LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1941, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

, Territorial Parade. There will be a full parade of Territorials at the Masterton Drill Hall at 9 o’clock on Sunday. Medical Board Sittings. Sittings of the local examining medical board will be held in the Masterton Drill Hall tomorrow and Thursday and on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Farmer Drowned. Getting out of his depth while fishing with a dragnet on Kaitoke beach, five miles south from Wanganui, yesterday, Frederick Pritchard, aged 50, farmer, Kaitoke, was drowned. The body was recovered about' 400 yards farther down the beach, but resuscitation was unsuccessful.

Local Elections. ‘Unless unforeseen circumstances in the international field arise, the local body elections will be held,’ said the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Parry, in reply to a question yesterday. “But no man can say when the international situation will take a serious change,” added the Minister. “If the change takes place, neither local elections nor anything else will matter.” , Trains and the Black Out.

All trains between Wellington and Paekakariki, and between Wellington and. Lower Hutt, now run with lights screened on the seaward side, in accordance with the partial black-out of coastal lights being arranged under the Emergency Precautions Scheme. It is understood that similar precautions are being carried out in the case of all trains using coastal lines throughout the Dominion. , Notifiable Diseases. Wellington has been very free of late of notifiable diseases and for the week ended yesterday only six cases were reported to the Wellington office of the Health Department from the central Wellington area. There were three cases of erysipelas, two of pulmonary tuberculosis, and one of surgical tuberculosis. This is the lowest total for some considerable time. Musician Fined for Assault. Pleading guilty to two charges of assaulting women in Wellington on March 8, Francis Mervyn Hoffey, aged 31, a musician, was convicted and fined £lO by Mr Stout, S.M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday. Senior-Sergeant G. J. Paine said that at 2.30 o’clock on Saturday afternoon Hoffey was having an argument with the woman with whom he was living. He grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out into the street, near the post office, Featherston Street, when another woman came along and attempted to intervene. Hoffey pushed her away against the side of a post. Gift to Air Force Band.

At a concert given by the Band of the New Zealand Air Force in Masterton on Sunday night, the Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, made the presentation of a conductor’s music stand, on behalf of the Masterton Municipal Band to Flight Lieutenant Gladstone Hill. On arrival in Masterton it was found that the Air Force Band had left the conductor's stand behind, and members of the Masterton Municipal Band made a new one on Saturday afternoon. In acknowledging the gift Flight Lieutenant Gladstone Hill stated that the word “Wairarapa” would be inscribed on the stand when it was painted.

Tarring and Feathering Case. Four brothers, Ronald, Walter, Douglas and Percy Watson, appeared before Mr J. Millar, S.M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Napier, yesterday, charged with assaulting John Picone, by tarring and feathering him at Meanee, near Napier, on February 24. Ronald Watson was further charged with assaulting John Picone at Marewa on the same date. A plea of not guilty was entered in each case. At the conclusion of the hearing the charge against Douglas Watson was thrown out. The other defendants were convicted. Ronald Watson was fined £5 on the second charge and on the other charge was ordered to come up for sentence if called on within 12 months. Walter and Percy Watson were fined £5 and £3 respectively. A novel feature of the case was the defence’s application of the violation of the “unwritten law” as ground for provocation and justification of the assault.

Municipal Band Praised. The Masterton Municipal Band played the Band of the’Royal New Zealand Air Force to the Park from the Regent Theatre during its visit to the town. A tribute was paid to the band’s playing by Flight Lieutenant Gladstone Hill, conductor of the visiting band. He stated that in view of the number of players the band had lost for military service and the proportion of junior members in the band it had given a remarkably good performance. Music Director's Promise. ,

The director of music to the Royal New Zealand Air Force Band, Flight Lieutenant H. Gladstone Hill, was impressed favourably by the playing and marching of the Wairarapa College Pipe Band, during the visit to Masterton of the Band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Flight Lieutenant Hill, who also is widely known as a radio commentator on band music, said the College Pipe Band deserved a national reputation. He would do all he could to see that it got one. General Election Urged.

Representatives of the various electorate .committees of the National Party in the Wellington area, at a recent meeting, carried the following motion:—That this meeting of representatives of the Wellington City National Party electorate committees congratulates the leader, Mr Holland, on his offer to the Prime Minister that after the General Election all parties should form a National Government to remain in office for the duration of the war; further, that as the present Government has declined during the past 18 months of war to accept proposals by the Opposition for the formation of a National Government, this meeting urges, that the people of New Zealand be given an' opportunity to exercise their franchise. Fishing Industry Dispute.

Because no settlement has been reached in a dispute between fishermen and fish merchants over an increased payment for fish, boats of the Auckland fishing fleet stayed in port yesterday. The matter has now been placed in the hands of the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr Sullivan, and both parties are now awaiting his decision. Though an increase of ; |d per lb as from March 1 was granted fishermen for schnapper, terakihi and kingfish by the Price Tribunal, the men have complained that all did not receive the higher price last week. The rising costs of operating their boats justified an increase in the price paid for their fish, stated the fishermen, who said there had been no increase in the previous price of 2d a lb since 1936.

Dimming of Car Lights. Informal notice that motor-vehicle lights will have to be dimmed, specially near the sea, to such an extent that it will be almost a black-out, has been received by the Automobile Association (Wellington). This was conveyed to members of the association’s executive by the secretary at its meeting last night. The chairman, Mr E. A. Batt, said nobody knew yet how far the authorities would go. If they did what the technicians advised there would be no long-beam lights, except on country roads and in defined areas outside cities and away from coasts, and the shielding device would be such as to throw the light just in front of the car with no beam ahead at all. Nothing had been decided, and it was not known how the problem would be dealt with and to what extent. Land for Soldiers.

A statement that no applications for land lor settlement purposes had been received from soldiers who had already been invalided back to New Zealand during the present war was made yesterday by the Minister of Lands, Mr Langstone, who said that because of their previous experience and knowledge, some men wishing to go on the land would bo able to operate a farm immediately they returned, whereas others might require a period of training before they could do so. The possibility was that the men would be classified into various groups so that the land would be farmed 100 per cent successfully. Some men might find that after farming for a period they wanted to go into other occupations, and some period, decided on from time to time, would probably be fixed so that the authorities could ascertain whether a returned soldier had a natural bent for the land, and | was desirous of following farming as | his future calling.