LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 March 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Exhibition Attendances. The attendance at the Centennial Exhibition yesterday was 7-157. The total has now reached 1.871.955, the daily average being 16,137. Scouts in Camp. A patrol of the Mo Katoa Troop of Boy Scouts is at present in camp at' East Taratahi. The camp is in charge of Patrol-Leader Donz.il Brown. The boys will remain in camp until Tuesday morning. Railcar Breaks Down. Mechanical trouble which developed in a south-bound railcar in the neighbourhood of Eketahuna yesterday morning resulted in a delay of about two hours in the arrival of passengers for Masterton and southern station travelling by this car. Passengers waiting at the Masterton station were sent on by a special railcar, and those at Eketahuna were brought to Masterton by cars and buses, and were afterwards dispatched southward by a second car.

Capacity Train. The special interhouse girls train which was despatched from Masterton for Wellington this morning conveying teams and spectators for the big interhouse display at the Exhibition was crowded. All of the 12 carriages which seated 500 were filled. A train of this size, by the way, is a capacity one for the Rimutaka incline. On account of the prospect of many additional passengers wanting to return this evening, it has been decided by the Railways authorities to run the train in two sections for the return journey, one leaving Wellington at 11 p.m. and the other at 11.10 p.m. Amalgamation with City.

Disappointment at the failure of the municipal conference to pass the Christchurch remit, seeking the automatic amalgamation of public debts in a case where a district such as New Brighton merged with the city was expressed by the Mayor (Mr E. L. Smith) at a meeting of the New Brighton Borough Council. “The aim of the remit was to amend a section of the Municipal Cornorations Act,” lie said, "and thus to avoid the need for fresh legislation for all amalgamations with a city. Unfortunately the conference seemed to regard it as a dangerous move, which would give largo bodies such as Christchurch undue leverage to absorb adjacent areas. The remit was lost by 43 votes to 59. Now wo will need to get special legislation to enable the consolidation of the borough and city public debts when amalgamation takes place.”