General News

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23751, 24 September 1942, Page 4

General News

Doctors for Rangiora A letter was received at a meeting of the Rangiora Borough Council last night from the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, Minister of Health, in reply to the council’s request that additional medical assistance be provided for the town and district. “I appreciate the difficulty in which the residents of this area now find themselves.” the Minister wrote, “and I have asked the Director General of Health to look into the matter and see if it is possible to improve the facilities available. When I have received his reply T shall communicate with you again.”

Two Mines Idle Because of power failure early yesterday morning, the Liverpool and Strongman State mines were idle yesterday. The power supplying the Liverpool mine was cut off as a result of the splintering of a pole at Dunollie, and power was not restored until the afternoon. At the Strongman mine the power was off for more than two hours, and a fan was consequently not working during that time. When the men assembled for work in the morning, a meeting was held and the men decided to return home. The Coal Mines Act requires that the fan must not be idle for more than two hours in the interests of safety. Both mines will resume to-day. Soldiers Leaving Studies “In keeping with citizens and groups of citizens the Returned Services’ Association is very concerned with the position that may possibly arise in connexion with lads who joined the Army at 18 years of age and whose studies or apprenticeships were broken on account of military service, and my association considers this important matter should be made a special study by people whose knowledge and experience of the various aspects of the problem would be useful in developing a constructive policy.” This was stated in a letter to the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association’s council last evening from the Christchurch Returned Services’ Association, announcing that a conference would be called of educational and employers’ representatives on Wednesday. The association decided to appoint Mr W. A. Bascand to represent it. New Sanatorium Building The new building at the upper Sanatorium will be handed over to the North Canterbury Hospital Board on Saturday, and will be officially opened on the afternoon of the next board meeting. This was announced at a meeting of the board yesterday by the secretary (Mr A. Prentice), who said also that the staff position was now definitely better than it had been. The matron had told him that, if all the promises made were kept there would be sufficient staff. There was one appointment to the trained staff yet to be made and two porters were required. A number of applications had been received in response to the board's advertisement. Work for Land Service Girls The opinion that the increased rates of pay and improved conditions for the Women’s Land Service announced by the Minister of National Service (the Hon. W. J. Broadfoot) would assist the State Placement Service in obtaining more recruits for work on farms in Canterbury was expressed by an officer of the National Service Department yesterday. He said that at present about 20 farmers were waiting for land girls, but the department had not been able to obtain recruits. Probably this was due to the.more attractive conditions offered in other employment. The officer added that four or five months ago there were 30 girls available for land work, but very few farmers wanted them. Since then, however, the excellent work done by more than 50 girls who had been placed on farms in Canterbury had caused farmers to change their views, and they were now eager to use members of the Women’s Land Service in place of men called up for the Army. Seed Certification

“It has been feared for some time that staff and transport difficulties might necessitate substantial changes in the official system of seed certification,” said Mr R. P. Connell, Acids superintendent of tne Department of Agriculture, Christchurch, yesterday. "Fortunately no great changes will be introduced in the certification work in the coming year. In fact, the only material changes are the omission of sweet blue lupins and nhalaris tuberosa from the certification system in the meantime. As it so happens, they are two of the minor items in the current certification system.” Confectioners’ Troubles

“I am told that the ordinary confectioner, except, perhaps, for one or two, will be cut of business by next Christmas,” said Mr C. S. Thomas, counsel for a defendant in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. He was making a plea for leniency in a case in which a confectioner was charged with selling chocolates at a price in excess of that fixed under a price order, and he said that quite apart from the unfavourable prospects for this class of business some of the prices fixed were such as to make it hardly worth while stocking the lines. The wholesale price of the chocolates which were the subject of the charge was Is 4d a halfpound box. To this had to be added about 3ld sales tax, and possibly another jd for paper and wrapping. The Price Tribunal fixed the retail price at Is 10{d, allowing the retailer about 3d profit on the box. His information was that it was not possible to conduct a confectioner’s business at a profit on turnover of less than 33 1-3 per cent. The profit on this particular line was less than 15 per cent. He added that the line for years had been sold at 2s a half pound, but the authorities had seen fit to reduce this to Is 10Jd. An International Language “The subject of propaganda raises the question of language and of linguistic communication in an internationalised world,” said Dr. I. L. G. Sutherland in a lecture to the Workers’ Educational Association on the psychology of international relations. “Babel now exists. About 1500 languages are at present spoken by the 2,000,000.000 people in the world. Seven of these languages account for half of the total population of the world, and in the order of their extent of use they are:—English, Chinese, Russian. German, Spanish. Japanese, and Bengali, To about one person out of every three throughout the world English is the administrative if not the natural language. For several centuries thoughtful men have seen the need for some form of international speech. Much more likely than the spread of Esperanto would seem to be the simplification of an existing language and, national prejudice apart. English seems to be the obvious language for this purpose. It has already become the main second language of foreigners of many nations. There is a movement to make a simplified form of English, known as basic English, the international auxiliary language. The vocabulary consists of 850 words, and by the use of these, according to simple rules, everything can be said for all the purposes of everyday life." Ashburton Home Guard

The chairman of the Ashburton County Council (Mr S. P. Taylor) has received the following reply from the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) to his suggestion that a Cabinet Minister should attend the conference about Home Guard training at Ashburton next Friday:—“l have received your telegram and have noted the views expressed regarding the Home Guard. I regret that it is not possible for a Cabinet Minister to attend the proposed conference, but you may rest assured that any representations which may be submitted through a senior military officer who is present will receive the earnest considerations of the War Cabinet.” The Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) also sent, a telegram that he was arranging for a senior military officer to attend the conference. The County Clerk (Mr G. Kelly) said yesterday that it was not known who would represent the military authorities at the conference. Mrs A. N. Grigg, M.P., and Mr J. Acland. M.P., would be present, and members of the Ashburton County and Borough Councils and Mid-Canterbury Primary Production Council would attend.