General News

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25448, 20 March 1948, Page 6

General News

Invitation to Governor-General The Commonwealth Prime Minister (Mr J. B.’ Chifley) has invited the Governor-General of New Zealand (Sir Bernard Freyberg) and Lady Freyberg to visit Australia before the end of this year.—Canberra. March 19. Fish Arrive by Air A tank of diminutive tropical fish consigned to a Christchurch resident was included in freight carried by a Trans Australian Airways Skymaster which reached Whenuapai from Sydney on Thursday under charter to Tasman Empire Airways. The fish ranged from three-eights of an inch to one and a half inches in length. Except for an occasional fan-shaped triple tail or a minutely-striped body, they appeared no more exotic in their present stage of development than infant minnows. Former Soldiers to Visit N.Z. Fifty Australian former servicemen will visit New Zealand to take part in this year’s Anzac Day commemoration. The party, which will comprise men from all parts of Australia and one :rcm New Guinea, may divide on its arrival in New Zealand and send contingents to represent the Commonwealth in the various cities. Sponsored by the Returned Servicemen’s League, the party will leave. Sydney by the Wahine on April 15 and will return on May 7.—Sydney, March 19.

Collier Strikes Wharf When berthing at Greymouth just before 8 o’clock last evening the Union Steam Ship Company’s collier Omana, which tthad arrived in ballast from Auckland to load coal, struck the bottom end of the wharf a glancing blow end caused some structural damage to the wharf. The vessel, which was undamaged, went a short distance further upstream and berthed.— (F.0.0.R.)

* Spraying Plant Explodes Starting with an explosion that sent a cloud of black smoke high into the air, a fire destroyed a large bitumen spraying plant and truck at the Public Works Department’s tar depot near Uruti, Taranaki, yesterday. When the tank of the plant exploded, blazing bitumen was spread over a radius of IGO yards, end the fire burned fiercely for two hours. Both the plant and the truck we je a total loss. The plant was owned by the department. This is the second bitumen plant to be destroyed by fire in the area’this year.—(P.A.) Holidays for Farmers A proposal that married couples should be available to relieve farmers so that they could go for annual holidays v»as made by Messrs H. Roberts and J. Sandall at a meeting of the Fairlie branch of Federated Farmers. A remit carried was "that an endeavour be made by Federated Farmers to arrange for suitable married couples to go on to farms to allow farmers and their wives to have a holiday.” Autumnal Equinox The autumnal equinox will occur to-morrow. Alhovfer the world days and nights will be of equal length as the sun crosses the celestial equator from the southern to the northern hemisphere. As sunrise and sunset, tables are expressed in mean solar time, they do not ihdicate an approximate equality of day and night until the middle, of next week. New Education Act “I hope I will be more fortunate than my predecessors,” said the Minister 1 of Education (Mr T. H. McCombs) when asked at the Canterbury Education Board meeting about prospects of securing a consolidating and amending Education Act soon. Recommendations had been brought down in 1921, 1938, and 1941, and now new proposals were under consideration, said Mr McCombs. Mr A. McNiel had expressed the hope that Mr McCombs would distinguish his term of office by having a new act passed. Petrol for Farmers

That the issue of special petrol licences for people living in the country should be made by post offices, with a right of appeal to the Department of Agriculture, is the opinion of the South Canterbury executive of Federated Farmers. Members at a meeting yesterday said that the restrictions were hampering production in out-lying areas. - The executive also adopted recommendations asking for a more equitable petrol ration for those living in the country and a system of special licences for farmers’ business needs. The Fishing Rivera The condition of the fishing rivers at noon yesterday, according to advice received by the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, was as follows: Rakaia. Hurunui. Waimakariri, Selwyn. and Halswell, fishable; upper and lower reaches of the Ashley, fishable also.

City Council Loan Consent to the raising of a loan by the Christchurch City Council for improvements to the municipal abattoir and its waterworks is notified in the Gazette. The amount of the loan is £6560, repayable in 10 years at 3 per cent. School Evacuation Drill

The Canterbury Education Board has given an instruction that the evacuation and fire drill introduced during ‘the Emergency Precautions Scheme shall be practised regularly in its schools.

Invercargill Butchers’ Plans A shortage of meat is not likely in Invercargill next week, as a result of a decision by butchers to buy at the schedule prices, 53s per 1001 b for beef and 8d per lb for mutton. Those are the prices to which they will be prepared to bid at the Lorneville stock sale on Tuesday, but if the- market price goes much higher, butchers may prefer to seek supplies elsewhere.— (P.A.)

Repairs to Phosphate Schooner Repairs to the French phosphate schooner Oiseau des Iles, which was damaged when she ran aground on a reef in June last year, are almost completed. The vessel received structural damage requiring the removal and replacement of several 'plates and the straightening of frames. For some weeks she has been on the- Auckland Harbour Board’s slipway in St. Mary’s Bay. She will not be immediately recommissioned on leaving the' slipway, but is expected to re-enter* the phosphate service late in May or early June. 1.L.0. Conference New Zealand is to be represented by employers’ and workers’ delegates, at the thirty-first conference of the International Labour Organisation at San Francisco, beginning on June 17, 1948. The Government, which bears the cost of the delegates’ visit to the conference, has announced that for this conference there will be one representative each of employers and workers and that probably each delegate will have an adviser. The New Zealand Federation of Labour has called upon its affiliations for nominations for the election of delegate and adviser. Nominations will close on April 7.—(P.A.)