LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Rounding up Defaulters. Organised by the manpower authorities in Auckland as a means of checking up on female defaulters under the Industrial Manpower Emergency Regulations, three raids were carried out in the lounges of Auckland city hotels yesterday afternoon. Though no details were available from the Manpower Department, it is understood that about 100 women were interviewed.

Vegetable Growing Allotments. In Addition to the 200 vegetable growing allotments already being cultivated on the Town Belt, the Wellington City Council has decided to make 550 more available on payment of the registration fee of 2s a year. These plots are situate in Russell Terrace (200); Morton Street (60); Karori Park (30); Alexandra Road, Newtown end (200); Rolleston Street (40); Majoribanks Street (20). Rehabilitation Centre.

The letting of a contract to the Love Construction Company, Limited, for the erection of a rehabilitation centre 'on harbour board leasehold land in Anzac Avenue, Dunedin, has been announced by the Minister of Works, Mr Semple. The contract price is approximately £25,000. Provision is made in the contract for an administrative centre, show rooms,- and recreation rooms, and there will be seven workshops. Work will begin on the site within a week. ■ , V T,; •. Sten Automatic Gun. Some indication of the adaptation of New Zealand’s peacetime engineering plants to wartime production and their capacity and efficiency to produce armaments was revealed to a party of reporters when they were taken through two factories extensively engaged in the manufacture and assembly of Sten automatic guns. Production of this gun, which was invented in Britain as an anti-invasion weapon and first manufactured there about two years ago, was begun in the Dominion last October and under the fullscale output recently achieved several hundreds of guns are being delivered weekly. School Children on Strike.

As a protest against inaction in the provision of a school at Bennydale, 60 children of miners attending the school at Mangapehi are on strike. They arrived at school as usual, collected their books, and stated that under their parents’ instructions they would not return to school till action was taken to provide a school at Bennydale. The question of a school at Bennydale has been under consideration for some time. The matter has been represented to the Government and to the Education Board and Education Department, but nothing has resulted. The school at Mangapehi is very overcrowded and one class has been taught in a hall. Post Office Staff Contributions.

“I consider that the officers of the Post and Telegraph Department have set a worthy example of what can be achieved by a system of regular contributions,” the Postmaster-General (Hon. P. C. Webb) said today in announcing that since the inception of the scheme of voluntary deductions from their fortnightly pay the officers of the Department had contributed a total of £15,217 to the National and Provincial Patriotic Funds. The Minister said that the Department had a proud record in the number of its staff serving with the colours, and it was apparent that those who had to maintain the home front were not unmindful of the needs of the men in the Services. More Cheese Needed.

Addressing the annual conference of the National Dairy Association at Palmerston North yesterday, and referring to the British Food Ministry’s appeal to New Zealand for butter and cheese, Mr Barclay (Minister of Marketing) said he felt justified in asking producers to make every effort to meet those wishes. Britain needed 6000 tons more cheese. He proposed, with the concurrence of the conference, to recommend the Government to revoke the Dairy Supply Control Order, 1942, as he considered it the simplest and most direct method to secure the extra cheese production without disorganising the dairy industry. He emphasised that the new circumstances did not imply a swing away from butter to cheese production,.and he hoped the industry would co-operate in maintaining the balance between cheese and butter. There was every indication that Great Britain was willing to take in one form or other all the foodstuffs New Zealand produced in the coming year.