General News

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27917, 14 March 1956, Page 12

General News

Power Cuts Today Municipal Electricity Department power cuts set down for today will affect consumers in areas C and D (including Beckenham, Spreydon, Halswell, Bromley, Sumner and South Brighton) and areas E and F (Burwood, Belfast, North Papanui, Harewood and the central area). Power will be cut off in areas C and D for an hour between 9 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. and in areas E and F for an hour between 6 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. Thursday’s cuts will be in areas A and B (St Albans, Papanui road. South Papanui and a portion of Shirley) for an hour between 9 a.m. and 10.30 a.m., and areas C and D, for an hour between 6 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. Disputed Title To raise funds for the Olympic Games appeal, it had been suggested that a street appeal be organised, said Mr A. Gordon, president of the Canterbury Football Association. At the annual meeting of the association last evening. It was hoped that the assistance of the Commercial Travellers’ Association could be obtained, as it constituted the best money-raising organisation in Christchurch. A voice: “Outside the Canterbury Rugby Union.” Marriage . . . But No Prizes Charles Webb, the 17-year-old star pupil at a sixteenth century grammar school in Rugeley, Staffordshire, was banned from collecting his prizes on the annual prize day—because he had married. He stood disconsolately at the back of the hall as the other boys received their prizes from the headmaster, Mr Alfred Holt. He heard his name called, but he did not move. The sixth former arrived for the prize giving only to be told by a senior master: “The head thinks the boys might start talking because you are married. To save you any embarrassment we will send the prizes round to your house later.”—London, March 12. Shop Lighting at Night Although shop window lightings is prohibited at night during power restrictions, several shops still had lights on after 9 o’clock in the city area last evening, but in most of the premises men were working. When the engineer-manager of the Municipal Electricity Department (Mr G. H. Battersby) was told of this he said that the reason why some lights were on in the M.E.D. building was that cleaners were still working there. Other business houses with lights on might have been using their own stand-by plants or lights might have been on because cleaners were using them. M.E.D. inspectors were checking all lighting every evening and two inspectors were on duty last evening, he said. The “Credit Squeeze” Bank customers nowadays were likened to “lemons squeezed out on a plate” by Mr Eric Beaven when he referred to the present credit restrictions at a farewell function in honour of Mr G. B. D. Dixon, in the Chamber of Commerce Hall yesterday. The function was attended by customers and friends of the Cashel street branch of the Australia and New Zealand Bank, Ltd., on the occasion of Mr Dixon’s transfer on promotion to the Auckland branch of the bank. Military Training Intake Special arrangements have been made by the Army to allow all university students undergoing military training with the nineteenth intake, now at Burnham camp, to finish their course on Friday in order to have plenty of time to prepare for first lectures next Monday. The intake, familiarly known as the “Students’ Intake.” also has a number of trainees who will not be attending university. They will stay until Tuesday. The intake’s marching-out parade will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow. It will be under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel F. L. H. Davis. The salute will be taken by the Postmaster-General (Mr T. P. Shand), who will be accompanied by the commander of the Southern Military District (Brigadier J. T. Burrows). 97th Birthday in Hospital When he left the Christchurch Public Hospital on Sunday, Mr George Kyngdon Burton took with him a memento of the painful injury which forced his admission to the hospital the day before he celebrated his ninety-seventh birthday. Shortly before he left Ward 15, where he had been a patient for a month, he was handed a letter signed by all the nurses and patients in the ward. The letter read as follows: “The nursing staff and patients of Ward 15 wish you a speedy convalescence from your broken kneecap sustained in your ninety-seventh year. May you continue on to your century in the same spirit.” The signatures of 12 members of the ward’s nursing staff and 30 patients completed the letter. Mr Burton broke his kneecap at his home on February 17 and was admitted to hospital. On February 18 he celebrated his ninety-seventh birthday. Old School Bell Superseded Pupils at North New Brighton primary school are becoming used to a new summons—a klaxon has replaced the old school bell. When the school’s first bell, mounted on a high post, was found to be unsafe it was dismantled and a hand-bell used. But the school has doubled in size in the last few years and the small bell could not be heard in all the classrooms. So that all rooms would be reached, and children playing in the furthest parts of the 20acre grounds would arrive at their classes on time, the klaxon was installed and had been found to be much more satisfactory, said the headmaster (Mr Frederick Price), yesterday. Farmers’ Protests The Dominion council of Federated Farmers has protested about “the practice of the Courts in this country to recommend undesirable characters to take work in the country and to keep out of towns.” Members of the council said that recently in a Court at a provincial town a man with many convictions was given another chance on the understanding that he would take a job in the country. In another case in the same Court, members said, a man who was said to have been unemployed for more than 20 years was ordered “to get out of town and find himself a job within 48 hours.”—(P.A.) 1955 Salmon Run Although it \vas not possible for an accurate assessment of the 1955 salmon run and netting operations to be made, it appeared that there had been a record run. said the chairman (Mr G. L. O’Halloran) in his annual report presented to the meeting of the Freshwater Fisheries Advisory Council in Ashburton yesterday. The fish netted from the Highbank tailrace, which would otherwise have been wasted, exceeded 2500. Approximately 15 per cent, of the salmon netted were transferred to other waters where they had access to the spawning grounds said Mr O’Halloran. “It is pleasing to note that the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society spent more than the amount received from the sale of salmon on salmon ranging, surveys. and investigations,” said Mr O’Halloran. Livestock Taxation The Dominion council of Federated Farmers, at a meeting in Wellington, expressed regret that the Government had so far not taken steps “to end the unjust situation that still obtains rega: Jing livestock taxation.” The federation has been pressing the Government for soi.ie time to give farmers the option of treating their basic herds or flocks as fixed capital, as recommended by the Taxation Commission of 1951.—(P. A.) •