LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wellington Rates. The total rate levy made by the Wellington City Corporation for the current year was £629,426. So far, £517,317, or 82 per cent of the levy, has been received. The Liquor Trade. In reply to a request by the New Zealand Alliance for a public inquiry into the liquor question, the Prime Minister has replied promising careful consideration by the authorities of questions raised by the alliance in regard to liquor and the armed forces. Maori Battalion for Home Defence. “The War Council, at a meeting yesterday, discussed the question of forming a Maori battalion for home defence,” stated the Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser, last evening. “A recommendation on this matter has been submitted for the consideration of the War Cabinet.” Plunket Society. The Masterton branch of the Plunket Society acknowledges subscriptions and donations from the following: —Mrs lan Bunny, £1; Mesdames A. Southey, M. Savage, D. J. Cooper, lan McGregor, A. B. McMaster, T. W. Wardell, F. R. Garland, 10s each; Mesdames H. Gaskin, J. Hercock, A. W. Gray, T. Newlandfe, A. Kenney, F. C. Thornton, G. E. Percy, R. B. Duffy, R. A. Grantham, R. S. Donald, D. Possin, N. J. Thompson, F. E. Gray, D. Wallis, L. Roach, H. Adcock, R. Oakley, P. J. Taylforth, J .W. Perry, I. Sutherland, M. Hargood, H. P. Harrison. D. Watson. D. Costello, P. Watson, E. G. Kent, S. R. McLennan, M. Finlayson. R. H. Williams, N. Watson, E. D. Smith, 5s each. Church Union, “The clamant demand today is for a daring policy of Church union and Church federation. We need Church statesmen who are big enough, clearsighted enough and with sufficient of the grace of God in their hearts to see far beyond their own denominational barriers,” said the Rev W. Walker in his presidential address at the opening of the Methodist Conference in Wellington, yesterday. “When we survey the task of the Church in overcoming her avowed foes,” he added; "in fighting prevalent evils, in purifying and raising social conditions, in influencing legislation, in arresting the deadly apathy to spiritual realities; in establishing the brotherhood of nations, and in winning the heathen world for Christ; we are immediately convinced that the present disunited Church is hopelessly inadequate for the task. Transport of Stock. “I am extremely surprised to learn that the New Zealand Road Transport Alliance considers that I have been usurping the functions of the Minister of Transport,” said the Minister of Marketing, Mr Barclay, when referring last evening to a statement by the alliance charging him with directing the operation of the road transport system by his interference in live stock transport. “Whatever action has been taken by myself as Minister of Marketing and Agriculture has been designed to ensure that, coincident with the need to conserve petrol supplies to a maximum, the servicing to the farming community should be placed on a rational basis to avoid the development of any chaotic conditions,” said Mr Barclay. “I am vitally concerned with the collection and transport of export fat stock, and had the petrol supplies been cut to the various organisations engaged in this work without at the same time setting up an organised system, the results would have been disastrous to many sections of the farm* ling community, particularly the small and backblocks farmer.”