50 years ago
■ Although erupting on at least nine occasions, Mt Egmont had never been a violent volcano, according to a Victoria University student, Mr Vincent Neale, who was doing a geological study of the mountain as part of a thesis for a doctorate in philosophy.
■ A capacity crowd saw Mrs Beverley Lester win the 1969 bride-of-the-year title at the New Plymouth Opera House with Mrs Judith Thorne second, Mrs Patricia Traill third and Miss Sandra Walsh being named the premier bridesmaid.
■ Waist-deep powder snow and the crossing of the same river 137 times
were two of the many experiences of four Taranaki Alpine Club members, Messrs J Jordan, E Larsen, C Wright and R Trusler, who climbed four peaks in the Kaikouras in the South Island.
■ New Plymouth was given the goahead for the establishment of a probation hostel for males with the local probation officer, Mr F A Bamford, saying there would be 10 beds available, five of them for the organisation selected to run the hostel.
■ New Plymouth’s only wholesale granite and marble merchants, Shorts Ltd, announced a $24,000 expansion which would more than treble output, the manager, Mr R L Hampton, saying it was planned to shift operations, which involved eight stonemasons, from the Powderham St site to the old Mangorei dairy factory.
■ Educated at the Waitara High School and New Plymouth Boys’ High School, Mr C R Kennedy, employed by an Australian firm, won a diploma in advanced welding technology from the Sorbonne, Paris.
■ Movies: The Shuttered Room (Mayfair), Gig Young and Carol Lynley; Hell In The Pacific (State), Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune; King’s Pirate
(Hawera Regent), Doug McLure, Jill St John and Guy Stockwell; Tarzan And The Jungle Boy (Opunake Everybody’s), Mike Henry and Rafer Johnson.
■ Seven additional single-unit pensioner flats would be built on Darnell St, Fitzroy, on the site of the old Fitzroy Hall and a loan of $17,388 would be sought to pay for the project, the New Plymouth City Council decided.
■ A New Plymouth axeman and sawyer, Mr Cliff Pittams, 59, won the world sawing championship at Hayward, Wisconsin, America, when he teamed up with American Dave Gear in the 1969 lumberjack two-man, two-inch event for the world title.
■ With competition for the limited amount of labour available in Taranaki due to gas pipeline construction work and other secondary industry, a shortage of farm labour had developed in the province, the secretary of Taranaki Federated Farmers, Mr K A Martin, saying an approach to the Government was being sought to increase the number of farmers immigrating to New Zealand.
■ An Inglewood High School flank
forward, and head boy of the school, J Corbett, was named the captain of the 21-member Taranaki secondary schools’ rugby team for its five-match tour of New South Wales at the end of August.
■ An eight-week fundraiser for squash courts at Stratford culminated in the naming of Miss Annette Lehman, a hairdresser from Stratford, as the squash princess, having raised $1595.68 of the total of $7228.86.
35 Years Ago: Closure announced of Dominion Breweries (Taranaki) Ltd’s New Plymouth bottling plant; Bell Block syndicate wins $200,000 Golden Kiwi lottery first prize; Mrs Jenny Simpson, 34, of Inglewood appointed chair of Advisory Committee on Women’s Affairs; Bell Block and Glen Avon become part of New Plymouth city after agreement between city council and Taranaki County Council.
25 Years Ago: Tenders called for $4 million dollar berth at Port Taranaki’s main breakwater; Daphne and Darcy Crone made life members of Inglewood Red Cross; John Wheeler (New Plymouth) trained Rough Habit sets weight-carrying record with win at New Plymouth; Carole Walker, 22, Opunake’s first woman fighter.