LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 March 1940, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Recruiting Rally. The Leader of the Opposition. Mr Hamilton, will be the speaker al a Recruiting rally to be held in the Masterton Opera House at 8 o’clock tomorrow night. The local Territorials and the National Military Reserve will parade through the town before the meeting. Soldiers Miss Train. Three or four Southland members of the Second Echelon, who were proceeding home on final leave missed the train at Timaru yesterday morning. They left the station and, as the train was moving when they returned, officials prevented them from boarding. Otago men, who came by a later train, were not permitted to leave the platform. Two Southland men engaged a taxi and caught the train further- south. Exhibition Attendances.

With the presence of possibly 2000 Salvation Army adherents, the Exhibition was crowded yesterday, the courts, and the women's section being thronged throughout the day. Play land was busy at night. Country visitors fqrmed a large percentage of yesterday's total and those who were visiting the Exhibition for the first time were obviously deeply impressed by the general layout and the richness and beauty of the lighting effects at night. Yesterday’s attendance of 12,079 was considered good for a week day. The attendance to date is 1,769,839.

Liquor for Troops. In a circular letter to hotel licensees in Wellington, the Wellington. Licensed Victuallers’ Association has conveyed the opinion that the recently gazetted regulations prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquor to members of the New Zealand Defence Forces in uniform, except for consumption on licensed premises, apply to members of the Expeditionary Force and Territorials, including officers, but not to men of the Navy and the Air Force. The regulations also prohibit soldiers from having liquor in their possession while they are in public conveyances, except ships, and prohibit the supplying of liquor to them in conveyances. Gift to Hospital. A gift of £lOO has been received by the Whangarei Hospital Board from an anonymous donor. The same donor, an Auckland resident, has given more than. £BO,OOO to various charitable causes in the province, including more than £lO,OOO to endow the Protestant orphanage in Whangarei and half the cost of building the institution, after having given the property on which the orphanage was erected. It had been the donor’s intention to create a trust fund of £2OOO for the payment of the hospital fees of orphan children at the Whangarei Hospital, but, as with the advent of social security this is not now necessary, the sum has been given to increase the endowment of the orphanage. and the £ 100 gift made to the hospital. Import Licensing.

Another year’s experience of the import licensing system made it patent to everyone that some modification was vitally necessary, stated the report presented to the annual meeting in Wellington yesterday of the New Zealand Federated Ironmasters' Industrial Association of Employers. "With each succeeding licensing period the screw is tightened up another few turns and it is impossible for business executives to plan otherwise than from hand tomouth,” continued the report. The difficulties surrounding the import of essential material and plant militated against any form of long-range planning for the development of local manufacturing. Machine tools were practically unprocurable in England and very long deliveries were quoted by American manufacturers. This was largely a direct result of the outbreak ol' war in September, as also were the restrictions on the purchasing of dollar funds to provide for purchases from the United States of America. Warrants of Fitness.

Motorists .who were in the Dunedin Magistrate's Court, and the Magistrate, Mr°H. W. Bundle, S.M., were surprised to learn, during the hearing of charges of driving an unlighted car and failing to carry a warrant of fitness which were brought, against a car owner, that such a thing as a provisional or restricted warrant of fitness existed. When outlining the case for the prosecution. Sergeant Johnsen explained that the defendant had produced a warrant issued by a garage in Mosgiel, witli the proviso that, the lights not functioning properly, the car must not be driven alter dark. “I submit," said Sergeant Johnsen, -that a warrant with a proviso of this description might, as well not be issued, and it appears to the police that it defeats its purpose." After a traffic inspector had explained that provided the lights were removable from a vehicle, a daylight warrant could be issued, the Magistrate, holding that the defendant, in effect, had been driving at night without a warrant of fitness, imposed a penalty on both informations.