LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

National Savings. National Savings receipts at the Masterton Post Office yesterday amounted to £52, making the total to date for the week £429.

Army Cricket Match. The North v South Island Army teams’ match was commenced at Wellington yesterday. South Island compiled 130, and at the end of the day’s play North had 14 up for the loss of no wickets.

No More* Oranges. The Masterton branch of the Plunket Society has been advised by the Internal Marketing Board that no more oranges would be available for distributio'n to mothers. Since December last the local Plunket Society has distributed 2500 oranges to mothers in Master ton. s

Begging for Alms. Fourteen days’ imprisonment was the sentence imposed by Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday, on Robert Walker, a seaman, aged 43, who was charged with being an idle and disorderly person in that he placed himself in Lambton Quay to beg alms. Defendant was stated to have been seeking money to purchase beer. The case was the third of its nature to be dealt with in Wellington within a week. Accident Cases.

Audrey Winifred Elliott, aged 11 years, of “Tehau”, Masterton, was admitted to Masterton Hospital yesterday afternoon. She suffered a broken arm when she fell off her pony. Her condition is satisfactory. An American serviceman was admitted to hospital last night with head injuries received in a fall from a car in Queen Street. He was discharged from hospital this morning.

Forgery and False Pretences. Eric Rowley Jory and John Gerard Farmer, who appeared in uniform, and Donald Stuart McLean, hospital porter, who had pleaded guilty to charges of forgery and false pretences by having obtained from the Army Department money by using fictitious signatures on acquittance rolls, appeared before Mr Justice Kennedy in the Supreme Court, Dunedin, for sentence. Farmer and Jory were each sentenced to nine months’ reformative detention, and McLean to six months’ reformative detention. In passing sentence, his Honour said Farmer had been committing his dishonest acts over a long period, and the false signatures totalled 150. For more than two years there had been continued dishonesty by Jory, but McLean was not in the same position of trust.

Sly Grog Selling and Immorality. The statement that despite the vigilance of the police in sheeting offences home to those who chose to operate outside the law, sly-grog selling has been going on in Wellington on an extensive scale, is made by authorities who are in a position to know the facts. They describe as utter .nonsense a recently published suggestion that there were no sly-grog places in Wellington. It is stated by the same authorities that complaints of a shockingly loose standard of conduct on the part of a large number of young women, both permanent and transient residents of Wellington, are well-found-ed. The influence of wartime conditions could not be offered as a complete excuse for the downward slide. The Court records showed how many women, many of them in their ’teens, were being committed to detention on charges arising out of immorality. The present situation was described yesterday as far exceeding that in 1915 —the worst period of the Great War.

Miss H. Grant, matron of the Masterton Hospital, will be the speaker at the first meeting of the year of the Masterton voluntary aid detachment of the Order of St. John. Mrs A. F. Stewart, commandant, will speak on various matters connected with the recently formed civil nursing reserve, enlistments for which will be called for shortly. It is anticipated that during the year a series of advanced lectures on dietary will be conducted,