LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

R.S.A. Membership. The N.Z.R.S.A. had a financial membership of 42,167 when the financial year close'd on March 31, 1943. This was an increase of 2230 over the 194142 figures, of whom 2223 were 2nd N.Z.E.F. men. In all, 3644 returned service men of the present war have joined the association. In the past four years the membership has increased by 10,618. Air Training Corps.

The weekly routine orders for No. 21 Squadron, Air Training Corps, Masterton, states, inter alia:—Parades, A and B Flights, Thursday, April 29, at 6.50 p.m., at Wairarapa College, Masterton. C Flight: Tuesday, April 27, and Thursday, April 29, at 6.50 p.m., at Carterton District High School. Syllabus, Tuesday: C Flight, Mathematics, Navigation and Science. Thursday, A and B Flights, Drill, Signals, Basic Fitting and P.T.; C Flight, Drill, P.T., Signals and Gas. Cadets B. D. Morison and T. C. Kane have been enrolled. Sergeant Tauwhare has been promoted to the rank of Flight Sergeant; Corporal Duley and Corporal Fitzgerald to Sergeants; Cadet Sayer and Cadet Deller to Corporals. Infantile Paralysis.

As a precaution against the spread of infantile paralysis all the schools in the Otago health district are being closed by order of the Health Department, and children undei’ 16 are prohibited from attending theatres, public swimming baths, skating rinks, and other such places of amusement, and from congregating at camps or recreation grounds. The death on Tuesday of a student residing at Selwyn College has been confirmed as being due to infantile paralysis, and on the same night another case from the college was admitted to the Public Hospital, where there are now six positive cases. Selwyn College has been placed in isolation. Lectures at the University of Otago and the Dunedin Training College will not be affected in the meantime.

Theft of Whisky. The unusual story of how a large quantity of whisky was stolen by an employee of an Auckland firm of wine and spirit merchants and was delivered to another man in beer cartons was told before justices of the peace in the Magistrates’ Court at Auckland, when William Farmilo, storeman, aged 42, admitted a charge that between December 10, 1942, and February 25, 1943, being employed by Hutchinsons (Wholesale), Ltd., he stole 708 bottles of whisky of . a total value of £575. Accused joined Hutchinsons’ staff in August last year as storeman and packer in the wine and spirit department, being in sole charge of the department. In a statement to the police, Farmilo said he stole about 50 cases of whisky, which all went to one man. He refused to disclose this man’s name at present. Farmilo was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence and admitted to bail.

The Sly Grog Menace. A conference of representatives of the armed forces, social and religious organisations, and other leading citizens convened by the Mayor of Auckland, Mr Allum, has been held at Auckland for the purpose of considering the illicit consumption of liquor and other matters affecting the morals of the city. Mr Allum proposed as a practical method of meeting the grave problem of sly-grogging that a canteen should be secured in a suitable position in the city, which, under strict military supervision, would provide between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on week-days ales and soft drinks for members of the Allied and Dominion forces in Auckland. The profits, he suggested, should go to a fund for the welfare of returned servicemen. Only men in uniform would be admitted to the canteen. The meeting approved of the proposal, as well as Mr Allum’s decision to have all parks adequately lighted at once and patrolled henceforth by military, and naval personnel.