LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1939, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Town Clock Stops. The Masterton Post Office town clock stopped at 12.15 this morning owing to the pressure of the wind on the hands during the storm experienced last night. Centennial Exhibition.

Despite the heavy rain in Wellington yesterday, the attendance at the Centennial exhibition was 14,30,3, bringing the grand total up to 626,534, with a daily average of 14,917. Marble Championships.

Ten competitors took part in the New Zealand marbles championship, held in Napier in connection with the Mardi Gras fetivities. Feilding, Wairarapa, Wellington, • Waipukurau, Napier and Hastings districts were represented, but two Napier men contested the final, in which S. Skews beat J. Watts.

Auckland Wool Appraisement. A start was made yesterday in the appraisement of approximately 20.000 bales of wool forwarded to stores at Auckland for sale under Britain's wool purchase scheme. The first Auckland appraisement was held last month, and the present fixture has been added to the original programme in order that advantage may be taken of shipping space, which is shortly to be available. Attitude to war.

“In face of the martyrdom of Catholic Poland and the undisguised threat to root out the Christian religion, no Catholic who is worthy of his faith will hesitate to do his part in defence of our priceless Christian heritage,” states an editorial in the Sacred Heart College magazine. “No attempt to destroy Christianity has ever been organised with such diabolical ingenuity,” the article adds.

Greek to Them. Did the Maoris name Kaiapoi, or was it the Greeks? At least one Englishman considers that the name has a Grecian ring. In a letter to an English newspaper, headed “Greek at Leatherhead,” he said: —"On the outskirts of Leatherhead, at the ‘roundabout’ by the gasworks, I often drive past a row of small houses called ‘Kaiapoi Cottages.’ The word has a distinctly Greek appearance, as if it should be pronounced ‘Caiaroi.’ Can any of your readers tell me the origin of the odd name?” The inquirer was Mr K. T. Dowding, Whitewalls, Kingsbury Green, N.W.9. No doubt nearly every inhabitant of Kaiapoi could tell him that the name meant "food depot.”

Railway Engines From Scotland.

Carried as deck cargo and painted grey, the colour of the ships hull, six locomotives of the J class, built for the New Zealand Railways Department by the North British Locomotive Company, Glasgow, have arrived at Wellington, making a total of 26 since early in September. With the arrival at Wellington in the near future of four more of these locomotives, the North Island quota of 30 will have been delivered. In all, 40 J class engines were ordered, but the remaining 10 will be operated on South Island lines and will be unloaded at a South Island port. Less than four months have elapsed since the first of the new J’s was delivered at Wellington, and 19 of these engines are already in service hauling express trains. Railways Busy.

Passenger traffic believed to have been abnormally heavy, oven for the Chistmas holiday rush, was handled at the Wellington railway station between last Friday and yesterday., when many extra trains were run to cope with outward and inward bookings. An exception to previous years this Christmas has brought unusually heavy inward traffic, clue to the influx of visitors to the Centennial Exhibition. ‘ Practically all trains leaving Wellington on Friday and Saturday were so heavily booked that few spare seats were available, and the same applied to inward trains. Figuies giving comparisons with other years are not yet available, but statistics based on the accommodation provided on eight express trains which left Wellington for Auckland on Friday disclose that on this route alone provision was made for 3400 passengers. Practically all these trains were fully reserved. Cathedral Fund.

A small executive appointed by the Centennial Appeal Committee of the Diocese of Wellington met the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt Rev H. St Barbe Holland, yesterday, when it was decided that the thanksgiving services which were to have been held throughout the diocese on Sunday, February 11—the offerings from which were to be devoted to the Cathedral project should be postponed meantime. It was decided instead that all the collections taken up on this day be devoted to the Church of England Military Affairs Committee with the special objective of assisting with the erection of a Church of England hut at Trentham. The special thanksgiving Sunday is only being postponed because of the urgency of the work of the military affairs committee, and when synod meets in July it will consider a suitable date to hold the thanksgiving services. It was emphasised in a statemen issued that the appeal is not being abandoned. In the past three months there has been £2600 received toward the Cathedral fund. Pitcairn Island. A call at Pitcairn Island was made by Admiral Bird in his ship North Star on the passage from the Panama Canal to Wellington. He was emphatic yesterday that the people there were in no danger of starvation, since ample supplies of fish were obtainable and they could grow other foodstuffs. What the islanders appeared to lack were the things they had grown accustomed to during the years in which ships proceeding to and from the Panama Canal had been calling fairly often. During his brief stay at Pitcairn Island Admiral Byrd supplied the people with some 40001 b of (lour. 27001 b of sugar and other foodstulls, as well as some medical supplies. One of the islanders, Mr E. Young, who had eye trouble, was given a passage to Wellington to enable him to consult a specialist. He brought with him his little grand-daughter, whose parents live in Wellington. The child was wide-eyed with wonder at the strange sights of Wellington. After leaving Pitcairn Island the North Star made a call at Rapa Island, a French possession. The people of Rapa Island got their first news of the war. which greatly astonished a young French count who had been an aviator, and been there for eight years.