The Opotiki news Monday, October 16, 1939. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 247, 16 October 1939, Page 2

The Opotiki news Monday, October 16, 1939. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Temperatures. North Islandr temperatures'at 9< o’clock on Saturday morning were as follows:—Tauranga- and Opotiki, 57 degrees, Gisborne 56, Auckland 55, Napier 52 and Wellington 47. . Prices of Sugar. According to an announcement; by the*.'Government there will be no increase in the price of sugar to the consumer. The position of Opotiki grocers will bo rather difficult. At. a recent meeting of the t Opotiki Hospital Board, Air S. Shalfoon told members that Opotiki grocers only received a margin- of 6d per bag. The Government statement that retailers will have to do with a smaller margin of profit will be hard to understand, at least as far ys -Opotiki is concerned. Since the announcement coastal freight rates have been advanced 5 per cent. Pound Notes 14s Each. “The first- shock i. met on my tour was in Australia. When in Sydney I tenderd a New Zealand pound note ior a shilling’s worth' of tobacco, and J was shunted oitt\ of the shop,’- said Air. H. Al. Campbell, when giving tiio Hastings Rotary Club a. brief survey of his trip to Great Britain. “J tried Melbourne, but with the same result, but I - understand you can sell New Zealand pound notes in Sydney for L4s.’’ Actually the position is that New Zealand notes are not legal tender iii Australia, and New Zealanders taking notes from this country have only themselves to blame ier any trouble that might arise in tendering sueli notes for payment. Subsidies Opposed. A suggestion that men should be taken off public 'works and placed on farms, their wages being subsidised to the same level a s paid on public works, was opposed by the.chairman of the Patea; County Council, Air. W. G. Belton, during a discussion on the shortage of labour for essential farm work. In the present circumstances, he said, the principle was wrong and. would cause a great deal of friction. He could not see why a single man on public works should not he -prepared to do his jobJike the rest of the country. If he joined the military forces he would receive only 7s a day, and it he wanted a subsidy to go on a farm, Air. Belton considered he was not making a good war effort.