that in no circumstances would mud wrestling be allowed in New Zealand.

Labour Finance Proposals. Under We Heading of finance, a remit, sponsored by seven branches to come before the annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party at Wellington, reads: —“That conference recommends: (a) A debt extinction fund be established; (b) that overseas investors be induced to reside in New Zealand; (s) that a limit be set to personal incomes; (d) that the Government raise no internal or external loans; (e) the principle of debt-free money; (f) an amendment to the Money Lenders Act to restrict interest rates; (g) a national dividend to mothers and children.” Sharks in Oriental Bay.

Two or three young sharks, from three to four feet in length, attracted a large crowd as they cruised in shallow water only a few feet from the sea wall in Oriental Bay, Wellington, last night. The sharks appeared to be attracted by the light shed by one of the clusters of lamps on the bend' just past the swimming baths. A man attempted to shoot them with a .22 calibre rifle, but, though he drove them off for a while, they soon returned to the ring of light. An attempt was also made to catch them with a line, but they were not tempted by the bait, a lump of raw meat. The sharks were first noticed early in the evening, and at 10 o’clock they were still cruising about. Air Force and War Possibility.

“My impression of Royal Air Force personnel in England is that there is a feeling of quiet confifidence of the outcome in the event of war,” said Dr. F. Birkinshaw, a passenger from England in the Imperial Star, which arrived at Auckland on Saturday. Dr. Birkinshow served in the Royal Air Force as a pilot in the Great War, and was decorated for his services. As a former Royal Air Force officer Dr. Birkinshaw kept in touch with aviation in England. He explained that while pilots very naturally did not discuss very much their reactions to the prospect of war. their confidence was strengthened by a feeling of quiet confidence of the outbetter and their machines faster and sounder than those possessed by other Continental countries. At the time of the Munich crisis it was an experience to visit some aerodromes that encircled London. All the engines were then kept warmed up and bombs were in the racks of the machines, while machinegun posts were manned. “Worse Off.”

The hardships which the Social Security Act impose on a number of veterans and war pensioners were commented on unfavourably at Hastings on Saturday by one returned soldier, who declared that at present he is worse off than he has been since he returned from the front. “Two years ago I was in receipt of £1 a week pension and a similar arpount by way of sustenance,” he said. “About then the sustenance was reduced to 10s a week, making my income 30s a week. Now, with the introduction of the Social Security Act, my pension has been increased to 25s a week —and I have been refused sustenance altogether! So that, quite apart from rising costs, I am 5s a week worse off this week than last—a real Irishman’s rise. “But, as if that were not bad enough, I am now told that I have to pay £1 a year registration fee, so I am that worse off again. Quite a number of others are in the same boat, and there is not the slightest doubt that we are now far worse off than we have ever been before.”