GREYTOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 November 1940, Page 7

GREYTOWN

HOME GUARD MEETING OF COMMITTEE. (“Timec-Age” Special.) At a meeting of the executive committee of the Grey town Home Guard, Mr H. G. Carter presided, there being also present Messrs A. W. Horton. S. Shedden, W. Wiggins, G. S. Maloney. J. Farmer, H. C. Trotman, G. Te Whaiti and the secretary. F. Dewhirst. The secretary reported having received a grant of £5 from the Greytown Borough Council. Mr H. G. Carter was appointed commander of the Greytown Home Guard. Mr Carter then outlined a scheme of organisation for the Greytown Guard as follows: (1) Headquarters group, consisting of a commander, second-in-command, secretary and clerks; (2.) two sections of Mounted Rifles; (3) one complete motor cycle unit and cyclists: (4) rifle platoon and snipers and members of the Rifle Club; (5) engineer section to control water, roads and bridges; (6) anti-aircraft section and machine gunners: (7) signal section and messengers with senior Boy Scouts; (8) transport section, organised to transport troops and materials in any emergency; (9) Army service corps section dealing with supplies. cooks, establishment of depots in emergency; (10) medical section. In explaining his scheme Mr Carter said that his idea was that the various units should train under either the Home Guard or the Emergency Precautions scheme. The scheme also provided facilities to make use of every person offering their services from boys of 16 upwards. It was pointed out that part of the unit would be raised in the Morison’s Bush area, and in that case the Morison’s Bush Hall would be used as a training centre. This organisation would contain approximately 200 men. The committee accepted the draft scheme and this is to be forwarded to the Area Commander for approval.

Mi- H. G. Carter, who has been nominated to command the Greytown Home Guard, holds the rank of captain in the reserve of officers of the Hawke’s Bay Regiment. He entered Trentham Camp in 1915 and trained the 4th Reserve Company of the 11th Reinforcements. He served with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade in Egypt and France and passed through the 4th Army Lewis Machine Gun School in France. He was second in command of B Company of the 4th Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade at the Battle of the Somme in September, 1916, and when his company commander was killed led his company in the attack on Flers. He was later wounded and after having been five months in hospital in England returned to New Zealand in 1917 as a first lieutenant. Mr Carter was promoted to the rank of captain in 1925 and was on the active list till the Territorial scheme was abandoned. Mr Carter has resided in Grey town for the past 20 years and has taken an active interest in all local affairs, being chairman of the school committee, secretary of the Fire Brigade, a member of the Town Lands Trust and a Justice of the Peace.

Bowling. On Saturday afternoon the Grey town Club will make a start with its club competitions. All members are requested to be early in attendance. Wallace and Curtis gave Carter and Higgison a hard tussle for the Gold Bars. They led right up to the sixteenth head, and were unlucky not to win. Croquet. The Greytown Croquet Club will hold a half-hour tournament on Saturday afternoon. Personal. Mr H. Walden, of McMaster Street, is at present an inmate of the Lewisham Hospital, Wellington. Entertainment of Soldiers. The Greytown Citizens’ Patriotic Committee will hold a social and dance in the Town Hall on Monday evening. Soldiers on leave will be the guests of the evening. Post Office Hours. Or. Monday (King’s Birthday) the Post Office will be closed in all branches except the telephone exchange which will be open continuously. Rural and postmen’s deliveries will be suspended. No mails will be dispatched. The public counter will be open from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday for telegraph and telephone business for the sale of postal notes and stamps, and the delivery of all classes of correspondence. A mail for Palmerston North and Wellington will be closed at 8 p.m. on Saturday. The public is notified that street posting boxes will not be cleared on Monday. An additional clearance of boxes will be made on Saturday at 7 p.m.