LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Khaki Blankets. Khaki-coloured cotton blankets from India are being offered for sale in Wellington. They measure 60in by 80in, and are being retailed at 20s 3d each. Land Sales Bill. The Waikato campaign against the provisions of the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Sales Bill has been suspended pending clarification of the Prime Minister's assurance that he would give sympathetic consideration to the representations of the R.S.A. and other organisations. High Prices for Spoons. High prices were recently paid by Cambridge residents for second-hand articles offered for sale by auction. Twelve silver teaspoons were knocked down to a bidder at £ll when a sale was held last week. There have been record attendances at all house sales, the number of which has increased considerably in the last two months. Truckers Reprisal. The Liverpool State Mine on the West Coast was idle again yesterday. The men met at the bath-house and decided to work no more back Saturdays this year because of unsatisfactory attendances. The miners were „willing to work yesterday but the truckers decided to return home. The truckers resent the lost opportunity on the last two back Saturdays to earn time-and-a-half pay because of the absence of the miners. The truckers’ action yesterday was a reprisal. Hospital Rating Relief. In view of the increase in the allowance for inpatients from 6s to 9s a day, hospital boards would be required to amend their demands on local bodies, which would in turn be required to pass on the relief in rating to the ratepayers, said the Minister of Health, Mr Nordmeyer, in the debate on the Social Security Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives last night. This, he said, would be necessary in cases where boards had sent out demands to the local bodies for levies in excess of what they would require, and the local bodies concerned would require to adjust their demands on ratepayers either by making a refund or crediting them with the amount. An Established Reform. “Social security has become a part of our system, and the Government is entitled to credit for expanding our social services,” said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, during the debate on tlie Social Security Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives yesterday. He said he would give a categorical denial to repeated statements by Government members that if returned as the Government the National Party would cut pensions and destroy social security. Anyone who in future made such an accusation would be saying something which was not true. Mr Holland said he hoped the day was not distant when it would be possible to include dental benefits in the social security scheme and to inaugurate a nation-wide plan to prevent sickness and disease and remove the cause of want. He hoped also that any administration which he might be associated with would measure its success not in terms of the number of people helped or the number cared for in hospital, but by the number of well people whom the State had assisted to keep well.

Supplementary Roll. Enrolments on the supplementary 1 rolls for the Masterton and the Wairarapa electorates are still coming in. Voters are reminded that Monday next will be the last day for enrolling, as on that day the rolls close. Registration is compulsory. No Men Yet Available. No men for Wellington City Council tram track work were made available by the district manpower officer yesterday, and it would seem doubtful if any will be available this week, stated an officer of the city tramways department last night. An officer of the department had been in conference with the manpower officer during the day, and that was the conclusion drawn from their discussions, he said. In the meantime the women have been withdrawn from the track work, and, since they were not required for other essential work by the district manpower officer, have been absorbed in other activities of the tramways department. Social Security Bill. The Social Security Amendment Bill was read a second time, put through the committee stage, and passed with two amendments by way of additional clauses, in the House of Representatives yesterday. Moving the second reading, the Minister in Charge of Social Security, Mr Parry, said the Bill made provision for the increases in benefits referred to in the Budget, and removed various anomalies. He predicted that social security would be adopted by all the Allied countries, and expressed the hope that a reciprocal arrangement' would in due course be entered into among them all, thus placing social security on a world foundation. Broadcasting Control. Clauses in the Statutes Amendment Bill introduced in the House of Representatives yesterday extends the powers of the Minister of Broadcasting to enable him to take steps to develop and improve potential broadcasting talent of New Zealand. Payments for that purpose are to be made out of the Broadcasting Account as if they were part of the expense of providing programmes. Another clause dealing with broadcasting repeals the existing provisions relating to the establishment of the National Commercial Broadcasting service and the appointment of a Controller to carry it on independently of the Director of Broadcasting. The existing commercial service is to be continued, but it will in future be a division of the National Broadcasting Service. Doctors’ Mileage Charges. The intention of the Government to introduce another clause into the Social Security Amendment Bill to abolish the 20-mile limit and to pay all mileage charges from the social security fund when a doctor attended patients at their own homes, was announced by the Minister of Health, Mr Nordmeyer, during the second reading debate on the Bill in the House of Representatives last night. Under the existing arrangements when a person lived more than 20 miles from the doctor’s surgery the social security fund p*iid 2s 6d a mile counted one way, said the Minister. The patient was required to pay the additional mileage. The proposed clause would abolish the limit, and the fund would now meet all charges between the surgery and the patient’s home, and this would apply to both the capitation and the fee-for-service schemes operated by the doctors. This w3uld remove all suggestions of penalising the people in the country.