LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 February 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Picnic Postponed. The Forester’s Lodge picnic, which was to have been held at Mr J. H. Payton’s Bush, Akura, over the weekend, was postponed, and will be held on Sunday next. Mountainous Seas. Local residents who visited Castlepoint over the week-end report that mountainous seas were pounding over the rocks and foreshore, driven by a strong south-easterly gale. Successful Dancing Pupils. At the Ahiaruhe-Ponatahi sports meeting on Saturday the pupils of Miss Kathleen Burke were successful in gaining three firsts and two second prizes in Highland dancing events. Annual Territorial Camp. The annual camp of the First Battalion, Hawke’s Bay Regiment, will be held at Waiuoru from March 2 to March 9. Members of the local unit (C and D Companies) will attend the camp, being composite companies of the battalion. , Ir.terhouse Activities. The Masterton Inter-house Association is making every effort to raise funds to send local girls’ teams to the mass display at the Centennial Exhibition. A dance will be held on Saturday night in the Municipal Hall, and an inter-house swimming carnival will be held in the Dixon Street baths on Thursday night, for which a large number of entries have been received. Successful Flag Day. The initial appeal by the Otago Patriotic Council for funds to supply amenities for the troops overseas met with outstanding success on Friday, when some 600 or 700 helpers, organised by the Returned Soldiers' Association. conducted a flag day appeal which yielded more than £ll2O. An appeal conducted at Port Chalmers on Thursday resulted in more than £4O being collected. Military Enlistments.

The following are the latest military enlistments at the. Masterton Defence Office for service overseas: Messrs G. T. Rose (Carterton): R. P. Brice (Greytown); N. W. Martin (Martinborough); E. A. Tyer (Featherston); and Peter Hawksworth (Masterton). The total enrolments from the Wairarapa area to date, are now 524. Although the enlistments are slowing up, the No 7 Area, which includes the Wairarapa, was the first in the Dominion to provide its quota for the Second Echelon. Public Works Recruits.

At a farewell gathering for seven Public Works Department’s employees who will leave on Wednesday to form the Railway Survey and Construction Company, Mr A. G. Park, senior engineer of the department in Westport, said that in some quarters the statement of the Minister of Public Works that a fine response had been made by men of the department had been belittled, but that the response in this district alone showed the truth of the assertion. Of the total number of recruits for all the forces that had left the Buller district for service overseas 40 per cent had been Public Works employees; 132 had been accepted for service, of whom 53 were P.W.D. men. Centennial Exhibition.

A northerly storm, which later changed to a driving southerly, lashed the Centennial Exhibition at Rongotai on Saturday and caused the attendance to drop by more than half. Saturday's visitors appeared to be mostly country people. Wellington residents generally preferring to remain at home. A few hundred arrived at. night, but a succession of heavy showers early in the evening deterred most people from venturing forth. Saturday’s attendance of 11.982 was really quite good considering the unfavourable conditions. The grounds, which were dotted with pools of water. were deserted, everybody remaining under cover. The attendance to date is 1.425,234, and the average attendance 17,380. Shipwreck Anniversary. Today is the thirty-first anniversary of the wreck of s.s. Penguin, which struck Tom’s Rock, off Cape Terawhiti, on its Cook Strait passage from Nelson and Picton, with the loss of 75 lives—--53 of its 66 passengers, and 28 of the 41 members of its crew. The master of the ship, Captain F. N. Naylor, was among the 26 passengers and crew who were saved. Among the passengers drowned were the four young children of an ex-Masterton resident. Mr Thomas Maguire. These, an only son and three adughters, were on their way back from Nelson to re-start school after the mid-summer vacation ' and their fate, and that of Mrs Hannan in losing her young family of equal number to the Maguire family and her husband as well, were among the most tragic losses of the wreck.

Goods Made by the Blind. At the Masterton Show on “People's Day," the Women’s National Welfare League will conduct a stall at which will be displayed goods made by the blind. The goods cover a variety of high grade articles, and are all made by blind men and women. These goods will be on sale at reasonable prices. All tile money derived from the sale of articles goes in the purchase of new material in order to keep the blind in employment. No firm or individual derives any profit from the sale of goods, and all the local work in connection with the display is given voluntarily. Members of the Women’s National Welfare League will be pleased to show the articles displayed even to nan-purchasers as demonstrating the useful manner in which the blind spend their time.

Primary Produce Sates. Speaking at Auckland of the Government's negotiations with Britain for the sale of primary produce, the Minister of Marketing, Mr Nash, said they were practically completed, but. might be extended at. any time desired by the United Kingdom Government. A summary of tile whole position would be announced this week, but since the new purchase procedure was started till January 22 the sum debited to the United Kingdom Government on ac* count of purchases from the Dominion Government was £ 12.459.000. Mr Nash was also asked if he had any reply to make to the statement, of Mr Mulholland. president of the Farmers’ Union, that (he Minister had broken a definite promise by introducing State purchase of hides. Mr Mulholland stated that Mr Nash promised that, anything not requisitioned by Great Britain would be left on a free market. Mr Nash said he intended to make a full reply later in the week,