LOCAL AND GENERAL

Chronicle (Levin), 14 March 1946, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Changing Times "Onee upon a time we wen'c to our meetings, did the straightforward business of the country and went home again. Now we have to spend hours wading through stupid, interfering circulars from Government Departments," declared Mr. W. R. Hopcroft (Kairanga) when .speaking at a mefeting of representatives of county councils in Ward 4, held in Palmerston North yesterday. Thanks to the Farmers If the thanks of the United Kingdom were due to any body of men in New Zealand it was due to the ! farmers and their workers, said Sir Henry French, addressing members of the Meat, Wool and Dairy Boards and Federated Farmers in Welling- ; ton. He was quite sure, he said, that they must have struggled very hard to maintain and inerease production. He had gained the impression in his tour of the North Island that the relationship between employer and employed on the farms was extremely good — everywhere it was most cordial. Fire in Workshops | Serious damage to the interior ! structure of a wagon repair build1 ing at the Addington workshops was 1 caused by a fire which broke out there shortly before 6 o'clock on Tuesday evening. The blaze had gained a strong hold before it was noticed and only prompt action by } ; the workshop fije squads and the ' Christchurch Fire Brigade saved a ' large number of wooden railway wagons from destruction. The building was said to have contained 1 an almost capacity number of I wooden wagons, only two of which I were destroyed. Many other wagons j were seriously scorched. j County Council Matters I Representatives of° county coun- ' cils in Ward 4 of the New Zealand | Counties' Association organisation, ! met in Palmerston North yesterday, ; there being present delegates from Horowhenua, Manawatu, Waitotara, Rangitikei, Wanganui, Kiwitea, i Pohangina and Kairanga. Mr. G. I A. Monk, of Horowhenua, who is , the ward representative to the I association, was appointed chairj man, and Mr. F. L. Nicol, clerk to j the Rangitikei County Council was I appointed secretary. The meeting was addressed by Mr. W. G. Belton, president of the association, who outlined the aims and objects underlying the recent reorganisation of the parent body. Dairy Factory Awards Relaxation of labour awards to permit dairy factories to put their staffs to any work which might be available to keep them employed during the slack months of the season was urged at a large conference of local body and other organisations in Dargaville. Wholeheartedly supporting the request by the North Auckland Dairy Association for immediate help for the farmers -who had -been brought to the verge of ruin by the dry weather which had reduced the current season's production by half and now threatened starvation to dairy herds, the conference urged the relaxation of awards as an additional form of relief for the industry, Tragie Delay According to a statement made by the Kawhia branch of the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union in a petition signed by 286 settlers and presented to the Waikato Hospital Board, a Maori woman died beeause the Te Awamutu ambulance. was inefficiently equipped with tyres. It was stated that' the woman, whose age was 39, had 13 children. She lived near Oparau, and her condition was such that hqd she reaehed hospital half an hour earlier she would have had a good chance. of living. She was attended by a doctor who was on holiday at Kawhia, and he ordered her removal to hospital. The Te Awamutu ambulance wasytelephoned at 10 a.m. on February 3, but the officer in charge advised that, owing to the condition of the tyres, the vehicle could not make the journey. The Hamilton ambulance ywas called and arrived within an hour and a-half . The woman died before she cduld be treated in hospital. It was stated that the purchase of new I tyres for the Te Awamutu ambulance was authorised the following day.