LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 March 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Child’s Death. Florence Irene Cashmore, six years of age, of 12 Dawson Street, Berhampore, received fatal head injuries when she was knocked down by a motor car at the corner of Adelaide Road and Rawson Street at noon on Saturday. Grass Fire. The Masterton Fire Brigade was called out at 6.18 p.m. on Saturday to Roberts Road, Lansdowne, where grass on a vacant section was alight. The fire was soon put out. It is understood that the fire was caused through a lighted match being thrown into some dry grass. Electric Power Allocation. Last year an aggregate increase of 5 per cent over the 1941 allocation of bulk power was allowed by the Public Works Department to electric power supply authorities. It is expected that for the winter of this year an increase of 5 per cent over the 1942’ total or 10 per cent above 1941, will be able to be allocated, states the Dominion controller, Mr F. T. M. Kissel. However, he added, this increased supply was subject to modification if a dry period should affect the level of the lakes. Sly Grog Shops. There were 68 known sly-grog shops within a half-mile radius of the town hall, said Mr A. C. Norden, in presenting recommendations of the transport committee of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce to' the council of that body. The council agreed to ask the Government to investigate the taxi business and to' urge that it should be controlled in each main centre by one man or a small committee. Regarding the sly-grog trade, the council will urge the Government to stop supplies of liquor to sly-grog houses. Employment of Children. “It is unfortunate that when any politician wishes to make capital out of the employment of youths reference is always made to factory employment,” said Mr D. I. MacDonald, Secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, commenting on the statements made during the Ad-dress-in-Reply debate by Mrs Grigg. “No attention is ever drawn to the long and early or late hours worked by children on farms, particularly dairy farms, and in many retail distributive industries, particularly those involving house-to-house delivery, street selling or theatre selling. “The facts are that the factory laws in New Zealand are well advanced by comparison with overseas countries and effectively administered. The Labour Department is efficient in its inspections and specially careful in the supervision of the employment of younger people in factories. Not the same check is possible on employment in the type of retail distributive occupations mentioned or in juvenile and family employment on farms. Hence the abuse in these directions goes largely unnoticed.”