LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 August 1941, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Drilling for Oil.

The fortnightly bulletin of the New Zealand Petroleum Company, Ltdstates that the Morere bore has been advanced to 5605 feet in very hard siliceous shale. The Midhurst well is at a depth of 7690 feet in hard, sandy shale. The reports indicate progress of 105 and 210 feet respectively in a fortnight. Decrease in Marriages.

A substantial drop in the number of marriages is revealed by the vital statistics for last month for the Wellington district, compared with the figure for the corresponding month last year. A slight increase in births and deaths is shown. The figures, with those for July, 1940, in parentheses, are as follows: —Births, 231 (225); deaths, 165 (140); marriages, 183 (317).

Salvation Army and War. Discussing at a Whangarei meeting the Salvation Army’s attitude to war and the appeals by some on conscientious grounds against military service, Lieutenant-Commissioner J. Evan Smith, territorial commander in New Zealand of the Salvation Army, said he had little patience with pacifists. “When the whole world is threatened with tyranny and oppression by the forces of evil, it is no use merely singing psalms and giving utterance to pious platitudes,” he said. “You have to do something to combat those forces, and that is what we are doing.” Remarkable Escape from Death. Though washed in and out of the sea by successive waves and pounded by heavy seas, Stephen Vautier, aged 18 months, son of Mr and Mrs W. Vautier, Wainui, suffered no apparent illeffects. When the child was missed yesterday an immediate search was made by the mother, but since it was unusual for him to go near the beach it was some time before she looked in that direction. Finally she saw the child left high and dry by a receding wave, and she reached him in time to hold him up while another wave swirled about her io a depth of 2ft or 3ft. Residents of the locality had watched an object thrown about by the sea for the best part of a quarter of an hour without realising that it was a little boy. Overseas Canteens. A report on investigations into complaints of returned soldiers regarding canteens overseas was presented to a recent meeting pf the Dominion executive committee of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association. It appeared from the report that the difficulties about the supply of New Zealand tobacco and reasonable prices were mainly the result of lack of transport facilities and the excise duty payable to the Egyptian Government. Regarding the suggestion that canteens should be run by New Zealand for New Zealand troops, the report indicated that the difficulties surrounding the maintenance of stocks and catering for the various units, which were often widely separated, were too great to warrant further consideration. Furthermore, it had been ascertained that the leaders of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. on active service were ] opposed to the taking over control of canteens.

Weather* Forecasts. On and after Monday, a weather forecast will' be posted daily at the Masterton Post Office. Arrangements are being made under which it will be open to telephone subscribers, on request, to obtain the weather forecast by telephone. Calling Up of Married Men. “It is intended that married men shall not be called up till steps have been taken to ensure that all single men who can be released for the armed forces have been called up,” the Minister of National Service, Mr Semple, said in an interview yesterday. Adjournments previously granted will be reviewed by the appeal boards as quickly as possible, added the Minister. Aeroplane Flown Too Low. For flying an aeroplane too low over Karori one Saturday afternoon in March, Alfred Rose, company manager, was fined £4 and costs 19s by Mr Luxford, S.M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday. Rose was charged with flying an aircraft over the city at an altitude that did not enable it to be landed outside the city should its means of propulsion fail, and with flying an aircraft over the city in such circumstances that by reason of too low altitude and proximity to persons and dwellings he caused unnecessary danger to persons and property.

Arson Suspected. The fifth fire at the Waipukurau Jockey Club’s racecourse since December of 1939 occurred on Thursday night. It was about midnight when a stack containing between nine and ten tons of baled hay caught fire, and was so well alight before it was observed that it was not even worth while to call the fire brigade. This is the fifth of a series of fires which have happened at the racecourse. The totalisator house, the grandstand and another haystack were completely destroyed, and the women’s cloakroom was the scene of an outbreak which was stopped in time. In March of this year, the secretary of the jockey club, Mr F. A. G. Dunn, offered a reward of £5O to any person giving information that would lead to a conviction for arson in connection with the series of fires which the club suspected were not altogether straightfoi’ward accidents. Remuera Seat. The question of the Remuera seat at the forthcoming general election was referred to last night by Mr S. G. Holland, Leader of the Opposition. Mr Holland stated that a deadlock had been reached in Remuera and the matter had been referred to him. After consultation with various interested parties, including the Parliamentary Opposition, he had decided that there was only one course he was able to take, and that was ■that' Mr Endean would receive his full support and that of the Parliamentary party, thus making Mr Endean the official candidate. Mr Holland explained that he had been in constant touch with Mr Alex Gordon, president of the party, who had just returned to Wellington after making a personal investigation into the matter in Auckland. Mr Gordon, said Mr Holland, was in full agreement with the statement being made by him.