LOCAL AND GENERAL

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20737, 22 February 1939, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ash Wednesday To-day is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the Lenten forty days’ fast prior to Easter Sunday which is on April 9 this year. Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, a day or which pancakes figure in the menu, a custom dating a long way back. Learn to Swim Reports The first reports of progress made with the learn to swim campaign in the South Auckland district have been received by the organiser, Mr E. H. Orocott. In a week 268 children at Wafhi were taught to swim while in a day, 65 Hamilton children were made proficient in the art. Municipal Transport Loss A loss of £1506 on the operation of the municipal transport station for its fitst year was shown by a statement of expenditure and income placed before the Auckland City Council last night. The result was for the period from September 17, 1937, to September 30, 1938. CAurch Saved from Fire When a grass fire spread into the trees and shrubs along one side of St. Presbyterian Church, at WaiputpTrau, yesterday morning the building was threatened with destruction. Only the prompt manner in which the fire brigade answered the call saved the outbreak from becoming serious. Boys’ Efforts Commended Praise for two small boys. Barney White and Barney Taare, for their efforts to rescue their small companion from drowning in the Waiapu River on Friday afternoon was expressed by the acting-coroner, Mr V. O. TT. Rickards, at an inquest info the death of Donald Farrell, aged 12. in Gisborne to-day. A verdict of accidental drowning was returned. Dominion Founders’ Society Progress with his proposal for the formation of a New Zealand Founders’ Society was reported by Mr D. Hope Johnston, founder and ex-president of the Australasian Pioneers’ Club, Sydney, wbo is visiting Wellington. Mr Johnston said it was proposed that the society should be strictly limited to direct mare and female descendants of the founders of the original provinces. Temperance Education The need for an educational campaign on the temperance question was urged by the annual conference of the Methodist Church in Christchurch yesterday. Members contended that the New Zealand Alliance was not sufficiently active in its work. The alliance was recommended to reappoint an organiser at an early date and to conduct a Dominion educational campaign. Auckland Milk Council % At the poll for the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Council election yesterday six members, Messrs I. J. Goldstine, H. P. W. Meitle, J. Haslam, R. B. Stonex, C. J. Lovegrove, and R. H. Ockleston were re-elected and the following three new members were elected:— Miss E. Melville, Messrs A. S. Bailey and H. P. Burton. The new members succeed Messrs E. F. Andrews, A. Rosser and N. V. Douglas. Switchboard Extended To cope with building expansion in the borough, extensions have been made to the Hamilton Fire Brigade’s alarm system, necessitating the installation of two further circuits nn the switchboard at the station. The work has been completed and tests carried out to-day proved very satisfactory. It is 15 years since the present switchboard was constructed by the inventor of the system, Mr G. Porter, of Dunedin, who also carried out the installation of the new circuits. State Flats Declined An application by the Department of Housing Construction for permission to erect an eight-storey block of 77 flats on a property in Beckham Place, overlooking Grafton Bridge, was declined by the Auckland City Council at its meeting last night. The council also resolved to negotiate for the purchase of the property in question as an addition to the Grafton Gully reserve. It was pointed out that the scheme failed to comply with the by-law requirement concerning street frontages.

Presbyterian Thanksgiving Fund The centenary thanksgiving fund of the New Zealand Presbyterian Church which was started about a year ago as a memorial to the first 100 years of the work of the Church in the Dominion has now reached £170,000. The aim of the fund is £300,000, twothirds of which would be used to wipe out the debt, now existing on Church property. It is also intended to devote £25,000 to the work of missions at home and abroad, and similar sums for strengthening the beneficiary fund and in establishing a special fund for sites and buildings in newly-settled areas.

National Party The branch reports received at a rr.eetihg of delegates from the National Party branches throughout the Thames electorate in Thames last evening revealed that keen interest was being taken in the political situation. Mr W. C. Kennedy, of Te Aroha, presided and the members unanimously decided to keep the organisation going until the next election. The divisional organiser, Mr N. Dev gave a report on the work of the organisation, and a committee, with Mr Kennedy and chairman and Mr T. McCarroll as secretary, was formed. Potatoes are Precious Strikingly illustrative of the potato famine in Sydney is a picture in a recent. issue of the Sydney Sun which shows the window of a fish-shop on which a retailer is painting: “ Spuds £27 a ton—no more Chips until Prices Drop.” The Master Fish Merchants’ Association lias declared a ban upon potatoes while Ihe present high prices rule. In the same issue appears a cartoon of a jubilant goldminer announcing a rich strike —a potato, while another cartoon depicts a human-like potato wearing a crown. Grovelling before him are two vegetables who are made to say: “ God bless the spud and his relations, and keep us in our proper stations.”