LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Orders Cancelled. Masterton retailers have been advised by several woollen mills throughout New Zealand that all orders have been cancelled owing to the Government having taken over their mills for the production of war requirements. Centennial Celebrations. A final reminder is given of the meeting to be held tonight, in the Social Hall for the purpose of organising Centennial celebrations in Masterton and district from March 10 to March 16. All interested are invited to attend. including representatives of local bodies, sports clubs and other organisations. The meeting will commence at 7.30 p.m. Jumble Sale. On Friday next the League of Nations Union and the Women's Christian Temperance Union arc holding jumble, cake and produce stalls at 10 a.m. at the old "Daily Timos" Office in Church Street. Members and the public generally arc invited to send along goods of any description, which should be label led for the particular organisation for which they are intended. Waikato Honey Crop. The honey crop in the Waikato is likely to be slightly below the average this season, owing to the abnormally late spring, according to beekeepers in the district. Apiary owners have already commenced extracting the honey from the hives. As a result of the cold weather experienced up to the middle of December it was necessary to feed the bees until about Christmas. As a general rule the bees feed themselves after the middle of November. Policemen in Disguise.

Amusement was caused in the Taumarunui Police Court during the crossexamination of two special constables from Auckland who gave evidence in cases concerning the sale of liquor in the King Country. Asked by counsel if they had appeared, in the main street of Manunui arm-in-arm with a local resident singing "Boomps-a-Daisy" as they rolled along the pavement. the constables did not deny it. It was their - duty, they said, to avert suspicion as to their real identity.

Special Interhouse Train. The Masterton Interhouse Association has arranged with the RailwayDepartment for a special train to convey the local girls to the Centennial Exhibition on Easter Saturday in order to take part in the mass display which is being held there. Friends and relatives of the girls desirous of travelling by this special train are advised to get in touch with Mr Hayden of the State Kitchenette, or Mr Costello of the W.F.C.A. Sports Department, before Saturday, March 9. The special interhouse train will leave Masterton at 9.50 a.m., and will leave on the return journey at 11 p.m.

Control of Waterfront Work. The intention of the Government to appoint immediately a Waterside Emergency Control Commission to control the loading and unloading of all ships in order to ensure expeditious dispatch . of produce to the United Kingdom was announced on Saturday by the Deputy-Prime Minister, Mr Fraser. The present unsatisfactory conditions, he said, could not continue. Ships should be loaded and discharged with reasonable dispatch, and this could only be accomplished by some change in the method of controlling the industry. Censorship of Letters.

No instructions had been given by the Government in regard to the censorship of expressions of political opinion in letters, nor could he imagine circumstances in which any such action could be justified, said the De-puty-Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, when referring in an interview last night to a complaint regarding the censorship of private letters posted in New Zealand for overseas. Mr Fraser said that, in fact, such extreme and unwarranted interference would be an intolerable perversion of the intention of the censorship, and if it had occurred it was entirely opposed to the wishes and directions of the Government. Centennial Exhibition. Despite rain in the morning and an unpleasantly keen wind later, crowds flocked to the Centennial Exhibition on Saturday. Because of the bite in the wind, the grounds appeared almost deserted in the afternoon, but the Government Court and the ever-popular women’s section were crowded throughout the day and when, after nightfall the wind dropped considerably. Playland was thronged with its usual Saturday night pleasure-seekers. The attendance of 24,175 were nearly 8500 better than on Friday. The total to date is now 1,355.647 so that the million and a half mark should be reached within a fortnight. The daily average is 17,337. Germany's Petrol Problem.

"We must appreciate the fact that a warring nation demands about three times the amount of petroleum products that it needs in peacetime,” states an American report on petrol supplies in wartime. This means that Germany will require 150,000,000 to 200,000.000 barrels of crude oil. each year that it is at war. With an efficient blockade, the Allied powers can virtually cut off the Nazi’s overseas supplies, thus making the wartime goal very difficult for Germany to reach. Even granting that, with her storage! and Germany must have had foresight enough to lay away as much oil as possible), her synthetic fuels, her own • production, and her imports, she can obtain enough to carry on a mechanised war, Germany still’ has to hurdle the greatest obstacle in her path—the production of 100 octane fuel."