LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 October 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Infectious Diseases. For the week ended yesterday. 11 cases of infectious disease and four deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis were reported to the Wellington office of the Health Department from the central Wellington area. The cases were as follows: Erysipelas (3), scarlet fever (3), pulmonary tuberculosis (2), diphtheria (2), and septic abortion (1). Waipawa Seat. It is extremely unlikely that the Democratic Labour Party will place a candidate in the field at the forthcoming by-election for the Waipawa seat, according to a statement made by the M.P. for Napier, Mr Barnard. He said the party was growing steadily and so far there were 58 branches established, with a likelihood of this number being increased in the next few months.

New Nelson College. The foundation stone of the new Nelson College was laid yesterday by the Governor-General, Lord Galway, who congratulated the college on securing such a fine building to replace that made unusable by the 1929 earthquake. The Minister of_Education represented the Government, other speakers being Mr C. R. Fell, chairman of the Board of Governors, Mr H. V. Searle, principal, and Mr Atmore. Referring to the college as the largest boarding school in the Dominion, the Minister traced the roll increases from 30 in 1856 to the present 629.

Automobile Association Election. A ballot for four members of the executive of the Automobile Association (Wellington) at the association’s annual meeting last night resulted in the rejection of Mr E. Palliser, a sitting member, and the return of Mr G. Springhall, who has not had a seat previously. After the result of the ballot had been announced there were expressions of regret that a section of members of the association should deprive a man who had given long and valuable service on the executive of his seat, and upon the chairman, Mr E. A. Batt, pointing out that the death of Mr A. L. Warburton on Friday had created a vacancy on the executive and that the executive had power to fill vacancies, ' the meeting recommended that Mr Palliser be appointed to the vacancy. Mr Palliser complained of the tactics that had been used to deprive him of his office.

Cow Brutally Treated. Describing the case as one of the worst he had heard, Mr Miller, S.M., sentenced Egerton Thomas Branford Webster, master mariner, to a month’s imprisonment when he appeared in the Magistrates’ Court, Napier, on a charge of cruelty to a cow. Senior-Sergeant P. C. Felton said Webster was seen, while milking the cow, to go and get an axe and strike the animal with the blade on the legs, head and ribs. A constable found the cow lame, and bleeding from the face and from four gashes on its legs. The offence occurred on November 28, 1939, but Webster had disappeared after • the police had questioned him and he had only recently been traced. A plea of guilty was entered by Mr S. H. Morrison, who said Webster had been a dairy-farmer till the war. Being a naval reservist he had been called up and was now navigator on an intercolonial vessel.