LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 December 1939, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Late Princess Louise. The flag at the Masterton Post Office is flying at half-mast today in connection with the funeral of the late Princess Louise. Exhibition Attendance. The attendance at the Centennial Exhibition yesterday wasc 3341 making the total todate 424.181, with a daily average of 14,627. Special Force Enrolments. The latest enrolment in the Special Military Force is that of lan Cherry, Featherston, bringing the total enrolments to date to 315. Medical Board Sitting. The Medical Board which examines recruits for the Special Force sat in Masterton yesterday afternoon and in the evening. A very high percentage of passes was recorded. Flag Day Appeal. The treasurer of the Flag Day appeal, Mr G. T. O’Hara Smith, stated this morning .that he had received from Mrs J. Caselberg the sum of £5 12s 6d, bringing the total sum collected to date to £172 3s 7d. St Bride's Convent. The annual break-up ceremony and prize-giving in connection with St Bride's Convent will be .held on Thursday in St Patrick's Hall. An entertainment to which parents, friends and benefactors are cordially invited will commence at 8 p.m. Wrestler Challenged.

At the conclusion of a wrestling bout at Napier on Saturday night in which “Oscar” Brock defeated “King” Meuli and secured the New Zealand professional middle-weight title, the winner received a challenge from ‘Tiger” Ulph. Brock has to meet Robert Hickland (New Plymouth) at the New Plymouth Mardi Gras on December 28. The title will be at stake.

War and Marriages. War conditions have not hastened marriages in the Napier district as has been experienced in other parts of New Zealand. The figure for the past two months has been practically an average one, while during November the total dropped from the September and October figures of 26 each to 17, which, but for two other months this year, is the lowest monthly total for 1939.

Expensive Footballer out of Work. The world's most expensive footballer is out of work. Just over a year ago, when Bryn Jones was transferred from Wolverhampton Wanderers to Arsenal, his value in the soccer market was assessed at £14,000. Now with the war on, Jones’s value appears to have slumped. He was unable to find employment of any kind in London. He tried to join the A.R.P.. Police War Reserve, and other war-time services. There was no room for him, so Jones has returned to Wales. A Den of Rats. A sharp surprise was in store for a well-known Hastings butcher when he went to secure some tools from the box under the seat of his delivery van on Saturday afternoon. Although the van had been in constant use for a long period and had in fact been used extensively the same day, the butcher to his astonishment, found smuggled beneath the seat a mother rat with an accompanying horde of eight little rats scarcely more than a day old. The nest had been made from the stuffing of the upholstered seat and a very comfortable nest it was —until the butcher found it. The mother rat succeeded in escaping leaving her eight squealing babies to the tender mercy of the outraged van-owner.

Factory Hold Up. Complaining that one of their number had been victimised, tobacco workers in the factory of Godfrey Phillips (New Zealand), Ltd., Tory Street, Wellington, where about 200 are employed. refrained from work yesterday afternoon. Mr T. J. L. Tucker, secretary of the Wellington Tobacco Workers' Union, said that the workers believed that the dismissal of an employee on Thursday was victimisation. The hold-up lasted from 1 p.m. till 5 p.m. During the afternoon he. representing the workers, met a representative of the employers with the liaison officer of the Labour Department. Mr C. L. Hunter, and the secretary of the Federation of Labour, Mr F. D. Cornwell, and it was decided that the workers should resume work pending the decision of a disputes committee, which is to meet at 10 a in. on Thursday.