NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 269, 9 August 1943, Page 5

NEWS IN BRIEF

Battle With Rats Seventeen rats wore caught ona Sunday afternoon by a Wellington city eoui cillor who lives at Hataitai. Hie rats were all caught in his ' vasl l h *’“ se ! . an^ essel believed to have landed from a \essei that had been drawn up. on e .? a^ e “‘ slip. He set a trap, waited to hear it go off, and then reset it. A neighbour carried on the same procedure, though not with such great slaughter. Child Sets Clothes on File. Burns to her left arm, leg and bide were received on Saturday morning by Patricia Cooney, 4 Hinau Street, Eastbourne, four years of age, when she sei her clothes on fire on an electric radiator. Mr Scrimgcour’s Dismissal. . The New Zealand Federation of Labour has passed a motion in. similar terms to that passed by the Wellington Trades Council approving of the. dismissal of the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting, Mr. C. G. Scrimgeour. A Ton of Knitting. . „ Presented at a meeting of the Timaru Patriotic (Zone) Committee, the monthly report of the Womens Committee showed that one ton ot wool, 35,84(1 skeins, had been knitted tins year into comforts for the Armed Forces. FYeyberg Flag Presented. The Prime Minister visited Nelson on Saturday afternoon to present the Ireyber" Flag, which was awarded to Nelson district for subscribing a higher age above its quota than any other district in the Dominion in the recent Third Liberty Loan-. —P.A. Wellington Tram Tracks. The council of the Automobile Association (Wellington) has unanimously expressed approval of the chairmans action in giving publicity to t he condition of the tramway tracks throughout the city, and it decided to communicate with the city council urging special measures to restore the tracks to tneir normal good condition. E.P.S. Blood Donors. , The Wellington E.P.S., through, the medical unit, is interesting itself in eecuring blood donors for the blood transfusion services. It is expected that the E P.S. will eventually provide at least 2000 blood donors from within its ranks, or through volunteers secured through its endeavours. Motor-Car Theft. ... To what lengths motor-car thieves will go is illustrated by the experience of a Wellington manufacturer. Because niB car had a flat tire, and next to nothing in the petrol tank, he thought it quite safe to leave it outside the factory in a street on Te Aro flat. Much tolns surmise the car was missing the. next mornFn™ and so far no trace of it has been discovered. Low Gas Pressure. . Gas pressure in Wellington has bees low at times during the past week, and for a brief period on Friday the supply failed in one or two city restaurants lu one of these the gas was off for 20 min utes from 6.30 p.m., but no serious delay was caused to customers. The Wellington Gas Company states that the position has not improved during the past few days. It is doing the best it can, but rigid economy by consumers is necessary. New Zealand Manufacturers. The council of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation has decided that the annual conference of the federation will this year be held in Napier, commencing on October 12, and extending over three or four days. In view of the many major problems facing manufacturers at present, it is expected that there will be a large attendance, and an interesting range of remits for consideration. The conference will be opened by the Minister of Supply, Mr. Sullivan, and will be presided over by Mr. U. V. Smith, president of the federation. Cheaper Bread for Johnsonville. An announcement that a regulation had been gazetted providing for a reduction in the price of bread by id. per 21b. loaf in the town district of Johnsonville was made at the weekend by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan. This action, he said, was taken because the lower or metropolitan price of bread was applicable to the cities of Wellington and Lower Hutt and the boroughs of Petone and Eastbourne. It was considered that the original regulation contained an anomaly in that Johnsonville was much closer to Wellington city than the other areas mentioned. Cairo Forces Club Busy. , Now that men of the 2nd.N.Z.E.F. are back in Egypt after campaigning in the desert the New Zealand I'orces Club in Cairo is working under great pressure. “Considering what the boys have sone through, their behaviour is very good, states Lieutenant-Colonel F. Waite, National Patriotic Fund Board commissioner, in a report to the board. It is at times like these that the real value of the New Zealand Club is apparent. The work of the W.A.A.C. (welfare) girls is beyond all praise,, specially m times of pressure like these. Suspicious Stitches. Embroidery and fancy knitting are means by which censorship may be evaded, and so when garments which include such work are dispatched to prisoners of war they are liable to be confiscated by the men’s captors. In pointing this the Prisoners of War Inquiry Office, Wellington, advises next-of-kin that it is unwise also to include m parcels to prisoners any clothing that might be judged to be civilian clothing. A sergeant recently repatriated from Italy to England states that any outer clothing including shirts, ties, pullovers and jerseys is liable to confiscation unless it is khaki. Diggers From E.P.S. “Volunteers from the ranks of the E.P.S. are co-operating with the Wellington ‘Dig for Victory’ committee and other organizations to further this campaign, and the response to date has been singularly good,” states the chief executive officer of the Wellington E.P.S. “In most districts arrangements have been, or are being, made for E.P.S. personnel to give a lead to the public in general, and also to provide volunteers to carry out the heavy digging where the man of the house is fighting overseas. As soon as digging weather commences, the digging operations for such homes will be carried out. School Uniforms. “I was told by a parent that 50 per cent, of the children in the Onehunga district do not attend the Grammar School on account of the cost ot uniforms,” said Dr. P. A. MeDiarmid, at a meeting of the Auckland Grammar School Board. Other parents had complained that costly uniforms were a difficulty. The chairman, Mr. J. Stanton, said those pupils who could not afford uniforms were not going to be debarred from receiving secondary education, as district high schools were still available to them. “I would rather sacrifice those children than sacrifice the principle of uniforms,” he added. New Zealand Tobacco. The- Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan, who is the Minister responsible for the tobacco-growing industry, referred at the weekend to the Tobacco-Growing Industry Regulations, 1936, Amendment No. 2, which has just been gazetted. He said that these regulations were designed to control the minimum overall percentage of New Zealand leaf incorporated in tobacco and cigarettes manufactured in New Zealand, the object being to encourage the production and utilization of domestic leaf to the fullest extent possible. The percentage prescribed was that .which had actually been in operation since August 1, 1942. Provision was made whereby the minimum could be raised from time to time as circumstances warranted. No Passchendaele Locomotive. In a letter to the mayor of Timaru the Minister of Railways conveys the official view that locomotive AB 608, which has carried the Passchendaele memorial plaques for 18 years, is not in itself a memorial, and never had that name, and the decision to remove the plaques from the engine, which no longer draws expresses, and to place them in two railway stations, will not be varied. The Ministerial announcement dispels the tradition of two decades. AU over New Zealand AB 60S has been recognized as a N.Z.K. tribute to fallen railwaymen, comments the “Timaru Herald.” The “N.Z. Railwav Magazine” regularly featured photographs of the engine together with letterpress mentioning it as the chosen tribute to railwaymen who gave their lives for their country in the Great Mar. Memorial locomotives of Canada and the United Kingdom, though outmoded, retain their value aa tributes to soldiers of the 1914-18 war.