LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 September 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Associated Chambers of Commerce. The annual conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce is to be held in Wanganui on November 11 and 12. " Demand for Dairy Farms.

Reports from Marlborough, the Wairarapa, and Manawatu, show that there is a good demand for farm property. with prices ruling high. Larger farms, above 50 to 100 acres, are not in so great a demand, according to the annual report of the Wellington branch of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

Fifth City in New Zealand. Palmerston North has moved from the seventh to the fifth city in the Dominion, according to a statement by the mayor, Mr Mansford, who quoted figures giving the city a population of 23.600, as against Wanganui’s 23,400, Invercargill’s 22,600 and Lower Hutt’s 22.600.

Dear Oranges! Private J. L .Martin, son of Mr W. Martin, headmaster of the Carterton District High School, writing from “somewhere in Sfrria,” laments the dearness of Jericho oranges as follows:—At Nazareth I visited Mary’s well and the Carpenter's shop, and at Jericho I bought some very dear oranges—only six for 2d! That was in November when the citrus fruits were just ripening, but in season, one can get a hundred oranges for 2d.

Vegetable Shortage. Soldiers are stated to be sharing the vegetable shortage with civilians despite the impression held by some people that the Army has plenty of what the public goes without. All ranks are on six ounces of potatoes daily and below normal in the other vegetables. The deficiency is being made up with brains, liver and similar items considered to compensate for the lack of vegetables. Central Military District has arranged for unit quartermasters to contact supply officers weekly. The object is to make the best use of the rations available for the ensuing week to obtain variety in the menu.

School as Hospital. The Palmerston North City Council has decided to support the protest against the continued use of the Palmerston North intermediate school as a military hospital and to stress upon the Ministers of Health and Defence the inconvenience being caused and urge the erection of a military hospital. It was considered that the council had a duty to the children who were now being taught in most unsuitable halls, the parents regarding the present method of educating them as farcical. Mr Hodgens, M.P., remarked that the conditions in some respects were mid; Victorian and in view of the possibility of the school being used as a hospital for some years after the war a stand in the matter should be taken. Emergency hospital buildings for 350 beds had been erected in two places in the Dominion and the same could be done in Palmerston North.