LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1941, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Death From Bullet Wound. Frank Henry Hull Blakeley, a married man, aged 67, of 123 York Place, was admitted to the Dunedin hospital yesterday morning, suffering from a bullet wound in the head, from which he died at 5 o’clock last night. Drunken Motorist Fined. For having been intoxicated while in charge of a motor-car, Charles Stanley Clark, importer’s agent, aged 48, was fined £2O by Mr Stout 1 , S.M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday, and his licence to drive was cancelled for 12 months. Echo of Motor. Accident. A jury of 12 in the Supreme Court, Wellington, yesterday awarded Amy Shirley Donne, spinster, Lower Hutt, £369 special damages and £l2OO general damages against Bernard Anderson Ferrier, motor mechanic, Wellington, for injuries received when a motor-car she was driving met a car driven by defendant in a head-on collision near Melting railway station on the Western Hutt Road, on June 11, 1940. Training in Tank Handling. “The sending of New Zealanders to the United States for training in handling tanks is definitely under consideration, but it is inevitable that if the Dominion is to be properly defended, as it is contemplated that it will be, then the training of men to handle tanks must be undertaken here,’,’ said the ActingPrime Minister, Mr Nash, last night. The Minister was discussing a statement by Mr Coates, Minister without portfolio and a member of the War Cabinet, about the training of some New Zealand personnel in tanks. He added that the United States Army had a tank training school, where training in every phase of tank handling was available. A Wei 1 Bred Dog. The winner of the Wairarapa Coursing Club’s Physick Cup contest at Akura on Saturday afternoon, Julius Caesar, owned by Mr W. Spring, comes of particularly good breeding. Julius Caesar was sired by the prominent Rereatu, winner, amongst many other I events, of the New Zealand Waterloo 1 Cup in 1937, and the New Zealand St. Leger in 1936. Rereatu, owned by Mr E. J. Wing, Masterton, was one of the few greyhounds, it is understood, who was most successful on both plumpton and speed track. He won the Great Northern Stakes at League Park, Napier, in 1938. Donation to Health Camp.

Grateful appreciation has been expressed by members of the executive committee of the Wellington Children’s Health Camp Association on receipt of a letter from the solicitors in the estate of the late Mr Bernard (Jack) Smith, a farm hand of Masterton, enclosing a cheque for £57 12s 7d, scrip for 60 shares in the Tung Oil Co., . Ltd., together with personal belongings consisting of a gold jewelled ring and gold watch, chain and pendant, which Mr Smith bequeathed to the Children’s Health Camp at Otaki. Members felt that this bequest was a tangible expression of the valuable work conducted by the Health Camp movement and that it set a worthy example.

Prisoners of War. The new office of the prisoners of war inquiry branch in the Bank of New Zealand Chambers, Auckland, was officially opened yesterday by Sir Ernest Davis, chairman of the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society, under whose auspices the work will be done. He said the office would fulfil an important function in ministering to the comfort of prisoners of war, also giving information to relatives and friends concerning parcels and letters. Use of Hall Refused.

After a discussion lasting nearly an hour and a half, the Auckland City Council, at a special meeting, decided, on the casting vote of the mayor, Mr Allum, to decline an application by the convenor of the Aid to Russia Committee, for the use of the Town Hall for holding a public meeting celebrating the signing of the pact between Great Britain and the Soviet Union, and extending the cordial greetings of citizens. Eighteen of the 21 members of the council were present. Government War Loan. Subscriptions to the Government’s war loan during the week ended August 7 amounted to £2,339,320, according to information supplied by the Reserve Bank to the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, yesterday. Commenting on the bank’s report, Mr Nash said it indicated satisfactory progress towards the total of £10,000.000 required before the loan closed on September 2. “No doubt,” added the Minister, “many people are making arrangements for their subscriptions to be made in the near future, and it is confidently expected that the figures for the second week will be as encouraging as those now published.’ A Heated Discussion. “I am disgusted, and if there is any more of this I am going to resign,” declared Mr F. Duxfield last night, when, as a member of the New Plymouth Central School Committee, he objected to questions put to a teacher, Mr C. H. Olds, by the chairman, Mr S. G. Smith. There were heated passages both before and after Mr Olds appeared before the committee to show cause why the Taranaki Education Board should not be asked to canqel his appointment as a teacher at the school in view of a letter received from a parent and a statement alleged to have been made by him before the Armed Forces Appeal Board that he would not use force against a man attacking children in a playground because it might endanger the life of the assailant. At the conclusion of a long discussion the committee decided to refer the mattei’ to the Education Board for further inquiry.

Shortage of Silk Stockings. Apart from <war subjects, one of the difficult problems at present exercising members of Cabinet is the more equitable distribution of available supplies of silk stockings among the women of New Zealand, so that disadvantages may be removed from some sections of prospective buyers. The Acting-Prime Minister, Mr Nash, in discussing the problem last night, agreed that it was not simple of solution, but said it was desirable that all should have a reasonable chance of obtaining a share. Mr Nash said that in no case had. an application to import raw material into New Zealand for the manufacture of silk stockings been refused. Present production was 60,000 pairs a week, and plans were in hand for the making by existing manufacturers of an extra 600,000 pairs annually. One of the difficulties was the shortage of operatives.