General News

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25082, 14 January 1947, Page 6

General News

Shortage af Vegetables The demand for vegetables is still well aheau of the supply in the Christchurch vegetable markets, where it was reported yesterday that potatoes were being rationed. Deliveries have'been less than last week, grobably because the wet weather has eld up digging. Jt was also reported that motorists had been buying in the country. In some parts of Marshland customers had been seen during the week-end queueing up and paying good prices for hastily dug potatoes, with plenty of wet earth sticking to them. One grower near Christchurch was said to be advertising 121 b lot? of potatoes for sale with every peck of peas purchased at the door. Other vegetables, such as cabbages, are still very scarce; and high prices (up to 55s a dozen last week) are being paid for the few cauliflowers on the market. The fruit supply is, however, improving as greater quantities of plums, peaches, and apricots arrive from southern districts. Some fruit is now coming from the valleys of Banks Peninsula,

z Coal Accumulated at Lyttelton The Union Steam Ship Company’s steam coal handling plant on the Glad’ stone Pier was in action yesterday for the first time for about a year, when it was used in connexion with the discharge of bunker coal. Several steamers are booked to take bunker coal at Lyttelton, but they have been delayed and hundreds of tons of coal have been standing in railway trucks awaiting shipment. As the Railways Department urgently needs trucks, a start was made yesterday to discharge the coal into hulks with electric cranes and from the hulks it is lifted by the coal grab on Gladstone Pier. Most Businesses Reopen

With the end of the professional , holiday period, most businesses were open again in Christchurch yesterday, and the streets carried their usual crowds. Pedestrian traffic in the city was comparatively light last week, when many offices were still closed. Some firms which closed for about three weeks to allow all the staff to take their annual leave at the same time, also reopened yesterday. Strongman Mine Dispute Because of a dispute at the Strongman State mine yesterday over the payment rate for the extraction of pillars jp a section of the mine, the mine was idle for the day, but it will resume production to-day pending investigation of the dispute, possibly by the Coal Council during its next visit. The payment for working in solid workings is 9d a ton above that specified for the taking out of pillars, and the two pairs of men engaged on this work demanded the solid working rates. The management was unable to accede to the request, and as a protest the mine was idle for the day. The dispute was later discussed by the management a n d union representatives, and the miners affected were allocated places in which to work meanwhile until the matter in dispute is investigated. Preserving Food for Winter

To help Canterbury people to preserve as much food as possible from their own gardens for use in the winter, the Christchurch Famine Emergency Committee will investigate the best methods. Yesterday members said the bad weather would affect most crops, and some shortages were likely. If home-grown crops could be preserved. it would enable more tinned goods to be sent overseas. ' It was mentioned that many housewives, expecting to be short of jam and preserved fruit, were bottling, salting, or drying more vegetables for winter use. Decline of Royal Navy From 1919 to 1933, the Royal Navy was allowed to decline in the complacent belief that no harm was likely to come of it, states a writer in the “Navy League Quarterly.” Not only were insufficient ships built to replace those discarded as worn out, but trained personnel were reduced in numbers to a corresponding extent. Stocks of munitions and stores were permitted to fall below the safety margin deemed essential earlier in the century; and ships were given such an inadequate fuel quota each year that jt was impossible to carry opt exercises with any decree of realism, or indeed to give ships’ companies adequate training at sea. Ammunition became so scarce that at one period.gunnery practice could be carried out only with reduced charges and at infrequent intervals. Thus it followed, when war broke out in 1939, that the fleet was relatively much weaker than had been the case at the outbreak of the first world war, says the writer.

American Serviceman Returns to N.Z. A returned serviceman from El Paso, Texas, Mr Richard Sommerville, arrived at Auckland on the Pan American Airways clipper East Indian on Saturday from San Francisco to marry a Gisborne girl. He met his fiancee, Miss. Jean Fletcher, when he was in Wellington with the United States Marine Corps before taking part in the landing on Tarawa. He said he would be taking his bride back to America in a few weeks. He had not considered settling in New Zealand as he had a fairly successful farm in Texas and, go far, America’s post-war troubles had not affected him. No News of Yacht The whereabouts of the yacht Te Rapunga, which left Gisborne for Auckland last Tuesday to take part in the Tasman yacht race, was still a mystery to officials of the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, sponsor of the race, on . Sunday night. The 30ft cutter Drifter, the only other entrant for the race, sailed at noon on Saturday for Hobart. The Akarana club decided that if the Te Rapunga reached Auckland, was found seaworthy and could be ready to start by noon yesterday, the race would be held, allowance being made for her 48 hours’ delay in starting; otherwise the race would be abandoned, and the Royal Hobart Regatta Association, joint controlling authority, notified by cablegram yesterday afternoon, In the later event the Drifter will continue the voyage to Hobart alone, it being the intention of her ownerskipper, K. Pragnell, to take part in the Hobart Regatta on February 4, The Drifter will be in daily radio communication With Auckland for a good part of her voyage, and will be supplied with weather forecasts prepared by the meteorological section of the &N.Z.A.F.