WEST COAST NOTES

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17742, 19 April 1923, Page 13

WEST COAST NOTES

GREYMOUTH MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

(SPECIAL TO "THS PBE8B.") GREYMOUTH, April 13. ■ Interest in the municipal elections is increasing. Mr V. H.Parfitt, Deputy - Mayor, -was nominated to-day for the Mayoralty by Messrs J. D. Lynch, T. E. Coatcs, VT. R. Kettle, R. 11. Richmond, and J. W. Greenslado. The name of Mr T. B. Baty has been for some time mentioned as a possible candidate for the Mavoral chair. Questioned to-day, Mr Baty stated that a considerable number of 'citizens had approached him with a request hi offer his services. He was considering the matter, but had not yet come to a definite decision. It is rumoured that in the event of two candidates entering the Mayoral contest, the Labour organisations will also nominate a candidate. The half-holiday poll will be mainly a contest between retailers favouring Wednesday and sportsmen desiring Saturday. Fire in Timber Yards. A fire broke out at noon to-day in Messrs Stratford an ..I. Blair's timber mill. Gresson street, but thanks to the quick arrival of the fire brigade, it was extinguished before any damage was done. A pile of shavings caught alight through a piece of felt, upon which an engine spark had alighted coming into contact with it. The names spread rapidly, according to the statements of the employees (who were seated around eating their lunch at the time), and crept up one of the posts into a room where fuel for the boiler is stored. A lead of hose was applied to this room, and tlie fire was extinguished in less than ten minutes. The .Stranded Ketch. . Efforts to pull off the stranded ketch Elsie, on the Hokitika beach, were made to-day by the Harbour Board's tug Westland, but the grounded vessel moved a few feet only. West Coast Rugby Union. At last, evening's meeting of? the executive of the West Coast Rugby Union, a, proposal to substitute the three-two-three scrummage for the wing-forward, suggested by Mi Dean (manager of the All "Black team which recently visited Australia), was discussed at some length. The union's delegate to the New Zealand Rugby Union was instructed to Bupport the recommendation at the annual meeting of tho parent body. The following players were recommended for reinstatement:—A. E. Stevens and J. Johnston (Hokitika), H. McCarthy and 11. Brown (Greymouth), J. Haisty (Blackball), R, Davis (Waiuta), and McKay (Moana). It was resolved to support the claims of the Southland Rugby Union to have tho ■ inter-island match played at Invercargill. Tho protest of the Hokitika Marist Football Club against its exclusion from competitions by the Westland Sub-Union, was forwarded through the sub-union. It was resolved: "That this union considers this matter to bo one of internal management of the Westland Sub-Union's own competitions, and not a mater of law, and therefore this union cannot entertain an appeal." West Coast Road Works. Mr 11. E. Holland, M.P., has received tho following telegram from tho Minister of Public Works:—"'With reference to your telegram regarding further authority for the Coast road, the position is that tho district engineer holds the unexpended balance of the authority for £I4OO, and there is no need, therefore, to issue further money. The work was offered to the Westport Harbour Board's men who were recently discharged, but they declined, on the ground that tho work was situated too far from Westport. Employment on this road is now being offered to unemployed Barry town miners." War Memorials. Mr J. D. Lynch has received advice from Messrs Parkinson and Company, Auckland, that, tho foundation stone for the war. memorial Cenotaph was despatched from Auckland this week by tho s.s. Wanaka, and will arrive at Greymouth in good time for the Anzac Day ceremony. The Church of the Resurrection, Cobden, wrote V) the' Cobden Town Board requesting that steps bo taken to establish a'suitable memorial, to the local boys killed in the Great War. It was resolved that a public meeting be held to consider the matter.