LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Frosts in Masterton. Frosts were experienced in Masterton over the weekend, one of 7.4 degrees being registered on Sunday morning and another of 5.2 degrees this morning. Soldiers’ Community Sing.

Though the usual Sunday tea and services at the Y.M.C.A. last night had to be postponed because. the building was being used in connection with earthquake emergency work, a large number of soldiers gathered there and had a community sing for about two hours, Miss M. Iveson playing the music. Woman’s Body Found.

The finding on a path leading to the Orakei Basin, Auckland, of a woman’s hat and coat on Friday night led to the recovery from the basin of the body of Miss Elizabeth Lag, aged 78, ,of Mount Albert. The hat and coat were found by two youths who were out for a walk.

Damages Awarded to Widow. Reserved judgment has been given at Palmerston North by Mr Justice Smith regarding a claim by Mrs D. M. V. Metcalfe, Norsewood, for £3879 damages for the death of her husband through injuries he received from the winch of a log-hauler on the property of Mr G. A. Mclntosh, sawmiller, Tepapakuku, defendant. The jury awarded £2571. Defendant's counsel moved for a nonsuit or a new trial, and it was on these points that decision was reserved. His Honour held that deceased was a servant and not an independent contractor, and that his alleged negligence had not been proved, and judgment was 1 given for the amount awarded by the jury.

Fish Agitated by Earthquake. Wellington fishermen etigaged in the Marlborough Sounds on Wednesday night were not surprised when they reached port the following morning to learn that a severe earthquake had been experienced. Though the men on the boats had not felt the shake themselves) the fish certainly showed that the earthquake had beer, noticed under water. Till about 11 p.m. most fishermen had experienced a fairly quiet time, but shortly afterward the surface of the sea round their launches was violently agitated with fish breaking water. For about 10 minutes this continued to make an unusual sight in the bright moonlight, and for the rest of the night the fish, instead of feeding on the bottom, were close to the surface. Reason for Blackout.

'■ A statement that the so-called blackout in New Zealand was never intended primarily as a precaution against enemy air attack by night, was made by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Commodore R. V. Goddard, in an address last night. He said it was a precaution against assisting enemy ships in their navigation off our coasts, or within our harbours, when navigation lights were extinguished. “In a secondary way, our lighting restrictions have become a precaution against some future possibility when the Japanese might have established air bases from which they could, if they needed to attack us from the air by night,” said the air commodore. “This they might do after, but probably not before, experience had proved to them that our air defences were too powerful for them by day. That is a possibility—it is a possibility we are not neglecting.”