LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gold Dredge Return. The Grey River dredge, for the week ended February 26, returned 152 oz. for 121 hours from 89,371 yards. Fishing Prospects. According to a statement on fishing prospects for the week-end, issued by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, waters “in the Pahiatua area are unfishable. The Wairarapa district streams are full, but promise well. New Zealand Forces in Fiji. The title of the forces in Fiji has been altered from Eighth Brigade Group, Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, to Pacific Station, Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The change has been made as the former title is considered no longer appropriate. Formal notification of the change is published in last evening’s Gazette. Alternative Service. The Methodist Conference at Wellington yesterday passed the following resolution:—Conference recognises that the Christian conscience of most of our people constrains them to active participation in the war effort, either at home or abroad. Adhering to the principle of the freedom of conscience, which should be respected, it declares that any who for conscientious reasons, sincerely held and attested, are unwilling to bear arms, should render some form of alternative sacrificial service to the country in whose privileges of citizenship they share. Methodist Church and War. Confidence that Methodist people would continue, till victory was achieved, to uphold the righteous cause to which the British nation was committed, was expressed by the Methodist Conference in Wellington yesterday. Conference expressed its belief , that submission to the forces of ruthless aggression would imperil civilisation and endanger the existence of those conditions amid which Christianity found free expression. Wartime Economy. As wartime economy measures the Government is dispensing with the need for the formal renewal of various licences. For instance, regulations gazetted last night suspend the necessity for sheepowners to make annual returns for flocks. Meat exporters’ and slaughterhouse licences will now automatically be renewed each year. There will also be no necessity for the renewal of public road transport service licences. In the lastmentioned case it is stated that existing legislation contains ample power for such licences to be reviewed if the necessity arises. In all three instances economy will be effected in manpower, paper and printing.

Stockings May Be Rationed. Rationing of women’s hosiery with the issue of coupons will apparently be introduced soon, but it appears that rationing of clothing generally, while it has been discussed, is not regarded as necessary at present, and is, accordingly, not contemplated. Inquiries in Christchurch yesterday showed that drapery and boot retailers’ shops have been meeting a somewhat stimulated demand in the last few days, the increased business being caused in part by ill-founded reports that rationing was to be introduced in a few days. When this was referred to him last night for comment, Mr G. Riley, secretary of the New Zealand Drapers, Clothiers and Boot Retailers’ Federation, said that while hosiery might be i rationed soon, there was no suggestion : that clothing generally would be.

Instructors For New Zealand. Last evening the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, announced that 57 officers and 62 non-commissioned officers of all arms from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Middle East, including some senior officers, were on their way to New Zealand and would be employed at schools of instruction and in unts where their recent experience of modern war would be of the greatest value in the defence of the country. Unmoral Practices.

“We are all aware of practices within the law which are definitely unmoral,” remarked Mr E. D. Wilkinson, the newly-elected president of the New Zealand Society of Accountants at their meeting in Wellington. He declared that certain private limited liability companies manipulated their affairs to escape taxation and used the law as a cloak to evade just liabilities. That was often done by people who were well able to meet their obligations. Accountants should have no hesitation in pointing out certain conduct which might be within the letter of the law but broke its spirit and was distinctly not moral. Pictures and Air Raids.

“There is in the Dominion a great deal of loose thinking about the closing of theatres at certain hours because of the possibility of air raids,” said the chairman of the Film Industry Board, Mr W.F. Stilwell, S.M., at the luncheon of the New Zealand Motion Picture Exhibitors’ Association in Wellington yesterday. Mr Stilwell suggested that though exhibitors must concede to the civil authorities the right to dictate measures in the interest of public security, they should not get caught in any hasty, sweeping •decisions. He thought that subject to considerations of public security, the continuance of motion picture screenings was of the utmost importance in maintaining morale.

National Savings. The chairman of the New Zealand National Savings Committee (Mr T. N. Smallwood) announced today that receipts up to February 7 totalled £4,389,000 of which £3,067,000 represented receipts for the current financial year. “While this fulfils the budgetary estimate of receipts for National Savings,” said Mr Smallwood, “the calling up of so many men for service with the armed forces in New Zealand, and a greater demand on shipping through changed conditions in the Pacific with a consequent further restriction on imports for civilian purposes, makes it more imperative than, ever that all should revise their spending habits and lend to the nation not only to pay and equip the lighting men serving on their behalf, but also to decrease the demand for goods in short supply.” Non-Combatant Service. The position of men whose appeals against military service on conscientious grounds have been dismissed subject to the condition that they should be employed only in noncombatant duties was explained last evening by the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones. He said that apparently the obligations and rights of such men were not clearly understood. “I have directed,” he said, “that the nature of the non-combatant duties to be performed by such an appellant shall be service in the Medical Corps or the Dental Corps if he is eligible for overseas service or, if’ he is eligible for home defence only, in the Medical Corps, the Dental Corps, or in the New Zealand Temporary Staff in duties not involving the carrying or use of arms such as, for example, clerical or camp fatigue duties.”