LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Colombo Road Closed. During the period in which an extension is being made to the Waipoua River bridge, adjacent to the Masterton Saleyards. Colombo Road will be closed, being unsafe for traffic. Pig Marketing.

Preparations are well in hand for the annual meeting of the Wairarapa Cooperative Pig Marketing Movement. The Wairarapa Committee is to meet in Carterton tomorrow night to discuss final arrangements.

Compensating Prices. Advice has been received by Mr James Watson, Provincial Secretary of the Wairarapa Farmers’ Union, that Colonel E. J. Closey, who was to have commenced a lecturing tour in the Wairarapa on June 14, on the subject of the “Compensating Price Plan for Farmers,” will not be visiting the district until the following week. Harbour Fountain.

The Wellington City Council last night approved of draft legislation by the legislative committee empowering the council to erect an electric fountain in Wellington harbour. The Mayor, Mr T. C. A. Hislop, said the council hoped to have the fountain erected in Oriental Bay for the centennial. Some legislation was required.

Asset-creating Works. The heads of" all Government deparements in Auckland met at the Central Post Office yesterday to discuss with the Hon P. C. Webb a programme of asset-creating works for the employment of men out of work. A conference of local bodies will be held today, when Mr Webb will discuss with delegates and local body engineers works to be initiated and subsidised from the Employment Promotion Fund. Steel Production.

The management of the Broken Hill Proprietary has extended an invitation to the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon D. G. Sullivan, to visit the company’s steel works at Newcastle before operations are commenced at Onekaka, according to a statement by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon W. Lee Martin, when he -returned from Australia at the week-end. Mr Lee Martin, who inspected the Newcastle works, where 6300 men are in permanent employment, said he intended to recommend Mr Sullivan to accept the invitation.

Bricklayers’ Award. A statement was made by the president of the Arbitration Court at Dunedin yesterday regarding the bricklayers’ Dominion award, which was made in Christchurch. The position was stated by Mr Justice O’Regan to be that it was a term in the complete agreement arrived at that wages should be retrospective for 12 months, and, of course, the court made its award in terms of such agreement. Christchurch newspapers criticised the court for making the award retrospective, and the editorial had been copied by other papers. So far no correction had appealed. The Health Scheme.

“It might not go as far aS you would like it to go, but it is only the initial step,” the Postmaster-General, the Hon F. Jones, said in Dunedin yesterday, when speaking to the annual conference of the Otago Provincial Council of the Farmers’ Union of the Government’s proposed national health scheme. “No doubt you will feel inclined to criticise at this conference, but I ask you to wait until legislation is brought down before you do criticise. I think it will prove to be one of the best insurance schemes in the world, and I repeat that this legislation will be only the initial step.” The Park Lake.

It is not practicable to go boating on the lake in the Masterton Park at present, as there is almost a complete lack of water. Owing to a deepening in the Waipoua River, which supplies water to the lake, the channel through which it is usually conducted is left high and dry. Consequently, all that remains of the lake at the present time is a dismal depression of weed and mud. It is the intention of the authorities to leave the lake empty for some time, to allow the winter frosts to do their part in killing the weed. Later a new channel will be cut, and the lake will be ready for the summer boating enthusiasts again.

Bullock Charges Car. Apparently nursing a grievance against modern forms of road transport, a young bullock adopted the role of a raider on traffic through the Haast Pass a few days ago. The constable from Pembroke was out making a round of calls in his car, and was charged by the bullock. Slightly dazed after the impact, the bullock nevertheless was able to make its escape. Sometime later the driver of a lorry reported that the damage to the front of his vehicle had been caused by a young bullock which had charged him, and that a young bullock was then lying dying on the roadside.

The Jury Question. It is bad news for the motor-driver in Britain —and a larger proportion of the population are motor-drivers today than ever before —that his insurance premiums are likely to be put up, writes “Janus" in the “Spectator.” The reasons are the number of accidents, due, presumably, largely to careless driving, but partly no doubt to the inadequacy of the roads, and the tendency of juries to award heavy damages in cases that come into Court. The jury question is rather serious. There is’ no doubt about the tendency of twelve average men and women in a jury-box to give an injured claimant the benefit of the doubt on the ground that “the insurance company can well afford to pay,” just as they give heavy damages in a libel action against a newspaper because after all "newspapers have plenty of money; they can afford it." It may be magnificent; it may be charity; but it is by no means always justice.