Licensing Figures.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 November 1943, Page 2

Licensing Figures.

The latest available figures on the recent licensing poll were presented at the Auckland conference of the New Zealand Alliance by the secretary, Mr L. E. Falkner. With a few more votes to come, the secretary said, the vote for continuance was 528..040, a decrease of 18,955 since 1938. Other figures were: State purchase and control, 123,388, an increase of 27,257 votes; and national prohibition, 269,615, an increase of 6407. With a more complete organisation, he said, the vote for the abolition of the liquor traffic could have been greatly increased. ,

“Wishing Tree” Intact. It was reported in some papers a few weeks back that the famous “wishing tree” on Hongi’s Track, just above Lake Roto-iti, had decayed and blown down. This is not so. According to a party of Wanganui business men who visited the track last Saturday the tree still stands as majestically as ever. In places it is showing signs of decay by internal rotting, but is good for scores of years yet. One of the tourists suggested that the tree could be saved by an “operation” by a tree surgeon, who could cut out the infested wood and refill the cavities.

Medical and Dental Bursaries. The Minister of Health, Mr Nordmeyer, announced last evening that medical and dental bursaries would again be available next year. Their value would be the same as this year, namely £,70 per annum, plus £4O boarding allowance in the case of those students who required to live away from home. Application forms were now available at all local offices of the Health Department, and anybody interested should write to the nearest medical officer of health asking that one be sent to him. Forms would be sent to those who had already written to him or the department making inquiries, and there was no need for such persons to write in again. “Morals and Morale.”

Under the auspices of the Masterton Catholic Club, a public lecture, entitled “Morals and Morale,” will be given in the St. Patrick’s Hall on Sunday evening at 8.15 o’clock by Father Philip Murphy, O.F.M. The .speaker was chosen by the Auckland Inter-Church Council on Public Affairs to deliver this address in the Auckland Town Hall on a recent occasion, under the chairmanship of Bishop Simkin, Anglican Bishop of Auckland. The address created great interest and the Town Hall was packed. It may be remembered that a controversy developed concerning the refusal of the authorities to broadcast the address. It should be of interest to Mastertonians to have the opportunity of hearing this well known speaker on a subject of such vital concern. Treatment of Defaulters. Several motions touching on the treatment of military defaulters, were carried by the Wellington Methodist Synod this week. The synod resolved to urge the Government strongly to set up an appelate tribunal similar to that in Great Britain, before which, without expense to the appellant, all persons whose appeals on the ground of conscientious objection to service in the armed forces had been dismissed, would have the right of rehearing. It was urged also that the men, many of them known by the Methodist Church to be sincere and of irreproachable character, now imprisoned in camps and gaols for the duration of the war because of refusal on grounds of conscience to participate in war, be released for civilian service on the same grounds as exempted conscientious objectors, that is, at rates of pay equivalent to soldiers’ rates of pay and allowances.