LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1939, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Injuries Prove Fatal. The deatli occurred in hospital in Auckland yesterday of Mr William Beale Cameron, aged 59, organiser of the Engineers’ Union, as a result of head injuries received on the evening of July 22 when the car he was driving from the city to- his home at Glen Eden collided with a van almost opposite the New Lynn Police Station. The four occupants of the van were also injured and taken to hospital. Citrus Fruit Marketing. Because of general dissatisfaction occasioned by the 'Government’s marketing of citrus fruit, it was decided at a meeting of the Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers’ Association, held in Hastings, that local growers should unite with a view to obtaining an improvement. The heavy cost of ascribing the district’s export fruit was discussed, and it was agreed that in view of the small export last season, repayment of the association’s loan be deferred till next season. Lambing Prospects. Despite improved weather, farmers in Hawke’s Bay are not particularly hopeful of escaping mortality in the lambing season, which w’ill shortly be at its peak. In central districts farmers already have begun the erection of mothering pens on blocks and paddocks where two-tooth ewes are to be lambed. In most cases these consist of three or four stakes driven into the ground and surrounded with sheepnetting, with shelter brush or packed straw as protection from the prevailing wind. Dominion Pipe Bands. A profit of between £5OO and £6OO was made at the last Dominion Pipe Band Contest held in Christchurch, states a circular from the honorary secretary concerning the holding of the annual meeting of the Highland Pipe Bands Association in Christchurch on August 18. It is also stated that the Manawatu Scottish Society’s pipe band, Palmerston North, has been regraded as an A grade pipe band. The drawing of the art union showed that no prizes were won by Wairarapa ticket-holders, the first prize going to ticket No Ul9OB. The next pipe band contest will be held in Wellington on January 26 and 27. Art Union Romance. Romantic circumstances surrounded the winning of the second prize of £lOOO in the “Golden Dawn” Art Union by Mr J. R. Major, Feilding. Mr and Mrs Major were in Stratford on their honeymoon, and they were on their way to a theatre when Mr Major picked up sixpence on the footpath. He went into a sweetshop and bought an art unfon ticket, giving the penname of “Lucky Sixpence.” That was on the day the art union closed; previously they had bought a ticket in the same art union in New Plymouth. Mr Major is a carpenter employed in Feilding, and is a son of Mr and Mrs R. Major, Rongotea. Mrs Major is a daughter of Mi- and Mrs A. Laurenson, Denbigh Street, Feilding. Listeners’ Licences. Immediately following March 31, the date for renewal of radio listeners' licenses, there is always a temporary drop in numbers, but the recovery this year has been extremely rapid and at June 30 the total of 320,402 licenses was 3,897 higher than the previous highest point which had been attained on March 31. The advance for the year has been 27,606, or 9.3 per cent, which means that over 85 per cent of the households of the Dominion are now provided with radio sets. New Zealand’s radio receiving licenses compare well in numbers with those of the Australian commonwealth where the ratio per hundred of population, according to the latest official figures, is 16.229. The corresponding percentage in New Zealand is 19.8. Black Marlin for United States. A huge case, measuring 14 feet by 21 feet by 5 feet, aroused the interest of a number of onlookers while it was being lifted from the Russell wharf on to the coastal vessel Paroto, bound for Auckland. The case contained the record fish of the season caught in the Bay of Islands —-a black Marlin weighing 8161bs, caught by Mrs Edward F. Swift, of Illinois, United States, into whose home it will go as a reminder to her family of the “big one that didn’t get away.” The Lerner Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History took away a number of such cases of specimens of black and striped marlin, but to Mrs Swift falls the honour of taking away one of the largest specimens ever to go from this country to the United States.

Early N.Z. Currency Exchange. A two-dollar United Slates note which has come into the possession of the Otago Early Settlers’ Association appears to have a history that is related to that of Dunedin. It bears the endorsement “Dunedin, New Zealand December 15, 1863, paid 10 shillings. H. Moody.” It was recently secured from a fellow-officer in America by Mr Martin F. Cock, of the Tourist Department in Wellington, who presented it to the editor of the “Otago Daily Times” for presentation to the association. Harnett and Company’s directory of 1863 records the presence in Dunedin of the firm of Moody and Company, whose business was a “kerosene, oil and lamp warehouse” in Princes Street near Jetty Street and it may be supposed that it was a member of this firm who possessed the note which by a circuitous route has now reached the Otago Early Settlers' Association.

Local Body Finance. A novel method of local body finance was adopted by the Moutoa Drainage Board at its monthly meeting. The clerk, Mr G. V. Fraser, in submitting his financial statement commented on the fact that funds were rather low and that there was a payment of approximately £lOO to meet before the next meeting. Under the circumstances it would be necessary for arrangements to be made for an overdraft at the bank. The chairman. Mr F. S. Easton, suggested that the trustees should pay in their rates for the coming year and thus obviate having to go to the bank. Though the rates had not been struck they all knew approximately what their indebtedness was likely to be. To give practical support to his suggestion the chairman wrote out a cheque for his estimated rates, running into several hundred pounds. The remaining four trustees. Dr A. H. Wall and Messrs 11. Robinson R. E. Downes and W. H. Smith, followed suit. thereby placing the board on a sound financial footing pending the assessment and striking of th# coming year’s rates.