General News

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31680, 16 May 1968, Page 12

General News

Farmer, Too The chairman of the Monetary and Economic Council (Dr G. B. Battersby) admitted to the Lincoln College farmers’ conference yesterday that he was a farmer, too—of a “marginal” or “sub-eco-nomic” unit. He said he had succeeded in running five ewe equivalents to the acre on it. The conference chairman (Mr W. N. Maxwell), introducing Dr Battersby, said that he understood that he had land at Sheffield. Advice On Lifeboats The interim committee formed -in Wellington after the Wahine disaster to promote a lifeboat organisation has been given advice by the Sumner Lifeboat Institution, and on Saturday the chairman of the Wellington group (Mr G. W. L. Barrell) will visit Sumner. Mr W. J. Baguley, secretary of the institution, will show Mr Barrell the lifeboat shed and the control tower on Cave Rock and then there will be an alarm to show that the lifeboat can be put to sea in about four minutes. Deep-Freeze Units

In a power failure, deepfreeze units should not be opened, said the assistant engineer (Mr P. D. Rutledge) at a meeting of the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board yesterday. Referring to the recent storm, he said that food in unopened units at Port Levy, was unspoiled, although power was off for 106 hours. Food was lost within a day in units elsewhere that had been opened Sharks At Sumner Three sharks, estimated to be 12ft long, were seen off the beach at Sumner yester day by a Municipal Electricity Department lineman who was working on a power pole high on the hills. Merger Scheme A provisional scheme fot the amalgamation of about six acres in the Rangiora County with the Rangiora Borough has been issued by the Local Government Commission. The land is near East Belt, and the county council agrees with the transfer. The commission has allowed two months for any person or body to object. If there are objections, they will be considered by the commission If there are no objections, the provisional scheme will become the final scheme. Pacific Trade No proposal about a Pacific free trade area came before last week’s meeting of the Pacific Basin Economic Cooperation Committee in Sydney, said the director of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation (Mr A. R. Dellow) yesterday. He was commenting on a recent Australian discussion about a possible free trade area. “Promotion of a free trade area through this organisation has not been envisaged,” said Mr Dellow. “The different stages of development in the various countries make this concept quite unrealistic at present.” World Weather

World weather yesterday was:—Rome 52 degrees minimum, 66 degrees maximum, overcast; Paris 55, 67, fair; London 47, 64, fair; Berlin 48, 55, cloudy: Amsterdam 45, 61, sunny; Brussels 45, 63, sunny; Madrid 47, 74, sunny; Moscow 53, 84, rain; Stockholm 46, 63, cloudy; New York 53, 64, partly cloudy; San Francisco 50, 57, cloudy; Tokyo 52, 77, clear; Mexico City 49, 79, clear; Buenos Aires 61, 65, cloudy; Johannesburg 45, 57, cloudy; Sydney 54, 59, overcast. (London, May 14).