LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Chimney Fire. The Masterton Fire Brigade was called out at 9.53 o’clock last night to a chimney fire at 381 Queen Street, a house owned and occupied by Mrs M. Shaw. Optimist Club. There was a good attendance of members at the weekly tea of the Masterton Optimist Club held in the Y.M.C.A. last night. Several members of the Masterton branch of the League of Nations’ Union were the guests of the club. Chief Optimist Murray Daniell occupied the chair. Sheriff E. J. Esler levied a brief list of charges with beneficial results to the “cat.” Frost and Fog. Masterton this morning experienced the heaviest fog recorded for some considerable time, it being difficult to see beyond 20 or 30 yards, early in the morning. So thick was the fog at 7.30 o’clock this moring that one motor car took the precaution of having the headlights turned full on. A frost of 15 degrees was registered, it being i most unusual for such a heavy fog and frost to be experienced on the one morning. The most severe frost recorded this year was 15.1 in June. New Zealand Enlistments. The total number of enlistments for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force up to the close of the voluntary recruiting system on Monday was 59,644. This announcement was made in an interview last night by the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, who said he thought all would agree that the results of the voluntary effort were most gratifying, as the figures demonstrated forcibly that the men of military age in the Dominion were just as ready as their forbears to face their responsibilities and bear their share in the struggle for the preservation of freedom and independence. Influenza Epidemic. With no signs of the influenza epidemic at the llopu Hopu Military Camp abating and the Waikato Hospital already overcrowded, the hospital authorities have decided to take over the new Hamilton West School and convert it into a temporary ward for soldiers. Immediately upon the decision being taken all movable furniture was removed from the school and the children were instructed to attend the old school in Anglesea Street, Hamilton, till further notice. During the last few days influenza at the camp has been spreading, and more soldiers have been admitted to hospital than the number discharged. New Tram Route. The first tramcar was seen on the new tracks in Bowen Street, Wellington, yesterday afternoon. It was one of the new pattern wholly enclosed type. Though men were still working at the new track junction on Lambton Quay, the car was taken up the slight slope to a position opposite the Turnbull Library, where a number of cameras were trained upon it. It was intended that this should be a trial trip right through to Tinakori Road, but that could not be done as a grader was working on the new road just above Wellington Terrace. A final pour of concrete was made in the new special work tracks on Lambton Quay early yesterday afternoon. As soon as this is hard set, the bed will be brought up to road level with hot-mix, probably toward the end of the present week. The new line is to be opened on Thursday of next week.

A Unique Battalion. Training in Wellington at present is a unique battalion; its members are all proved soldiers. This is the Wellington Battalion of the National Military Reserve, comprised of fit ex-servicemen, all of whom served in the Great War. A few are ex-regulars, mostly of the Imperial Army. The men are fullyequipped, and as they are permitted to wear ribbons on parade, this is an occasion when the ribbons of most decorations won in the Great War can be seen. Their instructors are confident that within a short training period these men, who have once before been tried and not found wanting, will form one of the best fighting units in New Zealand. The battalion at present consists of four companies and a support company. Colonel W. H. Cunningham, C.8.E., D. 5.0., V.D., is commanding officer. German Spy System.

Australia has had alarming evidence of the activities of the Nazi organisation in lands outside the Reich. Much of the activity is carried on though German seamen, who have, ostensibly, “deserted” from their ships, but with whom the Reich headquarters of the Nazi Auslandsorganisation (Nazi Organisation in Foreign Lands) is careful to keep in touch. Most of the German seamen who thus “desert” find employment, if possible, in engineering works and foundries, otherwise in German official employment. One example is that of a man who left the ship Frieberg in May, 1937, lay low for a while then went to Sydney, where he became chauffeur to the German Consul-Gen-eral and lived in his house. In 1939 he became naturalised as an Australian subject. It has been learned that such seamen have always been instructed to become naturalised in the country they enter, and also to marry. Many of them in Australia have done so, taking Australian girls as their wives.