LOCAL & GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1939, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL

Biggest Air Fleet in Dominion. With -the addition of two Tiger Moth aeroplanes which have been ordered .the Wellington Aero Club will have the biggest fleet of machines in New Zealand. When the new machines arrive the club will have 11 aeroplanes. The club already has a wider range of aircraft available for tuition than any other New Zealand club. Military Reserve. Applications received up till 9 a.m. yesterday for enrolment in the New Zealand national military reserve totalled 6606. Wellington is still in the leading position with 1054 enrolments, and Auckland has the next largest number, 971. Of the provincial centres Hamilton and Napier have made a particularly good showing with 576 and 502 enrolments, respectively. Maintenance Case. Having allegedly failed to comply with the terms of a maintenance order issued in Auckland. A. J. Peard, who was arrested in Masterton by Constable C. H. Reardon yesterday afternoon, appeared in the Masterton S.M. Court this morning before Messrs. A. D. Low and J. L. Taylor, J.’sP. He was remanded in custody until Tuesday morning, when he will appear before the magistrate.

Centennial Tree-Planting. Plans for the planting of trees in commemoration of the centennial have received support from several quarters since the scheme was put forward by the Canterbury Progress League. It was reported to a meeting of the league that the committee organising the scheme would meet the Hon W. E. Parry, Minister for Internal Affairs, to discuss proposals with him. Several inquiries for trees had already been received by lhe league. New Poetry Prize.

Nearly £4O has been subscribed in the Dominion to the Jessie Mackay Memorial Fund, which will be used to endow a small annual prize for poetry written by Dominion writers. The aim for the fund is £lOO, and subscriptions are being-raised by the New Zealand centre of the P.E.N. It is hoped, if the subscriptions allow, also to place a memorial plaque to Miss Jessie Mackay in the National Library. Scrum Formation Problem.

Disapproval of the attitude of certain clubs and unions in still playing a 2-3-2 scrum formation, contrary to the wishes of the New Zealand Rugby Union, was expressed by delegates to a meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Council held in Wellington yesterday. Other matters of importance discussed were the replacement, if possible, of the cancelled tour of New Zealand by a Fijian team, efforts to place backblock sub-unions on a better basis, and the need for uniformity in hooking and packing the 3-4-1 scrum.

People Do Not Want War. “People in the various countries I visited do not want war,” said the Archbishop of Wellington and Metropolitan of New Zealand, the Most Rev Thomas O’Shea, when he returned to Auckland by the Monterey after being abroad for several months. “They have suffered so much from the last war. Germans said that if they were ordered to fight they would have to. Mothers were terrified at the prospects of another war. That is why German mothers look on Mr Chamberlain as a saviour.”,

Air Force Plane Crash. While carrying out air-firing practice over Lake Ellesmere about 9.30 o’clock yesterday morning, a R.N.Z.A.F. Vickers Vildebeest machine crashed into the water. The pilot had turned the machine into the sun. One of the wings hit the water and the machine turned over. The pilot was ActingPilot Officer R. M. Stewart, and the other occupants were Acting-Pilot Officers V. B. de la Perrelle and J. C. F. Hayter. The occupants escaped injury except for minor bruises and cuts. The plane was extensively damaged. National Eucharistic Congress.

Archbishop O’Shea, who returned to New Zealand by the Monterey, stated in an interview that one of the objects of his visit to Rome was to obtain the approval of the Pope for the National Eucharistic Congress to be held in honour of the New Zealand Centennial next year. In that he was very successful with the late Pope Pius XI, who agreed to send a Cardinal Legate, an honour never before paid the Dominion. His Holiness also said he would write before the celebrations to the people in New Zealand, exhorting them to prepare well and make the congress a success. The Holy Father had expressed his belief that, in these times, such congresses, which had the primary object of honouring our Lord, would do much to bring about an improvement in world conditions. Theft of Benzine. “There is an alarming number of criminal cases, involving cither negligence or dishonesty, arising from the use of motor-vehicles,” said Mr J. M. Luxford, S.M., in the S.M. Court, Wellington, yesterday, when three men, formerly employed by Dominion Motors, Limited, were charged with the theft of benzine and motorcar accessories from their employer. Jack Clifford Miller, painter, was fined £l5 and admitted to probation for 12 months. He was also ordered to make restitution of £7 15s. Noel Denis Rogers, car assembler, was fined £5 and admitted to probation for 12 months, and Dorr Septimus Stewart Ranson, car assembled, was fined £5. admitted to probation for 12 months, and ordered to make restitution of £3 10s. Business Confidence in Early Days.

The “easier” methods of business in the early days formed the subject of a humorous incident told by Mr T. J. Hunter at the dinner tendered to him by the auctioneering staff and departmental heads of the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association. Mr Hunter was employed as a lad by a business man who knew his clientele very well. Many men were accommodated more on their character than on the security they had to offer, and the utmost confidence was placed in one another. On one occasion an old farmer (he was a foreigner) called at the office and inquired from Mr Hunter the state of his account. The amount was £743. “Yes, will I be owing that to you, or do you owe it to me,’ was the next question. “We owe it to you,” was the reply; and that was all theie was as a matter of course. Mr Hunter doubted whether much business could be dune that way in these days.