MARTINBOROUGH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1941, Page 7

MARTINBOROUGH

FEATHERSTON COUNTY ELECTIONS NEXT MONTH. (“Times-Age” Special.) The business of the Featherston County Council keeps the staff, and especially the capable County Clerk. Mr H. Hardinge, busy all the year round, but with the usual elections to be held next month additional burdens are placed upon the shoulders of those concerned. The county is represented by a particularly able body of councillors who give close attention to the expenditure of the ratepayers’ money, while at the same time keeping the roads and bridges in a good condition. The council has splendid traditions behind it in the matter of administration of county funds and the present members are living up to that standard and have earned the appreciation of the ratepayers. In Mr’Hardinge the council and ratepayers have an official who has no superior in the matter of efficiently carrying out those duties associated with the administration of such an important body as the Featherston County Council, whose operations cover such a wide area and network of roads in difficult country. Herd Testing. Herd testing is receiving close attention in the Martinborough district, and the local group now numbers 591, the average butterfat return last month being 2G.2lbs. Dairy farmers are gradually realising the value of testing and in the near future a considerable increase in the number of tested cows is expected. The Lower Valley group has 580 cows under test, and here there is expected to be a substantial increase in the numbers during next season. Football. Difficulty will doubtless be experienced this season in Maytinborough in fielding a strong football team owing to so many of the available players having linked up with the New Zealand military forces. It had been hoped that a senior team would have been placed in the field this season, but the war has made that impossible. Local enthusiasts hope that the day will not be far distant when Martinborough will take a prominent part again in the senior championship, and produce players of the stamp of “Sandy" Chapman, the Hollands and other well known footballers who eventually donned the green jersey of Wairarapa, and of those who played a prominent part in the activities of the old Lower Valley and South Wairarapa senior teams many years ago.