LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Frosts in Masterton. A frost of 4.1 degrees was registered in Masterton yesterday morning, and one of 7.9 degrees this morning. College Sports. Thelma Saunders put up a particularly fine performance when competing at the Wairarapa College Sports on Thursday. In winning the girls’ junior championship she set new records in every event in which she competed, the long jump, 50 yards, 75 yards and 100 yards events. Exhibition Opening.

The announcement made last week that public servants would be given a holiday at noon on Wednesday to allow them to attend the opening of the Centennial Exhibition concerns only those employed within a radius of 25 miles of Wellington. There is no holiday for officers further afield, such as those in the Wairarapa. Moa Bone Found.

A bone discovered under eight feet of alluvial drift on a sluicing claim near Greymouth has been identified by the director of the Canterbury Museum, Mr R. A. Falla, as the thigh bone of a moa. The only other locality on the West Coast where moa remains have been found is Inangahua. Seed Potatoes for Table.

Potatoes are exceptionally scarce on the Ashburton produce market at present, and considerable difficulty is being experienced in obtaining sufficient to fulfil orders. According to an Ashburton merchant, the North Island crop has begun to appear on the market there, but the prices for new potatoes appear to be exorbitant. Distributors are clearly endeavouring to obtain as many of the last season’s crop as possible, and in some cases potatoes which normally would be suitable for seed are now finding a place for table use at reduced rates.

Ngahauranga Gorge. Reversion to the correct name of Ngauranga, instead of Ngahauranga, for the Gorge Road was suggested by the chairman of the Flimmerton-Pae-kakariki Main Highway Deviation Association, Mr H. D. Bennett, at the official opening of the coastal road to Saturday, which followed a similar ceremony in respect of the Gorge Road. The opening of the new gorge road presented an opportunity to use the correct name, said Mr Bennett. He said he was glad to see that the Automobile Association, Wellington, had used “Ngauranga” on its cards of invitation to the opening ceremony.

Guy Fawkes Competitions. Guy Fawkes competitions held in Masterton attracted a full measure of support and provided amusement for young and old. Between thirty and forty entries were received for the competition promoted by McKenzie’s Departmental Store, the prize-winners being: Bob Stalker, 197 Dixon Street, 1; Gordon Blackwood, 10 Wright Street. 2; Gordon Brogden, 49 Worsop Road, 3. On Saturday afternoon there was a big muster of guys and their owners at the Cosy Theatre, where prizes were awarded for the three best buys while all the competitors received a free ticket to next Saturday’s matinee. Rotorua in 1889.

“Mr Lewis, Under-Secretary, has taken a box with £9OOO to Rotorua to pay the natives for the township. We trust he will not be bailed up on the road, but will get this very welcome sum put into circulation there. It ought to make things brisk for a time in Rotorua; and the acquisition of the town by the Government, the re-erec-tion of the sanitorium, and the unlikelihood of another Tarawera for a long time, should induce valetudinarians to buy freeholds with a view to permanently residing there.’ —A Bay of Plenty paper of 1889. The King’s English.

“This correspondence seems to be full of words like ‘contacted’ and ‘finalise’,” said the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, during the hearing of a civil case in the Supreme Court at Hamilton, when a number of business letters were produced. “It is a new language which might be called ‘merchantese’,” His Honour added. "Evidently ordinary English is not good enough. All I can say is that the Court is at least one place where we should have English pure and undefiled. We should regard it as our duty to maintain it so.” Clearing of Gorse.

Information that the onus for clearing gorse from roadsides for a distance of three feet from the gravel or metal surface was on the land-owner whose frontage was infested with noxious weeds was contained in a letter to the Southland provincial executive of the Farmers’ Union from the Southland County Council. The letter, which was in reply to a request from the executive that local bodies take full responsibility for the work, stated that the landowner under the act was responsible for clearing to the centre line of the road.

Institute of Horticulture.

At the last meeting of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, the Superintendent of Parks and Reserves, Invercargill, advised that it was a condition of service that garden trainees must become registered horticultural students of the institute for examination purposes. It was reported that the Wellington district executive members had met the Hutt Valley Horticultural Society's general committee at Lower Hutt, when mutually satisfactory arrangements had been made. Mr A. J. Nicholls had been appointed secretary, and all committees were functioning well, with every promise of a successful show, in the ideal setting of the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition. Child’s Death After Fall. Tragedy followed an apparently slight mishap which occurred when several children were playing on the back of a stationary lorry in Hastings yesterday morning. Alison Shirley Hunter, aged seven, daughter of Mr and Mrs John Hunter, 204 Park Road. Hastings, collapsed several hours after she had fallen the short distance from the lorry to a concrete path, and died before she could be admitted to hospital. The child at first appeared to have suffered no serious affects from the fall. About 15 minutes later she walked unaided to her home from a neighbour’s house. Her parents made her lie down, and she immediately went <- •' -,n I 1: fb-Jlffy before 3 p.m. she ms placed in a '■"l. but she furies are cause of