LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 February 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Washers for Taps.

The Wellington city engineer has been authorised to continue the service of rewashering water taps free of charge for a further three months. Garden Cemetery.

The Wellington City Council last night decided to have a plan prepared for the laying out of a small area at Karori as a model garden cemetery. c Service of Intercession.

There was a good attendance 'at the weekly service of intercession held at the Masterton Methodist Church yesterday afternoon. Services were conducted by the Rev. I. C. Edwards and Mrs Major Dick.

Sequel to Car Accident. In the Supreme Court, Palmerston North, before Mr Justice Blair, a jury awarded C. G. Jones £258 Is special and £9OO general damages against H. F. Ross for injuries received in a car accident in Palmerston North last June. The claim was for £1798.

Highway Fatalities. Highway fatalities during January, though not as frequent as in ordinary years, exceeded those for January, 1942, the total being 12, as compared with eight. Before the war and in its first year or two, the figure for January was about 20. Five of the victims last month were pedestrians, two were motor-cyclists, and two drivers of vehicles.

Sunspot Group. The largest and most active group of sunspots so far observed this year broke out during the night of Monday last, immediately following a day when the sun was without spots. At 3.40 p.m. yesterday this group had attained a length of about 100,000 miles and, including a distant outlyer, its width was about the same. The group is stated to be situated, on the sun’s eastern hemisphere, and will pass the central meridian about Friday night. Six other groups, all composed of extremely small spots, have been observed since January 1. On five days of this year the sun has been observed to be entirely clear of spots. Nursery Schools.

To help mothers, with young children who are engaged in essential industries the Government is assisting the establishment of nursery schools in certain centres where the need is greatest. A beginning is to be made in the Wellington area with extensions to the Taranaki Street and Petone Kindergartens, to enable these schools >to cater eventually for 100 children between the ages of 2 years 6 months and 4 years 11 months inclusive. Further extension of the plan is contemplated in Wellington and other cities if the need is shown to exist. “Only those children whose mothers are engaged in work considered by the National Service Department to be of national importance will be admitted,” states the Minister of Education, Mr Mason. “The scheme will provide for the care of children from 7.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. on five days a week. Meals will be provided, and a charge of Is 3d a day will be made for each child.”

Home Guard Parade. A compulsory parade of the Te Ore Ore Home Guard Platoon will be held on Saturday, February I’3, at 6 p.m. Free Kindergarten. r> At a meeting of the committee of the Masterton Free Kindergarten, Mrs Williams presided. Thanks were expressed to those responsible for the success of the gathering held in December, over £4 having, beemyajsed. It was decided that the. annual meeting of the association be held in March, nominations to close on March 9. Petrol Coupons. The North Island'Motor Union wrote to the monthly meeting of the Wairarapa Automobile Association advising that a deputation had waited upon Cabinet in regard to the issue of petrol to the full face value of coupons. They had been accorded a very sympathetic hearing, but after having heard the explanation given to them had decided that the present time was inopportune to. press the question. Convalescent Americans.

A suggestion that Hawke’s Bay people could assist in accommodating convalescent American Servicemen was made at Monday’s meeting of the Hawke’s Bay County Council by the chairman, Mr R. Harding. Much was being done by the Americans for New Zealand men in the United States, he said, and some approach should be made to the authorities to ascertain if they desired the Hawke’s Bay people to do something. Already a number of these men had stayed in Hawke’s Bay homes, and they had benefited considerably. Other councillors supported the chairman’s suggestion. Court Proceedings Disturbed.

Proceedings in the Magistrate's’ Court, Wellington, yesterday were considerably disturbed by the noise of an aeroplane, which continued for some time diving and zooming over the city. The noise made it difficult for evidence, which had to be taken down in the form of depositions, to be heard. Finally the magistrate, Mr Stout, addressed the Court orderly: “Ask the Clerk of the Court to ring the Air Department and get it stopped. There is no need for him to be running about up there like that,” he said. The noise ceased a little later.

Alleged Threat to Shoot Woman. Allegations that a man entered a woman’s room in a house in Wadestown, Wellington, at 3 o’clock in the morning, and forced her, at the point of a revolver, to dress and accompany hjm in his car to his home in Island Bay, where he kept her till midday under constant threat to shoot her, were made in. evidence given before Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., in the S.M. Court, Wellington, yesterday, when William Alexander Crossan, labourer, was charged with being a rogue and vagabond in that he was found by night in possession of a revolver with felonious intent, and with threatening the woman with a revolver with intent to intimidate her. The woman stated in evidence that she had been legally separated from her husband. She And accused arranged to marry when she obtained a divorce after three years’ separation. Later she heard about accused’s past life, and decided she could not carry on the friendship. Accused pleaded not guilty to both charges, and was committed for trial in the Supreme Court at the May sittings.