LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 November 1941, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

An Unusual Visitor. A Greymouth resident has an unusual visitor, .an opossum, which has taken possession of one of the nests in the fowlhouse, and evidently regards these quarters as ideal. The opossum is comparatively tame, and permits itself to be handled. It appreciates titbits offered, to it. The fowls have not yet objected to its presence. Woman Found Dead. Mrs Nellie Ethel McAvey, 42, wife of Mr Thomas Francis Patrick McAvey, was found dead in her home at Ashburton on Friday night, with the live connection of an electric iron in her right hand. When her daughter left home earlier, Mrs McAvey was about to iron clothes. It is understood that she suffered from heart trouble. Schools Athletic Championships. The 20th annual athletic championships of the Wellington Secondary Schools’ Athletic Association started at ( the Basin Reserve, Wellington, on Saturday. Only the morning’s events were decided, rain then causing postponement of the meeting till this afternoon. The morning finals on Saturday gave Wellington College 19 points, Hutt Valley High School 11, Silverstream 6, Rongotai 4J, Scots College 2, Wellington Technical 2, Wairarapa 2, St Patrick’s, Wellington, 1. In the Long Jump, E. Nahkies (Wairarapa College) was second in the intermediate long jump, and Wairarapa College third in the junior 440 yards relay race. The Liquor Question.

The principal debate at the Presbyterian Assembly at Timaru on Saturday arose from the presentation of the report of the Temperance Committee. During a keen discussion, the growth of the habit of drinking in moderate amounts by persons who were formerly total abstainers, and serious breaches of the licensing laws in regard to King Country Maoris, were subjects of comment. The Assembly approved the committee’s recommendations: That the committee ascertain the mind of the Church on the liquor question by a questionnaire addressed to sessions; urge on the Government that action to enforce the law to reform the liquor trade be no longer delayed. “Come and Take Us.”

Recently enemy aeroplanes dropped pamphlets over Tobruk calling on the Australian garrison to surrender. The Australian reply, among other sentences, was “Come and take us.” The Tobruk paper, however, advised the enemy to word their pamphlets differently, something like this: “Every one of you we get costs us 10, and it is getting a bit too thick. Come and give yourselves up. The German beer is the best in the world, and we have millions of gallons here. Our prison camp is the most luxurious in the world, with two-up schools every night, coursing every Wednesday, trots . on Monday afternoon, and gee-gees every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday., Its all yours if you please let us take Tobruk.

Railcar Held Up by “Blackout.” Owing to the “blackout” in Wellington last night, the last railcar to Masterton was held up at Lower Hutt, and was half an hour late in arriving at its destination. A Soldier’s Death. A soldier from Papakura camp collapsed and fell down some steps in an Auckland building on Saturday, and died while being removed to hospital. He was Private Sydney Frank Drew, Wellington, a single man, aged 28. The cause of death has not been established. “How Many Beers?” “How many beers did you have?” asked the magistrate (Mr H. A. Young, S.M.) when a man appeared in the Magistrate’s Court, at Christchurch recently, charged with drunkenness. The accused, who had previously told the court that he was deaf, quickly replied: “Five, your Worship, three boys and two girls.” Tuatara Lizards as Pets. The fact that tuatara lizards would make excellent pets was mentioned by Miss Lucy Cranwell in an address to members of the Auckland Rotary Club. The lizards were said to be fond of music and the speaker knew of one in captivity which had taken a great fancy to its owner. Although they had the reputation of being somnolent creatures, they were remarkably quick in action. “There is only one thing to be careful of,” added the speaker. “If a tuatara bites you, it is said that they will not let go—they merely go to sleep.”

First “Food Laundry.” Sir Ernest Gowers, London Regional Commissioner, recently visited Britain’s first “food laundry”—a building for the decontamination of food which has been affected by gas. Meat, sugar, rice, haricot beans, potatoes, eggs, split peas, and a variety of tinned and bottled goods which were assumed to have been in a grocery store and butchery affected by mustard gas were “decontaminated.” It was stated that sealed tins and drums, and glass bottles with well-fitting stoppers,. give complete protectoin from gas, and even waxed cartons, cellulose wrappings and grease-proof paper afford some protection. In the case of non-persistent gases,' a 48-hours’ airing is often enough to make the food perfectly safe.

Letters to Prisoners of War. The London monthly journal, “P.0.W.R.A.” (Prisoners of War Relatives’ Association), recently published an injunction from the British Post Office on the subject of letter-writing to prisoners of war. This stated that the more letters that were sent the more likely they were to be delayed by the censorship abroad, and those people who wrote many letters were unconsciously penalising those who restricted their letters to a reasonable number. “We feel,” says the communication, “that relatives must surely have the interests of prisoners at heart, and that, if they understood the position, they would voluntarily ration themselves in preference to a drastic scheme of official rationing.”