LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Tradesmen from Australia. One carpenter engaged by the State Housing Department arrived at Auckland by the Awatea and nearly 30 other men claiming qualifications in a wide variety of trades came on their own initiative. Pahiatua County Rates. A 99 per cent collection of a total rate levy of £14,893 13s and the collection of 61 per cent of arrears at the end of the financial year, is reported by the treasurer of the Pahiatua County Council, Mi' J. Hutton. This, he adds, showed a very satisfactory financial position. Insect Pests Thrive.

The warm dry spell in Hawke's Bay has brought out larger numbers of white butterflies, which earlier in the season seemed to be in lesser numbers than for some seasons. The most serious pest which has thrived recently is the aphis, which has given a check to members of the cabbage family.

Chiropractors’ Association. Officers of the New Zealand and Australian Chiropractors’ Association were elected at the annual conference at Christchurch as follows: —President, Mr Anthony H. Thomson (Dunedin); vicepresident, Mr W. C. Lawson (Wellington) ; secretary and treasurer, Mr James M. Craig (Christchurch); executive committee. Messrs T. Giles (Auckland), W. A. Stevens (Wanganui), H. A. Jenkins (New Plymouth), Douglas Sim (Oamaru), W. E. Mackay (Timaru).

Infantile Paralysis Case. A mild case of poliomyelitis, with residual paralysis, has been reported to the Wellington office of the Health Department, from the central Wellington area. The patient,, a boy of six, is now in hospital. Dr F. S. Maclean, Medical Officer of Health, Wellington, said that odd cases of infantile paralysis were occurring throughout the Dominion from month to month. The present case was only the second in Wellington in 18 months. For the week ended yesterday, there were six cases of infectious disease in the central Wellington district and two deaths from diphtheria. The cases reported were: —Scarlet fever (2), diphtheria (2), tuberculosis (1), and poliomyelitis (1).

Reduction in Rates Favoured. An indication that he was in favour of reducing the rates by a penny in the pound, which would give ratepayers the relief they were promised, was given by the mayor of Pahiatua, Mr Siddells, in the course of a review of the financial position of the borough at the end of the financial year. The treasurer’s statement showed a credit balance of £585 in the general account, which indicated a very satisfactory position financially, said Mr Siddels. When the present council came into office it found liabilities of about £lOOO, and in addition was faced with increased costs for general maintenance and increased levies for both the hospital board and the fire board. The previous rate was lid in the pound.

Fingers Found in Eel. The finding of two fingers in a eel caught by a Maori fisherman in the Tarawera River recently, about three miles below the Tarawera Bridge, caused a number of wild rumours to circulate in the district, before police inquiries revealed that the fingers had come there by accident. The severed fingers which were the index and middle fingers of the left hand of a European, were handed to the police by the finder, and inquiries among doctors and at the Whakatane Hospital revealed that a man had been treated three weeks before for the loss of two fingers in an accident. While engaged in sharpening a stake on the Tarawera Bridge, a workman had completely severed two fingers of his le±t hand with an axe. He had thrown them into the river, and later received treatment at the Whakatane Hospital. Summer Time Changes. With English summer time beginning on Sunday, April 16, and New Zealand summer time ending a fortnight later, radio listeners will have to do some calculations to arrive at comparative times for Dominion and overseas broadcasts. New Zealand is now two hours ahead of Australia, but will be only an hour and a half in advance when the clocks are put back on April 30. The conjunction of English and New Zealand summer time in the fortnight April 16 to April 30 calls for a little concentration. At present) the Dominion is 12 hours ahead of London. When the English clocks are advanced an hour to their summer time on April 16 the Dominion will be 11 hours ahead, and when this country reverts to winter it will be only 101 hours ahead. Air Travel at Easter . During the Easter holiday period, extending from last Thursday to yesterday, commercial airliners made no fewer than 168 crossings of Cook Strait. Of these, 142 trips were made by Cook Strait Airways, and 26 were made by Union Airways. With the exception of 10 trips between Palmerston North and Blenheim, flown by Union Airways, all the crossings were made by airliners flying to and from Wellington. Thursday of last week and Good Friday were the busiest days of air traffic in and out of Wellington, but throughout the holiday period traffic was exceptionally heavy. Between Thursday and yesterday approximately 1070 passengers travelled to and from Wellington, and a new record was established for Easter air travel in New Zealand. “The Easter traffic was a record for commercial airlines,” said an airways official yesterday. Lower Birth Rate. The declining birth-rate in New Zealand came into incidental prominence during the hearing of a deputation by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Parry, at Wellington yesterday. It was stated by a speaker from the South Island that a noticeable decline in the birth figures of the Dominion for the last five years had seemed to go unheeded by the authorities. A predominance of births over deaths should be, he said, a major concern of any country. The Minister said that the Government had given more than a glance at the vital statistics of the Dominion. We had in New Zealand a low death-rate and it was true, as had been stated, the birth-rate figures for several years had dropped behind. There had been many unions in marriage in which there had been no family and others in which one, or perhaps two children, had brought the young family to a halt. That had also been a feature of one or two other countries. There were young people who had complained that conditions of the past had militated against marriage and the production of a family.