LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Street Appeals. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, the Wellington City Council intends to limit street day appeals to one a month. Former War Prisoners Return.

After a long period in Italian hands two New Zealanders who were exchanged for enemy prisoners at Lisbon last Easter have returned to the Dominion. They are Sapper Allan Ryburn, of Eltham, and Driver J. Barr, of Whakatane.

Death of Injured Airman. L/Ac. Graham Alexander Gunn, who was seriously injured in the aircraft accident in which Pilot Officer Brian Charles Levet lost his life on October 28, died on Sunday. L/Ac. Gunn’s next-of-kin is his mother, Mrs R. S. Gunn, Darfield, R.M.D., Canterbury. Price of Butter.

Maximum retail prices of butter are fixed by a control notice issued last evening. The prices are as follows: Salted creamery butter, Is 6d per lb.; unsalted creamery butter, Is 6|d; whey butter, Is sd; dairy butter, Is 4d. Provision is made for the addition of freight charges incurred by a retailer in obtaining delivery of butter.

Cyclist Fatally Injured. Alexander Best, 56, married, with four children, died in the Nelson Hospital on Sunday as a result of head and internal injuries received in an accident on a State highway at Upper Moutere on Saturday afternoon. Riding his bicycle Best was turning on to the highway from the steep incline of a side road when he collided with the side of a motor-truck.

Christmas Day Pictures. The Wellington City Council was notified yesterday by the Picture Operators’ Union that its members intended to observe a complete holiday on Christmas Day, and would not be available for screenings for private profit. However, sufficient operators would be available for programmes for the services. The council decided that Christmas Day should be regarded as a Sunday in this respect, but the usual Sunday film facilities for the services would be provided. Britain’s Wealth. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaking in the House of Commons debate on February 2 last, said: “The aggregate gross personal income of the country in 1941-42 was estimated at £6,350,000,000, of which £4,750,000,000, or 75 per cent, was in incomes of less than £5OO a year, and £1,600,000,000 in incomes of £5OO a year and over. Income tax and surtax look £295,000,000 from the incomes below £5OO a year, and £625,000,000 from the incomes of £5OO a year and over. If everything over £2OOO was taken from people with incomes of over £2OOO a year, I should obtain only an extra £30,000,000.”

Shortage of Accommodation. The grave shortage of living accommodation in Wellington was discussed briefly by the Wellington City Council yesterday afternoon. A report arising cut of the recommendations of a special citizens’ committee which tabled its findings in August last was brought forward by Councillor R. H. Nimmo. However, the council decided to defer discussion till next meeting pending consideration of draft by-laws which it is proposed to adopt, as a matter of urgency, under emergency regulations. Through American Eyes.

The colloquialism “That’ll be the day” is not, as might be thought, an Americanism. United' States service men in this country declare they had not heard the expression before reaching the Dominion. To them it frequently sounds as if the speaker is saying: “That’ll be the die.” The visitors are greatly amused by our use of “Ta” for “Thank you,” which they consider juvenile in the extreme, and they are amazed to hear it from the lips of even prominent business men. Some New Zealanders have been told, to their indignation, that they speak with a slight Cockney accent, in that their vowels are Cockney.

Alleged “Terrible Wastage.” “Tied up with this problem is the terrible wastage of unnecessary staff in Government departments,” said Cr. W. Appleton, when the Wellington City Council yesterday afternoon was discussing the grave situation created by the lack of suitable living accommodation in the city. “Hundreds of girls in these departments are simply wasting their time,” he added. “It is time someone said something about it. If we went through the Government departments today, especially the uniformed branches, we would find all the labour we wanted. You have only to go into many Government departments to see staff simnly falling over one another, with nothing to do. We want a cleanup of this situation, and that will improve the accommodation problem.” The Vicious Magpie. Answering the question: “Do you consider Australian magpies harmful cr not?” Mr E. F. Stead said in the Christchurch “Press”: “Magpies are definitely harmful to many of the native birds. I know of instances where they have killed native pigeons, and there are several districts in the foothills of Canterbury where they have completely driven the pigeons out of oldestablished haunts. The banded dotterel was one of the best friends of the arable farmers in Canterbury, but today this bird has been entirely driven from all fields where magpies inhabit adjacent trees. I have seen magpies kill a number of small imported birds, also attempt to kill a great many more. Lambs were reported killed by them just recently in the Hanmer district. A lamb found dead with a hole in tis skull has probably been killed by a magpie, for I know of nothing else, stoats, ferrets, hawks or gulls, which would 'cause damage of this type, and that is certainly the type of damage a magpie would cause.”