LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1941, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

First Aid Classes. First aid classes for the Home Guard and E.P.S. will be held tomorrow night in the St. John Ambulance Room at the rear of the Social Security Department building, Dixon . Street, commencing at 7 o’clock. Dr. T. L. Parr will give the second of a series of lectures on first aid.

Driver 10 Years Without Licence. “Defendant stated he has driven a car for ten years, and has not had a licence at any time," said Sergeant Brown, in the Magistrates’ Court, Palmerston North, yesterday, when I. E. Rowland appeared before Mr Lawry S.M., charged with driving at more than 30 miles an hour in the city area, and with driving without a licence. Rowland was fined £l, with 12s costs, on the first ,charge, and £1 with 10s costs on the second. The Voice of Big Ben.

Parliamentary .history was made in the House of Representatives last night when the chimes of Big Ben were introduced into the Chamber as in the homes of the people to mark the period of silent prayer at nine o’clock every evening. New Zealand was the first country to broadcast the proceedings of Parliament to the world outside. and this is probably the first time anywhere that a radio has been heaid inside a Parliament. Life Insurance. Latest figures in the official New Zealand Year Book show that New Zealanders pay out more than £4,600,000 a year in premiums on ordinary life insurance and that the 392,500 policy-holders who contribute this have their lives insured for an aggregate amount of £148,740,000. The sum assured on the basis of individual averages is £379, and the average premium a policy is £ll 4s 7d. In the five years from 1935 to 1939, the number of policies has increased by nearly 100,000, the aggregate sum assured by more than £48,000,000, and the amount paid out in premiums each year by just over £1,000,000. Each of the three years 1935-1937 was characterised by a remarkable increase in the amount issued when compared with the year immediately preceding, culminating in the [record amount of £19,377.000 for new business in 1937.

Equipment for E.P.S. The Palmerston North City Council on Monday night authorised the expenditure of £403 for equipment for the civic engineering works committee of the Emergency Precautions Scheme. The material is to be stored at three depots where it will be readily available and reasonably close to areas where it might be required. Warrant of Fitness Altered.

An alteration in the date of a warrant of fitness, regarded by traffic authorities as a clumsy piece of work, was admitted by an Otane sheep-far-mer. Joseph N. C. Cracknell, before Mr Miller, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court Hastings, yesterday. He was charged with having supplied false information, and was fined £lO. costs 12s. In imposing a fine of £lO. the magistrate said that it was a very serious offence, and defendant could have been charged with forgery.

Voting By Soldiers. A request that the Acting-Prime Minister take steps to ensure an opportunity for all overseas soldiers to be enrolled on the general electoral roll in the respective electorates in which they resided before enlistment was contained in a question of which Mr O’Brien (Government, Westland) gave notice in the House of Representatives yesterday. "Many overseas soldiers have come of age since last election, and have not enrolled,” he said. "Many others have come of age' since going overseas, and unless these men are given an opportunity to enrol they will be disfranchised at the next general election.”

Air Force Duty for Women. “We are considering the whole question of employing women for various duties at stations of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, including those at Auckland,” said the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, in an interview last night. He added that the Government was well pleased with . the success of women employed at Rongotai, Harewood and Wigram. Provision of accommodation was a problem at some stations, Mr Jones said. It might be necessary to build suitable accommodation for women workers in some places, where it was not easily possible to provide transport to and from the stations. This applied to the Auckland stations, and to some others, but the question was being fully investigated.