LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 September 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Rubbish Fire. The Masterton Fire Brigade was summoned last night to a rubbish fire on a vacant section in Bannister Street. The call was received at 9.45 p.m. and the brigade quickly extinguished the flames. Coursing. All members of the Wairarapa Coursing Club are urged to attend a special general meeting called for Saturday, at 7 p.m. The meeting has been arranged by the National Coursing Association to discuss important matters affecting the sport in the North Island. Bible Society. The annual meeting of the Masterton Branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society will be held on Monday, September 30, at 2.30 p.m. in the Knox Sunday School. The speaker will be the Rev D. Calder, 8.A., Dominion Secretary. All interested are cordially invited to attend. Masterton Exhibitor’s Success. At the Wellington Horticultural Society’s flower show yesterday, in the amateur daffodil section, Mrs A. H. Ahrens, Masterton, and Mr F. Marriott, Onslow, were the principal exhibitors, and they won the championships, Mr Marriott for trumpets, and Mrs Ahrens for other than trumpet. Death Sentence Commuted. After a meeting of the Executive Council yesterday it was announced that the death sentence passed on Douglas Herbert Cartman, a miner, Waihi, aged 22, who was convicted at Auckland on July 26, of the murder of Mrs Elizabeth Agnes Hamilton, at Waikino, on April 2, had been commuted to imprisonment for life. Fixation of Shopping Hours. Opposition to proposed legislation giving the Court of Arbitration power to fix hours for shopping and decide the statutory half-holiday was expressed at a meeting of the Hastings Chamber of Commerce. Members resented the treatment being accorded retailers by the present Government, and contended that any attempt to shorten hours of work should be strenuously opposed. Bureau System on Wharf. A meeting of tne Dunedin branch of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union yesterday, agreed unanimously to the operating of the bureau system and to the adoption of amended bureau rules. At the same time it was decided to enter an emphatic protest against the non-payment of a guaranteed weekly wage as contained in the order of the Waterfront Control Commission. Increased Petrol Ration Asked For. A meeting last night at Palmerston North of 120 employees of the motor trade in the Manawatu District passed a motion asking the Government to grant an increased petrol ration to prevent increasing unemployment and hardship. While agreeing that some measure of conservation of supplies was necessary, the meeting expressed the opinion that existing restrictions were unwarranted. Death From Electric Shock. After having been kept alive for several hours in an iron lung at Hastings Memorial Hospital, Mr A. G. Read, a linesman employed by the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board, died yesterday afternoon from electric shock. Mr Read was working yesterday morning on top of a pole in Charles Street, Hastings. Apparently he came in contact with a wire carrying 230 volts and fell over a cross-arm on the pole. He was lowered to the ground with ropes and was treated by artificial respiration on the ground. On removal to hospital he was placed in an iron lung, but died a few hours later. Mr Read was a married man, aged about 37, with three children.