LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 252, 1 August 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Another medical examination for voluntary enlistments will be held at the Ashburton Defence Office on Tuesday roe ruing.

Members of the Ashburton Rotary Club, at the weekly hmcheon meeting to-day, continued thd discussion on club and community service, which was started at the meeting a week ago.

Two trains carrying troops on general leave from the Burnham, Camp passed through Ashburton this morning. The first arrived shortly before 10 o’clock and the second at about 10.30 o’clock

The Ashburton Acclimatisation Society has decided to invito standards five and six of local primary schools to visit the hatchery at Tinwald. The Ranger-Curator (Mr 1 A. Orton) will explain operations.

The humorous sketch “Home Nursing,” which created much amusement at the concert of the Hampstead sub-Centre of the Red Cross Society last evening was written by the treasurer of the sub-Centre. (Miss L. JRobinson).

An excellent growth of grass has been obtained over 325 acres of former mud flats at- G lor it, on the Kaipara Harbour, which were cultivated and sown in pasture this autumn by the Public Works Department. The land was dewatered in 1936. There are about 300 acres under the scheme to be put in pasture!, but the salinity of much of this portion is as yet too high for such operations.

Members of the Ashburton Repertory Society who are taking part in the production of “The Last Hour” in Christchurch will travel by car late to-mor-row afternoon. The play will bo produced on Friday evening and on Saturday afternoon and evening, this being the first time the Repertory Society has given a matinee performance. A number of Ashburton people intend going to the city to see the production.

On display to-day for the first time, the transparency of Ashburton, part of the display used in the Canterbury Court at the Exhibition, attracted a great deal of attention in the window of the new Public Library, which was opened in Burnett Street this morning. The transparency is a photograph of the greater part cf the Borough and the onlooker can see the objects only when lights behind the frame are switched on. The view is from the air and from the south-west, and shows the town from a new angle.

The annual report of the iPublio Trust Office states that the staff increased by 58 during the year ended March 31 last. The head office staff numbered 992 permanent and 23 temporai’y officers, a total of 115, compared with 1 94, 22, 116 in the preceding periods; In district offices 640 permanent and 219 temporary, a total of 859 were employed against 665, 192 and 857 in the preceding year. With “unattached” officers numbering 57, the total strength is now 1031. At the close of the year the office was represented by 23 district offices, 21 district manager offices, 38 non-pqrmanent agents and a number of part-time offices* • -

The Lower Hutt Baptist Church has a homeless minister. So great is the housing shortage that though the Rev. E. W. Batts (formerly of Ashburton) has been in the district for several months it lias not been possible to find him a permanent home, and his wife and family have in the meantime to make their home with relatives in Auckland. The church has undertaken to provide a manse, and the building is in progress. Several generous contributions have already been made by a property owner and a firm of builders. On Sunday a. collection was made toward the building fund and resulted in gifts totalling £236. The church, recently received a gift of £IOO from the Trustees of the Auckland Tabernacle Property Fund for the extension of church work in the Hutt. Valley.

Replying in the House of Representatives yesterday to a question by Mr Kyle, who asked the Minister of Supply whether the statement by Mr It. Burns, of the Precision Engineering Company, Wellington, that an offer had been made by a. deputation of Wellington engineers in November to “pool up” for the production of munitions were correct, the Hon. D l . G. Sullivan said that the question of making munitions in New Zealand had engaged the attention of the Government. Plans had been made for production in New Zealand, he said, and some orders had been placed with both private .and State establishments and other orders would bo placed as quickly as possible. Mr Sullivan also said that he had no knowledge other than the assertion by Mr Burns about the Wellington deputation.

“The expeditious handling of telephone toll traffic to and from military camp offices has been one of the many problems arising out of the Avar that has had to be faced by the Post and Telegraph Department,” said the Post-master-General (the Hon. iP. O. Webb), in an interview at Wellington last evening. “Because most of the men are occupied during the day the demand for toll calls from the main military camps is largely concentrated during the evening. It ;s the practice to give precedence to calls from camp offices over other ordinary toll traffic. Galls from camp offices during the day are charged the minimum. The charge for toll calls from Trent ham to Wellington, Papakura to Auckland, and Burnham to Christchurch have been reduced from 5d to 3d.”

A Feilding sheep farmer has made a suggestion that the woolgrowers of the (Dominion might agree to make a. present to the British Government of the five per cent, deferred funds on account of last season’s wool realisations. His idea is that as practically every member of the British Commonwealth of Nations has made donations to the Britishi Government to assist in the war effort, New Zealand sheen farmers might make a straight-out gift of the sum held on their account from the past season’s realisations. He is prepared to forgo his share and make it up to £IOO. It is understood that the amount involved is over £750,009, and represents to the individual woolgrowers an average sum of between £2O and £3O. The proposal was considered at a meeting of the Feilding brncli cf the Farmers’ Union, when it was agreed to forward the suggestion to the provincial executive for consideration.

Arrangements are being made for a debate between a team representing the Ashburton County Debating Union and the (Ralcaia Club at Rakaia on Tuesday, August 13. The subject will l>e, “That a nation’s commerce is more important than its culture.”

The unsightly box used at the corner of West and Wills Streets for many years as part of the water control system for the street channels has been reconstructed. Its rotting wooden sides and top have been removed and the sides have- been built up in concrete. It will be considerably lower than the old box.

A jreport on air raid precautions which have been taken at the Mount Albert Grammar School hostel was received recently by the Auckland Crammar Schools’ Board. It was stated that frequent fire drills was being given the boys, so they could practise emergency evacuation, and in addition homes had been found for all the boys in the event of an emergency requiring their despatch from the hostel.

The .report of the Public Trust Office for the year ended March 31 last, presented to Parliament recently, shows that the new business reported for administration amounted to £-5,880, //6, representing the aggregate value of 3,104 estates and funds, compared with the corresponding total of £6,314,532 for 3,089 estates and -funds during the preceding year. The aggregate value of the -estates and funds under administration on March 31, was £62,622,175, compared with £61,715,713 at the close of the previous vt'ar, an increase of £806,462.

The possibility that workers might bet called on to make greater sacrifices in the national war effort than those imposed by the Budget, was suggested by Mr M. Moohan (national secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party), when addressing a meeting of the Rotorua branch of the party. In addition to taxation measures, there were other efforts that might be demanded of the workers, Mr Moohan stated, in suggesting that the 40-hour week might have to be suspended in certain industries. The measures, that the Government might have to introduce to meet- the war emergency were likely to be i unpopular, even with party members.

In an urgent question in the House of Representatives yesterday Mr H. S. S. Kyle (National, Riccarton) asked the Prime Minister why factories in New Zealand turning out battle dress uniforms and working overtime on the job received no decisive reply to an application to- the Factory Controller for permission to work on Saturday mornings to fulfil war orders. Mr Fraser, in reply, said the Factory Controller had no knowledge of the application for Saturday work. The award did not, prevent work on Saturday mornings except that overtime rates must be paid for all time in excess of the weekly number of hours prescribed or for work on Saturday mornings. The limit of overtime prescribed for women employed in factories had been extended in view of the war situation.

“One thing you must admire about the Germans is their thoroughness,” says a writer in “Zealandia,” the Catholic newspaper. “They think of everything, ami if you happen to be a German citizen they certainly see to it that your thinking conforms with t'h/e interests of the State; that is when yon think out loud. For instance, there is the story of an 80-year-old man who died in Cologne, and whose sen had a memorial notice published in the daily papers: ‘ln memory of Ernst Muller, whom God has called to a better world.’" Next day the bereaved soil Hvas arrested on the grounds that the memorial notice constituted an insult to the Nazi State. Such admirable selfrestraint, too! They did not even ask who God was anyway, that He should transfer a- German .citizen without- a Nazi permit.”

The demand for greater production to meet the needs created by war conditions (states the “New Zealand Herald”) is not being met to any great extent in Auckland by an extension of working hours in factories. In only a few cases have the powers conferred by the Labour Legislation Emergency Regulations made in June of this year, been invoked to enable industries to introduce the shift system or otherwise extend working hours without the nec - essity for paying overtime rates. There are a fern* industries which work shifts in tlieir factories, but this is normal practice with them and is provided for in the awards governing their operations. One of the factories working the three-shift system maintains almost continuous production of corrugated asbestos roofing sheets to overcome the acute shortage of roofing iron brought about by the import restrictions.

A recent slip of the tongue by the iPi'ime Minister (the lit. Hon. P. Fraser) led during the debate in the House of Representatives last evening to one of the brightest quips heard there for a long time. The member responsible for the sally was Mr W. J. 13road foo t (Opposition, Waitomo), and the House accorded him full marks for his wit by shouting with laughter. F‘or the second time during the debate, Mr Broadfoot had recalled that during the recent sitting of the House Mr Fraser had referred inadvertently to Mr J. A. Lee (Democratic. Labour, Grey Lynn) as “the member for Lee.” He was interrupted at that stage by the Speaker (the Hon. W. F;. Barnard), who said ho must ask Mr Broadfoot not to refer in that way to the member for Grey Lynn. “I am sorry, Mr Speaker,” Mr Broadfoot said. “I am afraid I have become tangled up with that phrase.” Mr Fraser: The phrase seems to have caught your imagination. “It wasn’t the phrase,” Mr Broadfoot replied quickly, “it was the phraser.” Mi Fraser joined as heartily as any in the laughter that followed.