LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 July 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gift of an Atlas. Miss Elsie Cresswell has donated a world atlas to the Masterton Borough Library. The gift has been acknowledged by the council.

Meat Producers’ Board. The audited accounts of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board for the year ended June 30, reveal an excess of income over expenditure of £12,643. The accumulated fund stands at £67,172. Library Subscriptions.

Subscribers to the Masterton Borough Library in arrears with their subscriptions have had their names handed to the Town Clerk for action to be taken. The chairman of the Library Committee, Councillor W. Kemp, speaking at last night’s meeting of the Masterton Borough Council, said the position was due to forgetfulness on the part of some of the subscribers.

Charge Dismissed. The court-martial in Auckland of Acting-Sergeant Peter Alexander Gardner, aged 20, staff instructor, ended yesterday in a verdict of acquittal on a charge of neglect to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in that he failed to examine arms before commencing aiming practice and failed to take proper steps to see that the men under his command had not loaded during the practice. The court-mar-tial arose out of the death of L/Ac. Walter Lloyd George Littlejohn at an air station on May 21.

Housing Scheme in Auckland. Plans have been prepared by the Housing Department for the construction in Auckland and the surrounding district, embracing Henderson, Milford and Otahuhu, of State dwellings at the rate of 100 a month, according to the estimate of one prominent Auckland contractor. The Government has laid claim to about 98 per cent of their timber being milled, while no new order in excess of 500 feet is available for alterations to any private house. Such quantitiy is equal to that required for an ordinary room 10 feet by 8 feet, so that only work of the most modest character is possible. ' Compensation for Warder.

The serious riot at the Auckland prison some two years ago when a warder was gravely injured was mentioned during the discussion of the estimates of the Department of Justice and Prisons in the House of Representatives yesterday. Mr Polson (Opposition, Stratford) asked what compensation the warder had received, and also what payments had been made to the widows of police officers killed in the West Coast manhunt. The Minister of Justice, Mr Mason, said the West Coast cases did not come under the estimates being discussed. The Auckland warder had been retained on full pay for a long time, was to be granted £5OO approved under last year’s supplementary estimates, and would be considered for pension on the highest scale that could be paid to a soldier. !

New Soldiers’ Plot. The Wairarapa R.S.A. has advised the Masterton Borough Council that it has fully approved of the layout of the new soldiers’ plot at the Masterton Cemetery. The association expressed appreciation of the consideration shown by the council and also of the services so willingly given by Mr C. R. Mabson, Borough Engineer.

Transport Minister Criticised. “Shocking,” and “ridiculous act of a dictator” were among expressions used by Dunedin city councillors when discussing the action of the Minister of Transport, Mr O’Brien, in arbitrarily ordering a change in the timetable of the Kaikorai bus service without giving the council the chance to place its case before him. A resolution to protest in these terms was passed. Traffic Instruction in Schools.

A request by the Transport Department to allow the Borough Traffic Inspector (Mr J. McGregor) to give traffic instruction in schools in the district was agreed to at last night’s meeting of the Masterton Borough Council. It was decided to point out to the Department that on his own initiative the Inspector had been teaching traffic central at local schools. Reserved Seats on Trains. The Railway Department’s attention is to be called by the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce to the need for an investigation into the matter of reserved seats on trains. The chamber had before it a report that expresses left Wellington with seats marked “reserved” but unoccupied. These seats, probably reserved by the Army and not used, could have carried some of the civilian passengers who had been debarred from travelling.

Allegation Denied. The allegation was made by Mr P. M. Butler, a member of the No. 2 Armed Forces Appeal Board, when it was hearing appeals on behalf of 80 waterside workers in Wellington yesterday, that the Press only attended when such cases were being heard, and that it was just a political manoeuvre to keep up agitation and prejudice against the watersiders. The chairman, Mr S. Blackley, said there was no foundation for the allegation that the Press attended only on such occasions. Mr Butler had been there only twice, and there had been 150 sittings. Lambing Percentage.

The estimated lambing percentage for New Zealand for 1942 is 91.43 per cent., this being the highest yet recorded. For the first time, the lambing percentages of the Dominion have exceeded 90 per cent for three years in succession, states the annual report of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board for the period ended June 30 last. It adds that the annual sheep returns have been discontinued since 1941 as a war economy measure. The lambing estimates for 1942 are, therefore, not as accurate as in previous years for the reason that the number of breeding ewes has been based on the 1941 figures.