LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 April 1939, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A. and P. Ball. A decision to book the Municipal Hall for July 19 for the Masterton A. and P. Association’s annual ball was made at a meeting by the general committee last night. Death While on Honeymoon. While on his honeymoon at Cowes Bay, Auckland, Waiheke, Leonard Alan John Walker, aged 28, of Te Rapa, died suddenly. Mr Walker was married in Hamilton only six days previously. A Piha Souvenir. A Masterton resident, who has been on a motor tour to the north of Auckland, visited Piha and brought home with him a piece of a china plate, having a scorched appearance, found among the debris of the burnt cottage concerned in Auckland Court proceedings this week. Sick Pay Allowances. Il' a recommendation of the finance committee is adopted at a meeting of the Dunedin city council on Monday night, the payment of sick pay to the council’s employees will be discontinued. The committee in its report points out that the function of providing for workers in time of sickness has now been assumed by the State. Quick Results. The rapidity with which pastures in the Wairarapa are recovering from the effects of the recent drought is somewhat remarkable. A Wangaehu farmer stated yesterday that 24 hours after the rain commenced a green tinge could be seen in what was a parched paddock. Gardeners, too, are able to notice how the grass on their lawns is coming away. Timely Rain.

Fortune favoured the Masterton A. and P. Association when rain commenced to fall on Wednesday night, as it was only a few days earlier that grass seed and subterranean clover were sown on the middle of the Oval and on the sideshow area. At a harrow demonstration on Monday these areas were those used for demonstration purposes, and the seed was sown immediately afterwards.

Girl Guide Camp. The Girl Guide Association of New Zealand is. holding an international camp in honour of the Centennial celebrations from January 16 to 26, 1940, on the Tauherenikau Racecourse. About 600 will go into camp, which is primarily for Guides. Invitations to attend the camp have been issued to all countries belonging to the world association and it is expected that representatives of many countries will be attending the camp.

Improving Masonic Street. . Work was commenced yesterday on the grading of Masonic Street, prior to the commencement of tar-sealing operations, an improvement which will be much appreciated by the residents in, that area. Masonic Street, which is ' only a few chains in ' length, and runs from Bannister to Church Streets, carries a large proportion of traffic, and the fact that the sealing of the street is to be undertaken is an indication of the progress of the town in the matter of up-to-date thoroughfares. ■ Warplanes for New Zealand.

Cabled advice was received yesterday that the Federal steamer Huntingdon left Glasgow on Thursday in ballast for Auckland, via Alexandria and the Suez Canal. The Huntingdon will load a number of warplanes from Egypt for New Zealand, and is due at Auckland on June 4. The machines are part of the purchase of additional aircraft made by the New Zealand Government from the Air Ministry. The Government had endeavoured to obtain 250 aeroplanes, but was promised only about half this number. Part of the purchase, which includes Fairey Gordons, Vickers Vildebeests and Blackburn Baffins, will come from the Royal Air Force depots in Egypt. On arrival they will be taken to the Hobsonville Air Base for assembly. Empire Greetings lelegram Service. As a further development of the Empire rates scheme, and' with a view to fostering" the exchange of social communications within the Empire, an Empire greetings telegram service (G.L.T.) will be introduced by the Post and Telegraph Department on May 1. This service will be available throughout the year at a uniform rate for messages exchanged by cable between New Zealand and all Empire countries, excepting, for the present, Canada, India, Burma, Eire, Anglo-Egypt-ian Sudan and Transjordania. On May 1. those who so desire may be allowed to send one free GLT telegram up to 12 words, plus the indicator. Words in excess of 12 will be permitted, but Will be charged for at 5d a word. Experiment with Asparagus. The possibility of growing asparagus on the I’ich. salty soils of the reclaimed land on Ahuriri Lagoon is the subject of an experiment being carried out by the Department of Agriculture. Results to date are entirely satisfactory, an experimental area of 5000 plants having made excellent progress. The Government orchard instructor in Hastings, Mr G. H. Mclndoe, commenting on the results so far achieved, said today that nothing had been cut from the area last season, as it was considered more advisable to allow the plants to develop to the maximum. The plot had been put down simply as an experiment to determine the possibilities of asparagus culture on this reclaimed land. Should experiment demonstrate that asparagus could be grown successfully on the Ahuriri Lagoon soil, it would quite likely open the way for culture by private enterprise. Territorial Recruiting. Advantages of allowing military districts to recruit up to 25 per cent over establishment for any arm of the Territorial Force was referred to by the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, in an interview last evening. He said that authority for this to be done had been given some months ago. The Minister said the object in accepting recruits above the normal strength was to provide for cases where units had a waiting list. Instead of keeping prospective recruits waiting till vacancies occurred they were enlisted for training and to all intents and purposes were members of the unit concerned. This obviated the necessity for rejecting recruits, and provides a pool of partlytrained men who stepped into vacancies in the units resulting from transfers of territorials and other causes. This system had proved very successful in maintaining the strength of units and it had also had an important bearing on' the good attendance at camps.