LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 January 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Alleged Theft. Charged with the theft of £27, the property of the New Zealand Government, John Gavin Mclntyre, employed in the Army Department, appeared before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., in the Dunedin Magistrate’s Court yesterday, and on the application of DetectiveSergeant Hall he was remanded till Friday. Mr Hall said the circumstances were similar to those involved in the charges against eight men who were before the Court yesterday. Bail was allowed in the sum of £25, with one surety of a similar amount. Smouldering Sacks. Included in the stock at a store in Lyttelton destroyed by the disastrous fire on Christmas Eve were 500,000 sacks purchased by the Wheat Committee. The sacks smouldered for many days, and the Government, at the request of the E.P.S. authorities at Lyttelton, removed the sacks to a vacant section at Officer’s Point. Several times last week the Lyttelton fire brigade was called upon to deal .with these sacks, which have continued to smoulder. A stack of wheat removed from the same store has also continued to burn. Production Drop. Butter and cheese production in the Wanganui district is well down on last year, due to the long spell of dry weather and excessive high winds. Detailed figures will not be available till the end of the season, but one company which has produced 625 tons of butter for two years in succession, is already well below the previous year’s output. The flush is usually experienced in December and January, but November was the best month of the present season. Up to that period the grass contained a certain amount of moisture, but as the dry weather continued production started to decline in December. Fine Crop of Oats. Harvesting operations are now commencing in full swing. A very fine crop of Algerian oats on the property of Mr Henry Evans, Upper Plain, which has just been threshed, yielded 100 bushels per acre from a paddock of 14 acres. The seed sown was from reselected seed produced at the Canterbur Agricultural College at Lincoln, and the large yield obtained is evidence of the advantages to be gained by good farming, together with sowing of the best type of seed