LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 July 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Reservists Fined. / Fines of £lO, with 13s costs in each case, were imposed by Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., in the .Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yesterday, on Thomas Patrick O’Neill and Frederick James Clark for failure to enrol as reservists. Each defendant was stated to have missed four ballots. Ralph Gordon Lee, for a similar omission, was fined £5, with 13s costs. Soldier Assaults Constable. At the Pahiatua S.M. Court before Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M., Gerald Mitchell, a soldier, was convicted on a charge of drunkenness and fined £3 and costs for having used indecent language in Main Street on Tuesday. Sergeant Whiting said the language complained of was vile, women and children had been within hearing and when Constable Hogg was summoned to the scene he found- accused obstructing a chimney demolition squad and himself had been severely assaulted before taking accused into custody.

Damage to Wellington Chimneys. It will be a month to six weeks, city council officials estimate, before all of the 3500 Wellington houses damaged in the earthquake have at least one usable chimney and a roof which does not leak. Investigations have disclosed a much larger number of affected houses than was at first suspected. Most have two chimneys requiring repairs; others have three, four, five, or even six. The total of damaged chimneys is estimated at 9,000 to 10,000. State and Power Generation.

Negotiations are proceeding for purchase by the Government of the Auckland Electric Power Board’s power station at King’s Wharf. The negotiations were announced by the Minister of Public Work's, Mr Armstrong, when referring to restrictions on the supply of electricity in the North Island. Mr Armstrong said that though every available source of power was being fully exploited, the fine margin of supply over demand was causing his engineers considerable anxiety, more particularly with regard to the future than the present. Provided there were no unexpected delays in the delivery of the plant required for completion of the lower development scheme at Lake Waikaremoana, and for extensions at Arapuni, it would probably be possible to lift the restrictions on the use of radiators after next winter. “The Government has long viewed the generation of electricity for national purposes as a prerogative of the Government,” said the Minister. Price of Nails. The price of nails has been increased by approximately Id a lb. for small quantities by a price order gazetted this week, said the Minister of Supply, Mr Sullivan, last night. He, added that the increase followed the increased sales tax and also provided comparable increases for retail sales of larger quantities and wholesale transactions. “This is the first increase in the price of nails since March, 1940,” said the Minister. “Since that date the various nail manufacturers have cooperated with each other and with my department in the operation of a nail wire pool account. The effect of this has been to stabilise the internal price of wire landing in New Zealand from various overseas sources at differing, prices of freights and duties. Manufacturers have been encouraged, to search overseas markets for consignments with the assurance that irrespective of the actual landed cost, their into-store costs would be stabilised through the' pool account.”