LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Street Lighting. “This town is pretty well lit,” remarked the Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, at last night’s meeting of electors. He hoped, he said, that still more street lights would be installed each year. Term Holidays. The Wairarapa College closed today for the term vacation. The evening classes will resume on Monday, May 23, and the day classes on Tuesday, May 24. The Wairarapa primary schools also closed today and will reopen on Monday, May 23.>

Deportation Order. An order- for the deportation of Mohamed Ali Ben Mohamed, seaman, aged 20, was made by Mr W. F. Stilwell, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yesterday. Mohamed, who was stated to have been convicted of desertion at Wanganui, admitted entering New Zealand without a permit at Auckland on January 1. Jean Batten Place. “This tablet commemorates the achievements in aviation of Jean Batten, C.8.E., and especially the skill and courage shown in her pioneer solo flight from England to New Zealand, October 5-16, 1936.” This is the wording that wlil be placed on a plaque to be exhibited in Jean Batten place, Auckland, when the Government buildings now in course of erection are completed and the new street made available for traffic. This decision was made at the last meeting of the Auckland City Council. Social Security. It is estimated that the evidence submitted to the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Government’s national health service and superannuation proposals comprised over 700,000 words. The committee’s examination of the Government’s scheme closed on Wednesday. The next meeting of the committee will be held next Thursday, when the committee will commence the task of preparing its report, which is to be presented to the House of Representatives within 28 days of the opening of the next session of Parliament. The committee heard 93 witnesses, and in addition received hundreds of letters.

New Award Sought. Hearing of an application by the general warehousemen (other than soft goods) for a new award for the Northern, Wellington, Taranaki, Canterbury and Otago and Southland industrial districts, was commenced in the Conciliation Council at Wellington yesterday. The workers’ proposals asked for wages ranging from 20s and 25s for males under 17 years, to £6 ss; for females, 17s 6d and 21s 6d under 17 years, to £3 10s. The counter-propo-sals on wages of the employers ranged, for males, from 15s and 19s under 17 years, to £4 15s; and for females, from 15s to 19s for under 17 years, to £4 15s. Against the employers’ offer of 2s 9d for casuals, the workers are asking for 3s 9d an hour. A Pact of Silence.

The following story current in America, which might serve to give some indication of the feelings of a large section of the people towards the President, Mr F. D. Roosevelt, was told by Mr J. R. Fairbairn; who has just returned to Dunedin from a business visit to the United States. Mr Roosevelt, it is said, was spending a vacation in the north, and, along with a friend, was boating on the lake while on a shooting expedition. Mr Roosevelt, while standing in the boat, fell over the side. His friend pulled him aboard the boat, and the President asked him for a definite assurance that he would not in any circumstances tell' the people the story of the President’s immersion. His friend agreed to keep silence, but on one condition, namely, that the President would in no circumstances tell the people who it was that pulled him out of the water.

Government by Commission. The fourth anniversary of the beginning of Government by Commission in Newfoundland occurred recently, states the St. John’s correspondent of the “Manchster Guardian.” “The first year of the new regime,” to quote an article by this correspondent published in the “Manchester Guardian” a year ago, “was one of buoyant hope and confidence born of freedom from political strife and the promise of efficient financial administration and a progressive policy; the second was one of increasing disappointment and gloom because the anticipated recovery had not taken place; the third has been one of growing’impatience and restiveness because little apparent effort is being made to solve the major problems confronting the country.” What of the fourth? The impatience and restiveness exhibited on all sides a year ago has been gradually allayed, and hope and confidence are being re-establish-ed. The turning-point was undoubtedly the budget speech made by the Commissioner for Finance, Mr J. H. Penson, in July last before the Board of Trade, a body corresponding to a Chamber of Commerce in England. For the first time since its inception, the Commission of Government publicly stated a comprehensive policy, a policy which, in its broad outlines, could not fail to receive general approval.