LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1941, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Extra Hour Worked. Slaughtermen employed at the Imlay works of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, who previously had been reported as refusing to work an extra hour on Saturday, assembled at 7 a.m.. and worked the extra hour. Fire in Motor Car. Through a short circuit of ignition wires, a Wellington rental car caught fire in Pownall Street, yesterday afternoon. The Masterton Fire Brigade, receiving a call at 4.5 p.m., quelled the outbreak before more than slight damage was done. Car Found Down Cliff. A car removed from near the Kilbirnie Kinema, Wellington, on Saturday night was found 200 feet down the cliff from Hounsey Road. Lyall Bay. yesterday morning. It is believed to have gone over the bank about midnight on Saturday. As far as is known no one was in the car at the lime. Business Man Missing. Mr C. M. Brown, well-known in Wellington business circles as a customs and shipping agent, has been missing since last Thursday morning. MiBrown is a returned soldier. He is ageci 49. and sft. BHn. in height. When he left home on Thursday he was wearing a grey suit, blue shirt with white collar, grey sox and black shoes. He had grey-blue eyes and sandy hair. He is married.

Shortage of Labour. Supplies of labour for harvesting Hawke’s Bay pip fruit are already difficult to obtain, though the picking season is by no means yet fully under way. Many men usually engaged in this work have joined the armed forces and others have taken up jobs which are more remunerative. Efforts arc being made to organise week-end parties of men from the towns to assist in the work.

Featherston Girl Injured. Head injuries were received by Miss A. D. Collins, aged 17. Featherston, when she was struck by a car on Beach Road, Paekakariki, at 6 o’clock last evening. She is in Hobson Street Hospital, Wellington, where her condition is reported to be satisfactory. Miss Collins was walking, along the seafront near the football ground when she was injured, and she was taken to hospital by the Wellington Free Ambulance.

Theft at Women’s Baths

Referring to the recent theft of monev from the Masterton Women's Baths, the Town Clerk, Mr. G. T. O’Hara Smith points out that valuables left by ladies using the baths are placed in safe custody. No valuables were interfered with on the occasion of the theft reported last week. The custodian, Mrs. Brenkloy. had occasion to leave her office to attend to the baths and during her absence of a few minutes, her own handbag, which she had left in the office, was stolen, and she was the only loser. No council money was stolen. The only loss was a substantial sum belonging to Mrs. Brenkley.

Demand for Writing Papei\ The postal authorities in Wellington have noticed a large increase in the volume of letters to and from New Zealand since the first troops went overseas, and as each fresh contingent leaves the Dominion the work in the mail rooms becomes heavier. The introduction of the air mail rate of 9d. has increased the flow of outward letters. All tins correspondence to and from soldiers has created a keener public demand for writing-paper and stationers and other retailers are selling their stocks as fast as they can get it. The National Patriotic Fund Board, which supplies writing paper to the soldiers, recently gave an order for the armed forces running into one million octavo-size sheets.

Scarcity of Army Mounts

Territorial mounted units from the Gisborne district, which are to enter cam]) next months for their three months’ intensive training period, are still without sufficient horses to mount all members. On some properties where horses of the best remount typo were bred in other days the supply todays appears to have fallen away to a mere trickle, and there have been instances in which the committee has encountered a complete lack of interest on the part of owners of likely types ■af horses. The position now is that the Army Department wishes to include he horses of individual recruits under | the registeration scheme, which would ! oblige the owners t<> keep their horses I available for military training ptirI poses.