50 years ago
❚ Dredging of the harbour bed at Port Taranaki to a depth of between 33 and
36 feet on the site of the port’s third wharf was completed by the 150-footlong dredge Noord, which had started the capital expansion project in 1966.
❚ The two most promising students to graduate from the National School of Ballet had been Misses Jennifer Carson (19) and Jan Blanch (19), both of New Plymouth, the secretary of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, Mr J M Malcolm, said in Wellington.
❚ Two honorary life membership certificates and badges for meritorious service to the Returned Services’ Association were presented by the Manaia and District association to Mesdames J Corkill and M A Hastie.
❚ For the sixth time in seven years, the William Friar Memorial prize, the premier award for army cadets in the Central Military District, went to Francis Douglas Memorial College, New Plymouth, the recipient being a boarder, Cadet Under Officer B P King,
17.
❚ Tuarua, the second home for elderly women operated by the New Plymouth Council for Social Welfare along the same lines as the adjacent Bingham House, was opened in Vivian St by the member of Parliament for New Plymouth, Mr R M Barclay, and would accommodate six women.
❚ Movies: Valley Of The Dolls (Hawera Regent), Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate and Susan Hayward; Chinese Adventures In China (Mayfair), Jean-Paul Belmondo, Ursula Andress and Marie Pacome; The Secret Life Of An American Wife
(State), Walter Matthau, Anne Jackson and Patrick O’Neal; Oceans 11
(Stratford Plaza), Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jnr, Peter Lawford and Angie Dickinson.
❚ Taking issue with a statement by the
president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce that New Zealand was spending too much on the halt, the lame and the blind, the managingdirector of the New Plymouth company Cambrian Industries, Mr W M Smale, resigned from the local chamber, saying his company’s subscription would be devoted in future to the halt, the lame and the blind.
❚ The ambulance operated from Opunake by the local sub-section of the St John Ambulance Association had carried out 146 services and travelled 10,457 miles during the year, the president, Mr A McCall, told the annual meeting.
❚ A specialist with slow swingers, B Purser took six wickets for 18 runs when the New Plymouth Boys’ High
School beat Nelson College by an innings and 52 runs in the annual cricket match at Nelson after he had top scored with 69 runs.
❚ The seven Taranaki men among the
50 New Zealand returned servicemen selected for the bi-annual Anzac Day delegation to Australia in 1969 and their Australian destinations, were: Messrs H Soothall (leader) Queensland; T E Lawrence (Inglewood) Queensland; J W Dryden (Okato) New South Wales; P W Candy (New Plymouth) New South Wales; A M Wilson, L J Squire and A W Bridger all of New Plymouth, Victoria.
❚ A four-man gang of shearers put through 1835 sheep on a Whangamomona property, believed to be one of the highest tallies ever recorded in Taranaki by a four-stand
gang working a nine-hour day, the gang comprising John Weston (502), John Neil (468), Ian Weston (439), and B Allerby (426).
35 Years Ago: Captain Ian Snook scores 143 in Taranaki’s Chapple Cup cricket victory over Hawke’s Bay; for second successive year Terry Parkes named best all-round New Plymouth Jaycee; Ma¯ori warden Mr Paul Ratahi receives long-service award at Parihaka Pa; $80,00 Urenui sports complex proposed.
25 Years Ago: Hawera filly Kaptive Jewel wins at Woodville race meeting; former Urenui town hall sells for $20,500; proposed Hawera Hospital downgrade plan announced; 15 Russian gymnasts in Taranaki for three-week training period.