LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Accident to Small Boy. A four-year-old boy named Peter Gibbs, of Matahiwi, fell off a settee yesterday afternoon and fractured his right leg. He was admitted to the Masterton Hospital for treatment. His condition is satisfactory.

"Diggers” in Uniform. A noticeable feature of Wednesday evening’s gathering of ex-service men in Masterton was the number of “Diggers” of the last war who were present in the uniforms of the Army, Navy and Air Forces, attached to overseas units, or on national service in New Zealand. Power for Tractors.

As the result of representations made by the Dunedin Primary Production Council, the Minister of Primary Production for War Purposes, Mr Polson, has advised that instructions have been issued by the Oil Fuel Controller that petrol is to be delivered in place of power kerosene where this cannot be obtained. There has been a shortage of power kerosene for tractors in use on farms, and work has been held up in a number of districts. The authorised supply of petrol will remedy this difficulty.

Tuis in Wellington. “There are more tuis in the Wellington Botanical Gardens this year than in any of the last 24 years,” said the director of parks and reserves, Mr J. G. MacKenzie, last night. In some cases as many as four tuis had been observed in one tree. The birds were particularly plentiful in the neighbourhood of the glasshouses. They were attracted by the kowhai, which had bloomed profusely this year, and from which they sought nectar. In some past years there had been no tuis in the gardens at all. Overdue Leave.

The restricted railway service is enabling train crews to take some of the leave overdue to them and many are being granted six days’ rest leave by the Railways Department, said the secretary of the N.Z. Locomotive Engineers, Firemen, and Cleaners’ Association, Mr T. H. Stephenson, yesterday. With 619 of the 2350 members of the association at the .beginning of the war now with the armed forces, not only was leave overdue, but the weekly hours were very long, he continued. During the holiday period at the beginning of the year they had averaged between 60 and 70 hours a week for train crews. Mr Stephenson quoted the evidence given at a sitting of the No. 7 Manpower Committee by the assistant staff superintendent, Wellington, Mr G. L. Anderson, that there was a 54-hour week in the workshops and up to 60 and 70 hours on the locomotives.