LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Soldier Sent to Gaol. A sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment with hard labour has been promulgated in the case of Gunner Clifford Raymond Coles, found guilty by district court-martial of desertion. He was absent without leave for 245 days, and spent all the time in Auckland. School Windows Smashed. Extensive damage was done to three Hamilton schools on Tuesday when 72 panes of glass were smashed, 26 at the Hamilton East School, 24 at the High School, and 22 at the Technical School. Two boys were seen using a shanghai at the Technical School but they were not caught. Liberty Loan. The chairman of the Invercargill Savings Bank, Mr W. A. Ott, announc-1 ed yesterday that the bank will invest a further £30,000 in the Liberty Loan, making its total contribution £130,000. The Permanent Building Society has decided to invest £2OOO. This brings Southland’s total to nearly £200,000 of the £500,000 required by June 2. Subversion Charges. A jury of 12 in the Supreme Court, Wellington, yesterday failed to agree on a verdict in the case of Archibald Charles Barrington, hon. secretary of the Christian Pacifist Society, charged with publishing a subversive statement and alternatively attempting to publish a subversive statement. Mr C. K. Weston, for the Crown, formally moved for a second trial. His Honour said he was bound to grant the request, and fixed Monday next as the date for the new trial. Accused was released on bail on his personal recognisance of £5O. illicit Petrol Sales. In connection with the illicit petrol sales trials at the Wellington S.M. Court yesterday, William Harold Davis, who pleaded guilty to two charges of illicit purchase and two charges of refusing information to the police, but not guilty to one charge of illicit sales, was found guilty of the last-mentioned charge and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour, fined £l5, and ordered to pay costs on each of the purchasing charges, and £5 and ordered to pay costs on each of the two charges of failing ' to give information.

Tires for Clergymen’s Cars. Ministers of religion are among those permitted to obtain motor tires provided their cars are used for parochial work, according to inquiries in Wellington yesterday. An Auckland report stated that members of the Presbytery had been advised that the situation was so serious that replacement of tires could be granted only if Sunday services would have to be abandoned if the ministers were deprived of their cars. It was stated in Auckland that applications on that basis should be made to the transport officials. According to officials of the Transport Department in Wellington, to say that tires would be unobtainable till a Sunday service was in jeopardy was to take a more pessimistic view than the circumstances warranted.

Frost in Masterton. A frost of 3.3 degrees was registered in Masterton this morning. Trust Lands Trust. The annual meeting of the Masterton Trust Lands Trust will be held tonight, at 7.30 o’clock, in the Y.M.C.A. building. Masterton Townswomen’s Guild. At the monthly meeting of the Masterton Townswomen’s Guild, the president (Mrs Copp) presided. After extending a welcome to friends and visitors, the president introduced Mrs Whately, who, after having been presented with a shoulder spray, addressed the meeting on the subject of making useful articles out of waste material. She gave a demonstration on the making of papier mache, and received a hearty vote of thanks. Railway Revenue. | Railway revenue and expenditure for the year ended March 31 were announced yesterday by the Minister of Railways, Mi- Semple. He said that gross revenue, which amounted to £11,938,338. was the highest in the history of the New Zealand railways system. Expenditure was £10,056,034, the net revenue being £1,882,304 —an increase of £187,660 over the net revenue for the previous year. The gross revenue exceeded that of the previous year by £778,120. On a percentage basis the net return on capital was 2.90, which was in striking contrast to the figure of 1.15 per cent for 1938. Stipends of Clergymen. “I do not see how they are existing,” said the Bishop of Waikato, Dr. Cherrington, referring at a meeting of the Taranaki Archdeaconry Board in New Plymouth to clergymen being paid inadequate stipends. The man earning £6 a week working on roads was given a 5 per cent increase, he said as an example, but the clergy were still getting only £BOO a year, as they had been before any of the increases came in. “I do not know how any man can support a wife 'and family on £3OO a year,” he said. Such payment was disgraceful. There were some workers who had their national and social security tax paid for them by their employers, but he had yet to hear that any vestry had offered to do this for its vicar.