LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1939, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Exhibition Attendance. As the result of 11,503 people having attended the Centennial Exhibition at Wellington yesterday the total has now reached 453.419, an average of 14.169 daily. Attraction at Athletic Meeting. One of the attractions at the open meeting to be conducted by the Kia Toa Amateur Athletic Club on Saturday will be the appearance of W. A. C. Pullar, of Masterton, the champion miler. Pullar will contest both the mile and half-mile events. No Hitler Sign. Raised eyebrows confronted the Rev Alan Watson. Moderator of the Presbytery of Christchurch, when, during a discussion at the meeting, he asked that members raise the left hand in voting on a decision. “We don’t raise the right hand these days,” he said with a smile, and members complied with his request. Wellington Harbour Board. Fifty-nine years ago the Wellington Harbour Board began with a debt of £25 for advertising its first meeting; today its capital assets are more than £3,000,000, total loan indebtedness £1,250,000, and sinking funds £828,681. This was stated in speeches made last' night at the social gathering held by the Wellington Harbour Board after its final meeting for 1939. Soldiers’ Christmas Leave.

Christmas leave for nearly 2000 men of the Special Force, who have been in training at the Central District mobilisation camp, Trentham, began yesterday, and throughout the day troops were constantly coming and going at the Wellington railway station. The occasion was one always popular in the life a soldier, and scarcely a train left Wellington without men in khaki waving from carriage windows. Wanganui Wool Clip. The proceeds of the first wool appraisal in Wanganui yesterday are expected to total about £410,000, compared with £350,000 when the first wool sale of last season was held in January. It is estimated that the total for distribution from the appraisement would have been more than £430,000, but for the fact that under the war commandeer the Government is holding back 5 per cent for an equalisation fund. Territorial Camp. A Bivouac will be held by Nos. 3 anct 4 Platoons, C Company Hawke’s Bay Regiment (Dannevirke) at Dannevirke over the weekend. The platoons are associated with Nos. 1 and 2 Platoons, of the same company (Lewis gunners) Masterton. Sergeant-Major C. E. Rogers, of the local Defence Office, who will attend as instructor, left Masterton for Dannevirke this morning. He will return on Monday. A Noisy Telephone. The owner of too-noisy telephone bell which alarmed his neighbours was fined 10s at Birmingham under the new Noise Restrictions Orders. He was George Edwin Tovey, a nurseryman. It was stated that the bell was an extension which rang in the nursery to warn him when a call came through. In peace time the bell had been a nuisance to neighbours, but it now caused great alarm. A Forced Landing.

Through engine trouble, a Royal New Zealand Air Force Blackburn Baffin bombing plane, one of three engaged in a cross-Strait and crosscountry navigation flight, made a forced landing in the sea at Island Bay yesterday afternoon. Pilot Officer S. G. White, of Woodburn Aerodrome, Blenheim, the only one in the machine, was unhurt, and did not even get wet. The machine was damaged in the course of being hauled on to the beach later, Schoolboy’s Achievements. Two notable achievements were credited to a pupil of Maraekakaho School, Barclay McGregor, at the annual prize-giving, when the lad was presented with the dux medal for the year. It was stated that since he began his schooling he had ’ridden on horseback 18,000 miles to and from his home. During the past year, despite the long journeys, he had missed only three days at school, and last year, which was exceptionally wet, he was absent only once. Tuberculosis Among Maoris. Problems 'affecting the adequate treatment of tuberculosis among Maoris are on the increase, and the work of the authorities is often seriously hampered by the attitude of the Natives themselves, according to Dr H. Short, travelling tuberculosis officer to the Waipawa Hospital Board. In a report to the board he cited a recent instance in which a district nurse who was sent to collect seven Maoris and take them to a clinic for treatment found on arrival that they had learnt of her coming and deliberately hidden. Must Only Drive Military Vehicles. A soldier from the Burnham camp. Alexander Smythe, aged 34. was today convicted and ordered to come up for sentence within two years if called on. He was charged in the Magistrates’ Court with being intoxicated in charge of a private motor-car. The magistrate, Mr Levvey. made an order that Smythe was not to drive any but military vehicles. Counsel for Smythe said there would not be the slightest chance of Smythe being intoxicated in charge of a military vehicle. Military discipline would see to that. Maori Court Opened. The gayest and most entertaining occasion the Centennial Exhibition has yet witnessed was the ceremonial opening of the Maori Court yesterday. Some hundreds of natives attired in korowai and piupiti participated in traditional songs and dances and ancient ceremonies rarely seen in Wellington. Chiefs and leaders of the Maori people had gathered from till parts of the North Island, and there was also a distinguished pakeha attendance. In the absence of the Prime Minister, Mr Savage, the Act-ing-Native Minister. Mr Langstone, formally declared the building open. The picturesque ceremonial was witnessed by many hundreds of people, yesterday’s attendance at the Exhibition being swelled to 11.503 by the afternoon visitors. The Maoris held a big social and dance in the Assembly Hall last evening. Links: "Who invented work?” Jinks: ‘Don't you bother. You’ll never infringe his patent