LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Pahiatua Maternity Service. The Wairarapa Hospital Board decided yesterday to erect a modern maternity hospital at Pahiatua. The building is estimated to cost £25,000. High Price for Wool, The highest price realised at a wool appraisal in the Dominion since Government purchase has operated, was obtained at the second Auckland appraisal, which concluded on Tuesday. For wool sent by Mr E. Day, Awaroa, Waiheke Island, 25d per lb. was secured for superfine halfbred, 22jd for fine halfbred, 21d for strong halfbred, 17-Jd for fine crossbred, and 14Jd for halfbred pieces. Last year the highest price realised was 244- per lb. for South Island super merino. Nelson Fruit Crop. Estimates of the Nelson fruit crop are that pears will be very light ana apples light to medium. One authority says the total will be down by 250,000 cases on last year, which was the best for several years. Wet weather militated against the setting of pears after blossoming. The three main varieties of apples have thinned out to a light to medium crop. Wet weather has also been responsible for making stone fruit settings light. Teaching of Christianity. The Otago Education Board, at its meeting yesterday, received a letter from the Wanganui Education Board which asked for support for a resolution requesting that the teaching of the principles of Christianity be included in the school syllabus. The resolution was as follows: “That this board, realising to the full that the Christian faith is the rock on which the British character has been built, strongly urges the Prime Minister to include in the proposed Education Amendment Act a clause making the teaching of the principles of Christianity an integral part of the school syllabus.” It was unanimously decided to support the resolution. Railway Mishap. Owing' to a railway mishap at Waipawa yesterday morning, trains on the line between Waipukurau and Napier were running 90 minutes late. While crossing the first railway bridge south of Waipawa, just after 7 o’clock, a ballast train comprising several shingle wagons and a guard’s van, came to a standstill when the plough attached to the van fouled the rails, lifting the wheels off the tracks. The plough was attached underneath the van for levelling shingle after the railway line had been re-ballasted. It was necessary for the railway workmen to use- an acetone torch to sever the plough couplings and clear the track. All trains on the' line were held up, the south-bound express from Napier waiting at Waipawa for over one hour and a half to enable passengers for the Wairarapa line to make their connection. A special rail-car was run from Woodville.

M.issing Men Safe. After being lost in the bush for nearly two days, the two young airmen who left Rotorua on a shooting expedition made their way out on Tuesday morning. The men, Leading Aircraftmen Robert Prescott Ruddle and Thomas John Currie, both 19, found the road at Rotokawa, six or seven miles from Rotorua, and returned to their station.

War and the Missions. Tomorrow a public address will be given in St. Matthew’s Parish Hall at 7.45 p.m. by the Right Rev. W. H. Baddeley, D. 5.0., M.C., who refused to leave the Solomon Islands when the Japanese invaded them. The Bishop carried on, escaping capture, and has a stirring story to tell of native loyalty and devotion, and of the work of Allied troops.

Trial of Doctor. The final addresses by counsel were partly heard at the Auckland Supreme Court yesterday in the long trial of George Brownlee Isdale, aged 51, medical practitioner, Ngaruawahia, on eight charges of unlawfully using an instrument or other means to procure miscarriage and one of conspiring to procure miscarriage. The evidence taken at this hearing since Monday of last week has filled 200 typed sheets of foolscap, containing between 95,000 and 100,000 words. The hearing is being continued today.

Plunket Society, The Plunket Society in New Zealand has decided to publish news of its work every quarter, commencing on November 1. The paper will cover all departments of the work and items of branch and sub-branch interest. By this innovation it is hoped that the 72 branches in the Dominion will be welded together and that the educative health work commenced by Sir Truby King 37 years ago may be furthered. The first quarterly notes contain the announcement that there has been a further gratifying decline in the infantile mortality rate for 1942-1943. The rate is now 28.71 per 1000 live births.

Undersized Trout. With a view to assembling’ data on the natural breeding of trout in streams in {he Wellington district since the closing of the Masterton hatchery, the council of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society is sending a request to the holders of all fishing licences in its district to keep a diary record throughout the current season of the number of undersized trout caught in any stream or river. Anglers are asked to make these details available to the society at the end of the season, and to divide the information into two sections —‘‘fish of 9 inches and under” and “fish over 9 inches” —together with the locality in which they were caught. This information is expected to have a vital bearing •on future restocking problems, as the society intends to reopen the Masterton hatchery immediately the prospect of supplies of ova and transport for liberations make it reasonably practicable.