LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 December 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

0 Exhibition of New Zealand Art. The centennial exhibition of New Zealand Art which is at present being held in the Town Hall, Masterton, will definitely close tomorrow.-

New Zealanders Serving in Greece. An announcement that two officers and 54 men of the New Zealand Railway Construction and Maintenance Group were now engaged in technical work in Greece was made yesterday by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser. Dance at Te,Ore Ore.

There was a good attendance at the dance held in the Te Ore Ore Meeting House on Saturday night. The music was supplied by J. Barnes’s Rhythm Boys Band. The Miri competition was won by Mr lan Cameron, Mauriceville. Japanese Goods.

One week recently there were 14 commercial travellers in Blenheim jobbing out Japanese piecegoods, said Mr W. Bacon at yesterday’s annual meeting of the United Kingdom Manufacturers and New Zealand Representatives’ Association.

Payment of Pensions. Because of the Christmas and New Year holidays pensions due toward- the end of the month or on January 1 (in the case of the universal pension) will be payable from December 20. The pensions thus affected are the old age. widows’ and children’s, invalidity, New Zealand and Imperial war and other pensions and the universal pension. Fatality on Wharf.

A waterside worker, Frederick William Townsend, 67, widower, was killed instantly on the Nelson wharf when assisting to unload the coastal vessel Port Waikato. Crates of cargo, each weighing four hundredweight, were being landed on to trucks when a sling containing two crates crushed him against a truck. He leaves a young family. Prisoner Missing.

Police officers and wardens from the Haupu and Rangipo prison farms are searching for a prisoner who was missed from the Taupo Farm, Turangi, at 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon. The prisoner, John Richard Can tell, had been working with a fellow-prisoner mowing hay in a paddock. A warder said that when he last saw the prisoner earlier in the day he seemed to be working steadily and asked about a piece of rope he needed for his work. Cantell, who is servin'g a nine months’ sentence, is sft 4Jin tall, and when last seen was wearing white moleskin trousers and a grey coat but no hat. Airman Assaulted.

In the Dunedin Magistrates’ Court yesterday James Machen was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment for assaulting an aircraftman in uniform. The police stated that an argument arose at a pie-cart between the accused and an artilleryman in uniform. It was alleged that either the accused or a companion used insulting language regarding the artilleryman being in uniform. An aircraftman intervened, and was struck by the accused on the lips, which had to be stitched. The magistrate, Mr Bundle, said that had it been proved that the accused had made insulting remarks concerning the wearing of uniform he would have imposed the maximum penalty.

Fire in Wellington. Damage estimated at between £7OOO and £BOOO was caused by a lire which gutted a single-story building in Taranaki Street, near Courtenay Place, Wellington, shortly after midday yesterday. The building- is owned by the Wellington City Corporation and occupied by Jamieson’s Garage, Nu-Tread Ltd., and Dominion Rental Cars, Ltd. Several motor vehicles and a large stock of motor tyres'were destroyed in Jamieson’s Garage and Nu-Tread, Ltd., but Dominion Rental Cars, Ltd., managed to remove most of their' vehicles, and one or two under repair received minor damage only. A fireman, Mr Henry G. Hobbs,- received minor injuries from burns and was taken to hospital by the Free Ambulance.

Leased to Army Department. The possibility of asking debentureholders to renew for a further period ,in which the liability to them could be wiped off, was mentioned by the chairman, Sir Charles Norwood, at the annual meeting in Wellington last night of the Winter Show Association. Sir Charles said that the interest to the holders was assured. It was stated during the meeting that the Army Department had leased the Winter Show building for the duration of the war and six months thereafter at £2OOO a year. The annual accounts showed a loss on the year’s working of £369,' which was the result of writing off depreciation, £1136. A profit was anticipated next year as the overhead expenses were now small. Regarding the lease of the building to the Army Department, it was felt that the association would be in a more favourable financial position with the department as a tenant than having to depend on spasmodic lettings at a time when these might be difficult to obtain.