LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 247, 20 October 1942, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

To-morrow will be the 137th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. The trustees of the Auckland Savings Bank have decided to invest £100,000 in the Liberty Loan, bringing the total invested to date in Liberty Loans up to £300,000— P.A. An cffer by Mr G. K. I. Stocker to imdertake, as a war contribution. free dental treat-ment for Home Guardsmen and Service patients in the Wairau or College Hospitals has been gratefully accepted by the Hospital Board. Suifering a dislocated neck when he was involved in a motor-car accident last Thursday, Mr Clennell Nelson Thayer, town clerk of Opunake, died in the Hawera Hospital yesterday. He was 36 years of age — P.A. It was reported at yesterday's Hospital Board meeting that the acting Medical Superintendent, Dr C. G. Bigham, had offeied to continue in her present capacitv, and the department had been asked to approve of her appointment for a further three months. At the annual meeting of the Nelson Cricket Association, at which Mr F. Mitciiell was elected. president, the indications given by delegates were that there would possiblv be eight teams fielded this season. It was decided that a championship competition be held, games to- be limited to one ciay.

The declaration of the motor trade as an essential industry will shortly be announced, to be operative from October 7. Most of the activities of the trade will come under the ruling, but- it is expected the clerical workers, spare parts staffs and storemen, salesmen and coach and body builders will not be included. Because of the increased volume of work to which he had toeen called on to attend, the Hospital Board yesterday afternoon decided that Dr P. J. Fogarty's salary as surgeon at the Wairau Hospital be increased to £650 from August 1 to December 31, when it would become subject to reduction on Dr T. Julian resuming duty. The largest flne inflicted by the Blenheim Rotary Club for some time was imposed yesterday on the newly-re-elected president of the M.A.A., Rotarian R. P. Furness. He was ordered to contribute to the "sunshine box" the sum of sixpence for each year of his presidency to date, the flne thus totalling 10s — without costs, of course. Admitting the theft of a dinghy valued at £19 10s, a youth of 17, Raymond George Harding, appeared at the Auckland Magistrate's Court on Friday. The police stated that the accused stole the dinghy and sold it for £9, and then stole it again and re-sold it. He was already on probation for a number of offences. He was sent to a Borstal institution for two years. Ordinarily the takings at the Nelson patriotic shop are well below those in Blenheim, but last week ma splendid sum of £414 was raised by the boys cf Nelson College. The boys devoted tremendous enthusiasm and a great deal of time: to collecting the: articles for sale. The introduction of a shoe-shining service was one cf the novelties cf the shop. and there was a ready demano for wheelbarrows, step-laclciers, bookcases and so on, made by ihe boys themselves. An announcement that the War Cabinet has authorised payment of cnildren's allowances in respect of all a soldier's children under the age of 16 was made by the Minister for De - fence in replying to an urgenf question by Mr W. Sullivan (Bay of Plenty) in the House of Representatives. He said the necessary amendment to the pay and allowances re» gulations had heen prepared, and would come into operation on November 1. At present an allowance of ls 6d a day is made for each child up to a limit of five. The highest number of patients in the Wairau Hospital during September was 292, of whom 112 had been in hospital at the end of August. Discharges totalled 175, and the patients remaining in the institution at the end of September numbered 117, of whom 72 were males. Admissions to Holmdale Maternity Hospital last month were 12, bringing the total number of inmates for that period to 26. Twenty-one were discharged during the month. At Picton 29 patients were admitted last month and 17 were discharged, leaving 12 in the institution. In connection with the request to the Minister for Defence by Mr Lee, M.P., that saluting by soldiers while off duty should be abolished, the following incident, recorded by a correspondent of an Auckland paper, is of interest: "During the march of a New Zealand military band yesterday four ' American servicemen were noticed standing to attention on the sidewalk, and as the officer with the band passed by they saluted him. Such a very nice gesture was much appreciated by the watcher. I, for one, salute our American friends in return." Overseas ballots and essential manpower requirements have depleted the xanks of hairdressers in Hamilton, necessitating the closing of two saloons. Those in the town are carrying on, in the majority of instances, with depleted staffs, and indications are that if their ranks are further depleted the public will have to accept the inevitable position of queuing up at the available saloons or reverting to the days when, as in the Middle Ages, man fastened his flowing locks by a bow at the nape of his neck. Few apprentices are coming forward, and all endeavours to obtain suitable boys to learn the trade have met with little success in Hamilton. When the new 20,000 kilowat plant is in running order at Waikaremoana hydro-eleetric works, it is hoped to be able to close down the powerhouse at Evans Bay sufhciently to permit of the erection of a gritarresting plant, which has been so long on order. It is understood that the parts that are being made in Australia will come to hand shortly. Parts ordered from England have heen twice on the wav and twice destroyed, first in the plan stage and then at the quayside, but eventually were shipped and duly received in Wellington. There is now a reasonable hope that, after long delays, something may be done to abate the nuisance caused by the emantions ! from the power-house stack at j Evans Bay, which has troubled resi- ; dents there ever since its erection.

The seven sons of Mr and Mrs James, Clothier, Morrinsville, have been accepted for military service and have been passed grade one. Three have already seen active service, one has been accepted for the Air Force, and three are waiting to be called up. Yesterday's transfer of passengers from then Clarence railhead to 25 and 33-passenger buses — which use less rubber per person — worked expeditiously at its first trial yesterday. All luggage was taken by Railway Department trucks so that there was no waiting while efforts were made to squeeze travelling gear into the last impossible corners. The buses loaded up smartly with live freight and while this was restoring the inner man and the inner woman at Kaikoura, the dead freight caught up and passed on towards the southern terminal. The position regarding nursing staff requirements when the new ward blocks were completed had given rise to some discussicn at a recent hospital committee meeting. it was stated at yesterday's meeting of the board. As a means of interest - ing girls in the nursing profession it had been resolved, if possible, to make arrangements for the MatronSuperintendent tc address senior girl pupils of Marlborough College on the subject, and afterwards fo invite them to inspect the hospital and nurses' home so that the geneial. and living conditicns could be more fully explained and shown to them. A staff of ten trained nurses and 25 trainees is to be aimed at as a basis for# commencement in; the new block. The House of Representatives has placed on record, at the suggestion of Sir Alfred Ransom (National, Pahiatua), its appreeiation of the gift of 600 acres of land at Dipton by the late Sir Robert Anderson, for the settlement of ex-servieemen of the present war and for the purpose of assisting widows and orphans of Southland Servicemen by grants from revenue derived from the gift. Sir Robert Anderson's death occurred last week. Both Sir Alfred Ransom and the. Prime Minister paid tributes to the late Sir Robert for his generous gift. They also expressed the regret of the House at his death, Mr Fraser remarking that Sir Robert was one of New Zealand's finest citizens.

On a charge of the theft of goods belonging to tenants in the city buildings of which he was caretaker, John Livingstone Fisher, aged 58, was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment in the Magistrate's Court, Auckland, yesterday. He pleaded guilty. The police said Fisher had been caretaker of the building for 13 years. He admitted stealing "goods valued at over £60. Fisher was addicted to drink, and he was recently in hospital with alcoholic poisoning. His wife was ill and was not expected to recover. "Fortunately cases of caretakers abusing their trust are extremely rare," said Mr Luxford, S.M., "but when they occur it is not a case for leniency." — P.A. While home gardeners and farmers alike have been anxiously watching the sky during the past day or two for the rain which is so much needed, the weather has remained in a teazing mood. All that resulted from yesterday's and last night's lowering clouds was a solitary point of rain, and the ground was further dried out by more sunshine this morning. Not that rain has not fallen — it has, but unfortunately most of it has been confined to the high country around the plain. Yesterday morning quite a downpour was enjoyed in the Renwicktown and Northbank region, and last night stormy conditions prevailed at Okaramio. The rain clouds have got no further than that, however, and out on the plains the crops and gardens are still urgent-ly needing a soaking. Commenting on the result of the voting on Mr Holland's no-confidence motion in the House of Repiesentatives, the Auckland Herald says: — "The upshot of it all is endorsement of the Government's plea that principles rnust give way ' to expediency in face of an emergency. From this it is not a long step to conclude that if any section of the community bent on getting its own way regardless of circumstances can only crecte a sufficjent emergency the Government will yield. . . The example of the Waikato dispute, aggravated by Parliament's approval of what was done there, gives the country little confidence that if any real test comes disciplme will be enforced. It cannot escape the conclusion that there is a stronger power in the land than Gov ernment or Parliament, and one entirely unresponsive to the will of the people." The price of oranges was the subject of an urgent question in the House by Mr Carr (Government, Auckland West) in conjunction with Mr Osborne (Government, Onehunga). They asked the Minister for Marketing whether his attention had been drawn to an article in an Auckland newspaper stating that oranges were sold at llid each, and ii he was aware that locally-grown oranges were sold at auction at 70s a case. The questioners asked if steps would be taken to ensure that "such extortionate prices" would not be charged for locally-gTown fruit. Mr Barelay said that , locally-grown oranges were sold and marketed through ordinary trading channels without control or supervision by the Marketing Department.. Because of the extreme difliculty of securing regular shipments of oranges, existing circumstances enabled the trade to obtain the present high prices for the limited crop of a few hundred cases which bec-ame available annually. The system of payment for defence construction works was reviewed by Mr W. Sullivan (National, Bay of Plenty) in the House of Representatives. He suggested that wherever possible the work should be tendered for on a competitive basis. Contractors, he explained, were asked to work on a schedule basis, but, after the work was completed, the Department did not want to pay out fully because it was discovered that the schedule was too high. He knew that in his own district the cost of these works had been 15 to 20 per cent. higher than would have been the case under ordinary competitive tendering. The Minister for Supply (Mr Sullivan) : There is also a clause that provides for revision. Mr W. Sullivan said that, even after contractors had submitted a tender, the Department had insisted on the schedule method. This was not the way to do business, and the regulations for defence construction ought to be scrapped, because nobody could understand them and union secretaries could not interpret their meanjng.