LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 February 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Inquiries Into Man’s Death. Following the death in the Auckland Hospital yesterday of the manager of , the Auckland Sailors’ Home, Mr Henry Bailey, the police are conducting inquiries, and an inquest is to be held. Mr Bailey was admitted to hospital on Saturday afternoon with head and other injuries. Dunedin Fire. A destructive fire swept the upper, floor of McDuff’s, Ltd., department store in George Street, Dunedin, early yesterday morning, damage to the stocks and building running into many thousands.' A calm night facilitated a speedy save, the outbreak being extinguished in 20 minutes. The stock is insured for £15,000, and the fixtures and fittings for £4OO. Fire at Coal Depot. An auxiliary fireman, Mr William John Beech, aged 19, received a serious electrical shock from a live wire when he was assisting to fight a big blaze in the Pukemiro collieries depot near Mt. Eden Station, Auckland, last night. The fire swept through the wood and coal, destroying hundreds of pounds worth and damaging the building. Three brigades had a stiff fight. Use of Lime. I An instance of the use of lime in promoting growth in crops was given by Councillor G. W. Moore at yesterday’s meeting of the Masterton County Council. Councillor Moore said that last spring he was sowing an area in oats. He was using serpentine super, with the seed but the supply of super ran out. In portion of the paddock nothing but lime was sown with the seed, and that part provided the best area of oats in the crop. Rabbitskin Prices. The Dunedin Stock Agents and Wool Brokers’ Association reports approximately 23 tons of rabbitskins offered to the usual bench of buyers at Dunedin yesterday. The offering comprised chiefly smalls, runners, summers and milky does, with a small percentage of racks. There was a strong demand for all grades, particularly racks and runners, and values for these as compared with prices ruling at the last auction held in November were firmer by 24d to 33d pei’ lb. Smalls, summers, milky does and broken can be quoted 12d to 18d per lb. dearer. Few lines of last season’s late winters were catalogued, and these realised up to 82d per lb.

A Rich Gold Mine. Colonel F. W. Furkert, formerly chief engineer of the Public Works Department, who spent some time recently in Fiji, told the members of the , Wellington Rotary Club yesterday that the Fiji gold mine which he visited during his stay was one 1 of the richest in the world. It was not much more than 10 years old, yet it employed 2500 Fijians and was equipped with the most up-to-date gold saving apparatus known. The Fijian employees, all of whom had been trained by the management, were able to do everything ■ save the scientific and chemical work. ■ “I gathered that the average product ■ of the mine was 6001 b weight a month,” , he stated. Fire at Borstal Institute. About 70 young women, inmates of the Point Halswell Borstal Institution for Women, were evacuated and spent some two hours on the beach at Shelly Bay, when fire broke out near the borstal at 10 p.m. on Monday. Three engines subdued the outbreak without difficulty and without any incidents, fear of which caused the evacuation. In the light of the matrons torches, the young women, including three cripples and one just returned from hospital, made their way down the. face of a steep cliff toward the beach. Such was the speed with which they left the building that they were clad only in night attire, with blankets round their shoulders. They were in the charge of the superintendent, Miss Trevor. About midnight the inmates returned to the borstal in Army trucks. Domestic Fined £5. Pleading that she was a true Christian and would not be regimented to any military or other organisation; Ethel May Ritchie appeared before Mr ; J. Miller, S.M., in the Magistrates’' Court, Napier, charged with failing to comply with a direction from the National Service Department. Mr C. , A. Beaufort, district manpower officer, Napier, said that defendant, who was ' a domestic, had registered under the National Service regulation ordering . all females between the ages of 24 and > 30 to register for national service, but , when directed to the Napier public ■ hospital as a wardmaid she refused to ( go. Defendant appealed against the j direction and her appeal was heard | and dismissed by the ‘Appeal Tribunal. ( She still refused to do as directed. , When asked by the magistrate what < religion she belonged to, Ritchie re- . < plied: “Jehovah’s Witness and I am proud to think I am one.” In impos- , ing a fine of £5, the magistrate said j that defendant was liable to a fine of c £lOO or three months’ imprisonment. c