LOCAL AND GENERAL

Chronicle (Levin), 1 November 1947, Page 4

| LOCAL AND GENERAL

j Pamir Rounds Cape Horn I Twenty-seven. days after leaving J Wellington the Pamir reported by I radio yesterday that she was abeam | Caps Horn. In a light- northerly | under cloudless skies, the barque 1 is close-hauled with all sail set and' | standing up to the last of the Falk- | land Islands. "Westerlies were ! mythical throughout," commented I the master (Captain Collier) , and | he added that the ship was driven I as far south as the 58 th parallel. I All aboard are well. S Sheep Killed by Lightning I A valuable stud Southdown ewe | >and lamb.were killed by lightning 1 on the property of Mr. Gordon I Edgecombe, Otane. Wool' had been | burned off the back of the ewe's I head and the flfesh was deeply I scored. The remainder of the i fleece had a scorched appearance. : IA line cut through the grass to the ewe's body indicated the course of i the flash along the ground. There i were no marks on the body of the ] lamb, which apparently aied from | shock. ■? Radio Eroadcasts I Commencing Ivlonday, November i 3, all broadcasting stations 1 j throughout New Zealand will close ! j down from 11.30 a.m. to 12 noon I j and from 5.30 p.m. to 6 p.m. each | j day, Mondays to Fridays inclusive. ! At present all stations are closed I | down between 8.10 a.m. and 8.40 I j a.m. in addition to the mid-day 5 j and late afternoon periods. This I [ statement was issued by the Mini | ister of Broadcasting, Hon. F. | 1 Jones, who said that Mr. R. Semple, 1 ' Minister of Works, had agreed to i i the hours of broadcasting this sum- | ; mer being the same as were | observed last year. | Farm Wages | j The parties who conducted the : i , negotiations on farm wages at WelI j lington last week reached a full | j agreement, according to advice I Jreceived from the acting-secretary I j of the Federated Farmers of New i | Zealand (Mr. D. C. Martin) . : | Regulations are being prepared and ' 1 will be gazetted shortly. Workers . | are to be paid. 16s 6d a week addi- , I tional back pay from November 1, i ! 1946, to July 31, 1947, and there will j I also be a further payment of 5s a 1 | week as from August 1 under the j 1 general Court order. Keep allow- \ I ance has been raised from £1 a | I week to £1 5s as from August 1. j I Houses for Ex-Servicemen j | Numbering 52 more than the I | August allocations, 143 State i I houses and flats were allocated to i I ex-servicerpen tenants during Sep- i I tember, under the system whereby I ex-servicemen obtain 50 per cent. of I newly completed or vacant units. ! | This meant that at the end of that ! month the total of ex-servicemen's i I allocations stood at 7415. District i | allocations are as follows, those for j I September being glven in paren- | theses: Auckland-North Auckland I | 2154 (34), Waikato-Bay of Plenty ' | 568 (10), Hawke's Bay-Poverty ; ! Bay 318 (11), Taranaki 208 (2) , j I Wellington Province 2663 (49) , Nel- | son - Marlborough - Westland 169 ! I (4), Canterbury Province 759 (25), I Otago Province 422 (5), Southj land 154 (3).

I Little Oil in Dominion * The compahies concerned had 1 spent very large sums in drilling | for petroleum deposits in various * parts of the Dominion but the I operations had been abandoned, I said the Minister of Mines, Hon. A. | McLagan, in the House of Reprer sentatives, when the mining estiI mates were under discussion. The | Minister said nothing had been found to justify the expenditure. The only well in production at I present was at Mo.turoa, New Ply- | mouth, which had always produced = a certain amount. It had changed ! hands recently and the new owner- | ship proposed to take steps to see j if production could be increased but as far as was known at present | it was unlikely that any big i petroleum deposits would be ' found.