LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 September 1938, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ownership of State Houses. “The policy of the National Party,” remarked Mr O. C. Mazengarb in the Opera House last night, “is to give every occupier of a State house an opportunity of securing it for himself. If he wants to do so, we will revalue the house and help him to pay for it.” Fair Rents Act.

Referring to the Fair Rents Act in his address last night, Mr O. C. Mazengarb said: “The Act is wrong. It is not fair that the owner of a house should be kept out of it. The obligation should be on the tenant to find another place for himself.”

National Party Claims. If the National Party were returned to power, Mr O. C. Mazengarb told an audience in the Opera House last night, there would be no cuts in pensions or in award rates of pay. Hours and conditions of work would be left to an unfettered and uninstructed Arbitration Court. Compulsory unionism would be abolished. Half-holiday Changed.

A decision to change the weekly halfholiday from Wednesday to Saturday, starting on Saturday, October 8, was made at a meeting of retailers at Waipawa. The meeting further unanimously agreed, in order to ascertain the feeling of retailers regarding the change to Saturday, to circulate a petition six months after the change was made. Mt Holdsworth Camp.

Mr D. L. Taverner reported to the monthly meeting of the Wairarapa Automobile Association that over 30 Coropation trees had been planted at Mt Holdsworth camp, and small stone cairns erected to protect them. The committee, however, were of the opinion that permanent protection in the way of posts and wire were essential, and it was left to the Carterton members of the executive to attend to this matter.

Evidence of Oil. “There have been definite evidences of oil at Mikotahi Beach,” stated the foreman-in-charge, Mr J. E. Hawes, at the monthly meeting of the New Plymouth Harbour Board recently. This had been noticed when stones were being obtained from the beach for the making of concrete blocks. Frequently the stones could not be used in the blocks because there was so much oil beneath them. There were times when becaues of the oil gas the men could not work on the beach, he reported. Social Security.

The National Party would give a complete service for all who needed it, observed Mr O. C. Mazengarb in his address last night, instead of the partial service now proposed under Labour’s social security legislation. The National Party would also free the fund from collections from youths and girls between the ages of 16 and 21. It was not right that men and women in the Public Service should be asked to pay twice for insurance, and the National Party would amend the Act in order to remove that injustice. Eclipses of Sun and Moon.

Three of the four eclipses which will occur during 1939 will be visible in New Zealand, according to information' supplied by the Government astronomer. The eclipses will be as follows: — April 20, annular eclipse of the sun, invisible in New Zealand; May 4, total eclipse of the moon, visible in New Zealand; October 13, total eclipse of the sun, visible in New Zealand as a partial eclipse; October 28, partial eclipse of the moon, partly visible in New Zealand.

Mr J. Hargest’s Meeting. Replying to a letter that appeared in the “Wairarapa Times-Age” regarding a political meeting at Eketahuna, addressed by Mr J. Hargest, in which it was alleged that the meeting was closed hurriedly withqut time being given for questions, Mr J. H. Irving,’ National Party candidate for Masterton, stated in the Opera House ' last night that ample time had been given for questions at the meeting referred to. As a matter of fact, one oral question and five written ones were answered at Mr Hargest’s meeting.

Albatross Nesting Place. As a means of protecting the nesting place of the royal albatrosses at the Otago Heads, the bird committee of the Otago branch of the Royal Society has erected a fence across the headland, enclosing an area of five or six acres from which the public will be excluded for the next two months. This step, which has been taken with the permission of the Otago Harbour Board, was considered essential because of the danger of the birds being disturbed by visitors. It is expected that during the next two months albatrosses will arrive at the heads to establish their nests. It is hoped that those which arrived last year will return. and that the chick, acting as a decoy, will attract others. For this reason the fence has been erected.

Wairarapa Road Access. Dealing with statements that public works men would become unemployed m course of time through exhaustion of suitable works, Mr H. E. Combs, Labour candidate for Wellington Suburbs, speaking at Woburn last night, instanced various undertakings which could be carried out in that electorate. Why not pierce the Wainui-o-mata hills and have a low-level road straight through to the Wairarapa? he asked. There were also the completion of the Waterloo railway line to Silverstream, there to connect with the Wairarapa line; the electrification of the Welling-ton-Hutt rail service on the same lines as Wellington-Tawa Flat; the reclamation, without much trouble, of the shallow estuary of Porirua Harbour to provide a site for the trans-Tasman air base.

State Housing Finance. The statement that money required for the Housing Department had been obtained from the Reserve Bank against Treasury Bills was made by the Minister of Finance, the Hon W. Nash, in the House of Representatives yesterday. He added that during certain periods y/iren idle Government balances had been lying at the Reserve Bank, some of the bills had been taken over and held as investments by Treasury Accounts. The Minister was replying to Mr A. C. A. Sexton (Independent, Franklin), who had asked whether the money for the Housing Department now being borrowed from the Reserve Bank was obtained by means of a creation of credit as in the case of the Dairy Industry Account, or whether it was obtained by the Reserve Bank by borrowing; and, if so, from whom it had been borrowed.