LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXV, Issue 254, 28 October 1942, Page 4

LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS

"The issue of one pair of socks to each member of the Home Guard, including officers, is approved," states a recent Army Headquarters administrative instruction. "This authority is not to be construed to cover replacement issues." The question of corporal and capital punishment was discussed at a meeting of the Wanganui District Federation of Women's Institutes, and a resolution was carried urging that this type of punishment be restored. Marlborough subscriptions • to the 2nd Liberty Loan are climbing steadily, if slowly, towards the second decade of four figures. The sum of £1760 was invested yesteiday, bringjng the grand total to date up to £16,890. In the Blenheim Children's Court this morning a youth was placed un~ der the supervision of the Child Welfare Officer for a period of 12 months on a charge of unlawfully converting a truck. A fine of £2 was imposed in respect to a further charge of driving the vehicle without a licence. A waterside worker who scooped up Is 2d worth of sugar from a. damaged bag in a ship's hold at Lyttelton was fmea £10 on Saturday, in default cne- month' s imprisonment. The magistrate commented «on the necessity for combating cargb-pil-laging.

To the many names given io women serving in wartime occupations, such as "Wrens," "Waafs," and "Landgirls," must be now added a new one for women employed by the Railway Department as porters and assistant-guards, states The Press. They are known unofficially throughout the service as "Budgies," the reference being to the deep blue colour of their uniforms. Estates of a value of £515,083 were accepted for administration by the Public Trustee during Septemher, and the new business for the six months ended September 30, was £3,451,672. Grants of administration made by the Court in favour of the Public Trustee numbered 252 for the month, 872 new wills appointing the Public Trustee executor were prepared and 469 existing wills were revised. The total number of wills now held in the Public Trust Office on behalf of living persons is 118,474. Favourable comment on the effects of 'the wet canteens established in certain military camps in New Zealand is made in the annual report to Parliament of the General Officer Commanding the military forces of New Zealand, LieutenantGeneral E. Puttick. It is stated that they are beneficial and are definitely ffiling a need. The incidence of drunkenness in camps where wet canteens are installed is markedly low when compared with that in camps which do not have this service. In common with some other connoisseurs, a female defendant who was charged in the Dunedin Police Court with drunkenness has no very high opinion of what is generally described as "the new beer," (says the Otago Daily Times). She treated the court to a rambling explanation of her lapse, and baeked it up with a declaration that "Anyway, the beer they give you nowadays would never make you drunk. It's like drinking water." All of which was slightly difficult to reconcile with her admission that the constable who arrested her had made no mistake as to her condition.

"This is the last case of this description in which I will impose a fine; if workmen steal goods from the wharves or industries, unless there are strong mitigating circumstances, they will be met with prison terms," said Mr Levien, S.M., at Auckland, when two truck-drivers, Francis Joseph Subritzky and Randolph Richard Tattersall, appeared on summons on a charge of having stolen a ton of pig iron valued at £8' 19s, the property of Briscoe and Company. "There is looseness about, which, as one magistrate has already said, amounts almost to sabotage," said Mr Levien, who fined each man £10. "You do not barraek during the bouts, for it is not fair to the contestants," said the Principal of the New Plymouth Boys' High School, Mr G. J. McNaught, before the beginning of the high school boxing championships, reports the Taranaki Daily News. He emphasised to the audience, and particularly to the boys, the need to maintain quiet. He had recently attended a tournament in Egypt at which there were 1200 soldiers present, and there was no barracking during the bouts, he added. "If there is any barracking during a bout I shall ask the referee to stop the bout," concluded Mr McNaught. His words were effective, for thougli there were many exciting incidents ! to rouse the crowd, applause generally was restrained until the end of the bout.

During three days of last week there was a phenomenal rainfall at Otira, in the South Island, the total recorded being 23.46in. Owing to the fact that Anniversary Day for Marlborough falls on Sunday it has been decided by Blenheim retailers to observe a close' holiday on Monday, November 2. The Express will be published as usual on Monday, with two editions, and the Post and Telegraph Department will remain open, a reduced staff being on duty in all branches. Favourable consideration is being given by the Government, it is understood, to a proposal to introduce a scale of overtime rates of payment in the clerical branches of the Public Service, a decision on which has long been pressed for by the New Zealand Public Service Association. Suggestions have been made that the scale of overtime payments should become operative on all hours worked in exeess of 44 weekly, and that they should date from October 1. . E. C. Hayton, plumbers' merchant, pleaded guilty in the Magistrate's Court at New Plymouth to nine informations of breaches of the control regulations relating to sheet iron. On four charges involving supplies to two other plumbers he was convicted and fined £20 on each, and on five other charges relating to the transfer of material to Metal Workers, Ltd., a subsidiary company, he was convicted and order to pay costs. The fine and costs totalled £103.— P.A. Albert George Courtenay, a school - boy, aged 16, eldest son of Mrs E. Courtenay, Grey Lynn, was drowned while swimming across the Hunua stream just above the falls on Saturday after noon. The boy, who was spending the week-end at a Y.M.C.A. boys' camp at Hunua, had swum across the creek with another lad, and on the return disappeared beneath the surface. It is stated that he was a fairly strong swimmer, but the river was in flood and there was a strong current. The boy's companion said that Courtenay did not call out or give any indication that he was in trouble. — P.A.

The Isle of Man seems still quite a good place in which to live and a better place in which to die. Papers recently received in Blenheim from the small island half-way between Britain and Ir eland, tell of an auction sale of whisky for the King George the Fifth Fund for Sailors. A considerable quantity of this had been stored in an old sea captain's cellar for more than 50 years. The first few bottles sold at £5 each,then dropped to £3 apiece, and the balance sold at three bottles for £5. The Manx isle is a good place in which folk may spend their declining years, for there are no death duties. There is a registration charge up to £1 for the largest estates, and that is all there- is to pay. It was decided by the Anglican Synod in Christchurch to ask the president (Archbishop West-Watson) to appoint a commission to report upon a proposal to abolish the distinction teetween parishes .and parochial districts, and to equalise the stipends of the clergy, states the Press. There was a long discussion of a motion by Archdeacon A. C. T. Purchas, who desired Synod to record that existing distinctions between parishes and parochial districts v/as undesirable, and that the principle be adopted that stipends in all cures should be on the same scale, with allowances based on local administrative expenses, and with family allowances according to the lieeds of the individualclergymen. But the house eventually decided to favour the appointment of a commssion by the Archbishop to go into the whole question. The Rev. W. E. Eouthward claimed that most of the clergy in the dioeese were underpaid. "The lowest stipends should at least be a living wage," he declared, "and at present they are not." Out of 57 cures in the dioeese, said Mr Southward, 43 vicars were paid £350 or under, and 29 (or half of the total of 57) were paid the minimum of £300. Only six out of the 57 were receiving more than £400 per annum.