LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 December 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

High Price for Tomatoes. Tomatoes at Is each! This was the price paid for two fruit bought in a Lambton Quay shop, Wellington, at the rate of 4s a pound. An Orchard Disease. Bacterial spot is declared to be a disease within the meaning of the Orchard and Garden Diseases Act, 1928, by an Order gazetted last night. Fishing Prospects, All rivers and streams throughout the district are in good order for fishing, according to advice received yesterday afternoon by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society. Airman Killed. Sergeant Trefor Llewellyn Tyler lost his life when the aircraft which he was piloting crashed near a North Island Air Force Station on Wednesday night, while engaged on night flying’ training. His mother, Mrs I. L. Tyler, lives at Ngakawau, Westport. ♦A Freakish Season. A Sydney cable states that the spring season just finished was the most freakish Sydney had experienced since 1879. The rainfall was 18,79 inches, against a normal spring rainfall of 8.56 inchs. The average daily sunshine was more than an hour below normal, while the .average temperature was two degrees below normal. Petrol Coupons. After a discussion in which attention was drawn to the release of petrol for what were considered comparatively unnecessary uses, the council of the North Island Motor Union at Wellington yesterday resolved unanimously to ask the Government to restore the ration for private motorists to the amount represented by two coupons.

Sleeping in Hovels. People were sleeping in hovels in Wellington that were a disgrace to this enlightened age and.to the community, said the president, Mr R. H. Nimmo, at last night’s annual meeting of the Wellington Y.M.C.A. He hoped that all sections of the community, including the city council and the Government, would put their shoulders to the wheel and remedy the position.

Moral Fibre of Community. Confessing that he had grave doubts about the moral fibre of the community in the Dominion, Mr A. P. O'Shea, Dominion secretary of the N.Z. Farmers’ Union, when addressing the Manawatu provincial executive at Palmerston North, declared that there appeared to be a reluctance to stand up for the right, and that New Zealanders were developing into a nation of spineless people to whom nothing was wrong in principle except that which interfered with individual economic advantages. Mi’ O’Shea was dealing with the provisions of the Land Sales Act, in which there were many things which he considered were wrong and unfair.

St. John Ambulance. The annual inspection of the St. John Ambulance Brigade will take place at Wairarapa College tomorrow afternoon. A big gathering is expected. ■

Final Play Reading. The Little Theatre Society’s final play-reading of the 1943 season will be held in the Society's Hall, Bannister Street, at 7.45 p.m. on Wednesday next. December 8. The play selected is Arthur Macrae’s delightful comedy, ‘'Flat to Let,” which should furnish a joyous climax to a succsesful season. To Stand Trial. <

In the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yesterday, Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., committed Florence May Radcliffe to the Supreme Court for trial at the sitting commencing on February 1, 1944. There are six charges of unlawfully using an instrument or other means with intent to procure a miscarriage and one charge of receiving £3O from a woman in payment for an illegal operation to procure a miscarriage, “thereby committing an attempt to procure a miscarriage.”

Shop Closing During Holidays. The Auckland Drapers and Allied Retailers’ Association at a meeting yesterday unanimously resolved that the shops should remain closed on the Tuesday following both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. It was further agreed to withdraw an application made to the Minister of Civil Defence, •Mr Wilson, for the firms to remain •open on the night of Fi’iday, December 17. Under the arrangements proposed the shop assistants would have four clear days’ holiday each of the weekends.

Double Road Tax. The council of the North Island Motor Union is to make representations to the Commissioner of Transport with a view to the removal of the anomaly of double road taxation being paid by owners of cars fitted for using a proportion of petrol and a proportion of diesel oil as fuel. Such cars use four gallons of diesel oil to one of petrol and their owners have to buy petrol at the price which includes road tax, and have also to pay the road tax of 6s 8d a hundred miles levied on vehicles, except those fitted with producers, which do not run on petrol.

Char for Motor Cars. It was announced by Mr W. O'Callaghan, acting-secretary of the North Island Motor Union, at a meeting of the council of the union at Wellington yesterday that the Oil Fuel Controller, Mr G. Laurenson, had advised him that, though it was not possible to issue coupons for char to motorists whose cars were equipped with producers, special licences for char would be issued when they were necessary. The view was expressed at the meeting that in the near future a move should be made to have the regulations governing the use of char repealed, there being a good supply, but Mr O’Callaghan said that Mf Laurenson’s opinion was that they were still necessary for the control of stocks.