LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 June 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Slygrog Seller Sent to Gaol. “I’ve got to put down this sly-grog selling, in suite of your age,” said Mr J. L. Stout,’ S.M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday, in sentencing Fred Lindsay Backhouse, labourer, aged 68, to 14 days’ imprisonment for selling liquor without a licence. Senior-Sergeant G. J. Paine said accused had sold three bottles of beer to U.S. Marines for 10s, a profit of Is 4d a bottle. Shortage of Cabbages. Thursday is always the big buying day at the Wellington city markets in Allen and Blair Streets. Yesterday saw a plenitude of cauliflowers, which sold at 10s or 11s a sack, plenty of let-, tuce, spinach, brussel sprouts, pumpkins, parsnips, and swedes, but no cabbages. It is now nearly three weeks since growers stopped sending cabbages into the Wellington markets, and, from all reports, the sale by weight idea is not meeting with their approval. Some growers are said to have dug their cabbages in, rather than submit to the new order. Schools for Training Carpenters. “Schools for training are being opened in all districts where there are sufficient men desiring to be trained,” said the Minister of Labour, Mr Webb, when asked by Mr Frost (Government, New Plymouth) in the House of Representatives yesterday whether it was intended to provide a caipentiy training school in New Plymouth. The Minister said that training centres for carpentry had been established in Auckland, Wellington, Petone, Christchurch, Dunedin and Rotorua. Airangements were proceeding to open similar training schools in oihei centres. Hours of Parliament.

An alteration in the sitting hours of the House of Representatives was agreed to yesterday on a motion submitted by the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, who was in charge of the House in the temporary absence of the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser. In future it will meet two mornings a week instead of one as at present. On Tuesdays the House will meet at 10.30 a.m. and sit till 10 p.m., with the customary adjournments for the midday meal and tea. On Wednesdays and Thursdays the House will rise at 10 p.m. instead of 10.30 as at present. The usual Friday hours will be observed. The new arrangement has been made to avoid a clash between the broadcasting of the House proceedings and the tenminute broadcast to the troops in the Pacific at 10 o’clock nightly. To Save Electrical Power. A suggestion that the electricity controller should be advised that in view of the tremendous waste of electrical power in the broadcasting and reception of radio programmes a selected six hours in the day’s programmes could easily be cut out, was adopted by the Wanganui-Rangitikei Power Board. A letter from the Hutt Valley Power Board, making the suggestion, explained that such a reduction in broadcasting in the Dominion, particularly at night, would also involve a decrease in the consumption of electric power for lighting and heating, thus contributing to the necessary reduction in the heavy load on the Dominion’s generating stations. The chairman, Mr F. Purnell, commented that listeners might tune in to overseas stations if New Zealand ones were off the air.

R.S.A. Presidency. The Dominion executive of the New Zealand Returned Services Association has issued a statement that after the Hon W. Perry, M.L.C., had discussed with it the position created by his appointment to the War Cabinet, and asked that his position as president of the association be considered, the executive unanimously endorsed his action in accepting the responsibilities of the high office to which he has been called in the interest of the country. It was also the unanimous request of the executive that Mr Perry should continue in office as president till consideration could be given to the whole matter, and that in the meantime a chairman of the executive committee be appointed to relieve the president I of that duty. Cause of Footrot. At the annual meeting of the Romney Marsh Sheep Breeders’ Association in Palmerston North on Wednesday, Professor G. S. Peren, of Massey College, gave information regarding foot rot. He said Australian research workers claimed that three organisms working together, were the cause of the trouble and not just one. However, the Australians reported that these organisms would not live longer than three weeks away from their host, the sheep, notwithstanding the condition of the land or weather. This suggested that if an area was spelled for sufficiently long and dogs and everything else kept off it, that area would then be clear of foot rot. Massey College was continuing experiments along the lines of the Australian recommendation and so far there was evidence of big possibilities. Home Guard Parades. Whether the Minister of National Service would consider exempting from further weekend Home Guard parades men over military age, many of whom were returned soldiers of the last war, was a question of which notice was given in the House by Mr Atmore (Independent, Nelson) on behalf of the member for Napier, Mr Barnard. In a note to the question it was stated that complaints were general among these men of what was described as the “useless waste of time” involved in the existing system of parades. It was felt that the time could be more profitably employed in growing vegetables. Men over military age stated they could not keep pace with the younger men, and as many were doing two men’s work during the week they were feeling the strain of compulsory attendance at parades. Road Accidents. “Long-distance private-car traffic virtually disappeared from the roads early in 1942, while long distance truck, bus and service-car traffic fell away heavily toward the end of the year,” states the annual report of the Transport Department for the year ended March 31 last, which was tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday. Private-car traffic, adds the report, is now confined largely to the towns and the immediately surrounding districts, where the trucks and bus traffic has also been reduced in volume. Road accidents dropped from 2851 in 1941 to 1939 in 1942. In 1942 167 lives were lost in road accidents, compared with 175 in 1941, and 2387 people were injured as compared with 3555 in 1941. The report states it is considered that the substantial decline in road accidents in 1942 is due rather to a reduction in the volume of traffic resulting from the petrol restrictions than to an increase in relative road safety.