LOCAL BODIES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 105, 27 January 1933, Page 8

LOCAL BODIES

Delay in Commission “MORE URGENT BUSINESS” The report that the appointment of the commission promised by the Government to examine local-body government in New Zealand was likely to be delayed on account of the emergency which now’ faces the Cabinet was confirmed by the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, in an interview last evening. ' At the moment we have much more urgent business in hand,” said Mr. Forbes, “and the question of appointing the commission has naturally been held over in the meantime.” , The I'rime Minister indicated that an inter-departmental committee had been set up to investigate the position of local-body government in detail and to collect all available information. He was not aware just what stage of its proceedings that committee had reached. but he repeated that the Government had in any case more urgent problems. 25 YEARS AGO Balloonist Escapes Death (From ‘‘The Dominion.” Jan. 27, 1908.) Professor Barnes, one of the balloonists now in Dunedin, had a merciful escape from death this afternoon. His balloon would not rise more than about 900 feet, and the parachute did not act properly, in the short descent. He landed on the telegraph wires on Anderson’s Bay Road. They made a fine elastic alighting place. Some of the ..wires were broken. If Barnes had hit the post, instead, he must have been killed. * M • The following notice was placed in the window of a Wellington restaurant last night .’—“Owing to the concentrated attendance and abnormal appetites of the Australian Squadron now in port, our cuisine is temporarily depleted. While heartily thanking them, we regret our inability to do other than shut down to-night, and wait patiently for to-morrow’s supplies.” An influential meeting of churchmen and nonconformists, tlie Right Rev. Dr. Ingram, Bishop of London, presiding. formed a joint Christian Committee to agitate to stxmre real reforms in the Congo. Tlie “Daily Express’ states that M. Vandervelde (Socialist) declares that Germany suggested that Great Britain. France and Germany should divide tlie Congo, and this led to the Belgian Annexation Bill- King Leopold's exorbitant demands threatened to wreck it. but the situation was solved by France declining the German overtures in view of the Belgian right of pre-emption, and of her friendly relations with Belgium.