NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 179, 27 April 1944, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF

£lOO,OOO For Housing Consent to a £lOO,OOO housing loan has been given the Wellington City Council by the Local Government Loans Board. The loan does not require a poll. Under the council’s scheme 90 per cent, of fin-; ance is provided, up to a £l5OO limit, at 5 per cent. City Council In Credit. The Wellington City Council closed the financial year with a £16,965. general account credit against £-8,000 for IJ4--43, when, through war conditions, there was an abnormal credit. The mayor, Mr. Hislop, announced this to the council yesterday. ... Day’s Bay Service Club. The secretary of the Wellington '* c j* ropolitan Patriotic Coqimittee, Mr. Ward, M.L.C., announced yesterday that the East Harbour Services Club, Day’s Bay, would be closed f° r tbe ."’inter months and would reopen for servicemen again in October. Poland’s National Day. Wednesday, May 3, is Poland’s national day. In Wellington it will be marked by a special Mass to be celebrated at St. Mary of the Angels’ Church. Boulcott Street, at 9.30 a.m. Archbishop T. O’Shea will preside in the sanctuary. Invitations to be present are being issued by the Polish Consul-General, Count K. Wodzicki. t National War Savings. Last week National War Savings quotas were attained by 198 towns — eight more than in the preceding week. All but one of the principal centres recorded success, while in each of the eighteen postal districts the full district quota was reached. The excellent results of recent weeks reflect the good work of local committees in maintaining enthusiasm in the war savings part of the national war effort. High Rental Rates. ■ Reviewing; the evidence in a Supreme Court case on which he gave a reserved judgment at Wellington yesterday, Mr. Justice Johuston referred to the case of one of the litigants, a 60-year-old man, who had said he had tried by advertising and through land agents to secure a three or four-roomed house for himself and his wife. He was offered some places, but the rentals asked were from £4/10/- to £4/12/6 a week. Air-Raid Shelters Go. The three air-raid shelters which were constructed on the triangular city reserve at the junction of Jervois Quay and Wakefield Street, Wellington, have now been, done away with. The.big trench.es have been filled in and the ground is being levelled off ready for re-seeding in grass. This work has been done by contract. The next one to go in that locality will be the log-cabin in lower Taranaki Street, on the roof of which gorse bushes are in full bloom. Hundredweight Pumpkins. Huge pumpkins, each weighing well over a hundredweight, have been taken to Auckland from Katikati by an officer of the Internal Marketing Division. Grown by Mr. G. Hill, a successful farmer in the district, which has long been famed for large pumpkins, they weigh 1401 b. and 1311 b. Though the name of the variety is not known, Mr. Hill’s garden contains a large number of similar ones. A 20-ton Weighbridge. With the development of waterside activity in Jervois Quay and the Taranaki Street Wharf the need has been felt . for some years of another weighbridge to serve the locality. This need the harbour board has at length found itself able to satisfy. The site selected is on the board’s property, on the corner of Cable and lower Taranaki Streets, where the office, of concrete and brick, has already been erected. The 20-tpn weighbridge is now practically in position, the last of the floor plates, weighing half a ton, being lowered into place yesterday afternoon • with the aid of a travelling crane. Rehabilitation.

It was reported at the monthly meeting of the Wellington Rehabilitation Committee'that, in addition to the review of applications and testing eligibility for forms of assistance, the committee had recommended 20 business loans, totalling £8240; nine loans for housing, amounting to £13,050; two grants of assistance on various hardship grounds, and six immediate cash grants. The report of the housing sub-committee disclosed that 40 of the most urgent applications had been recommended to the State Advances Corporation for the next allocation of State rental houses. Future of Anzac Day. “I believe that in time Anzae Day will be New Zealand’s national day,” declared Mr. Perry, M.L.C., speaking at the Anzac commemoration service in Wanganui. Anzac Day did not enshrine Gallipoli alone, but the part that all New Zealand service men and women played in World War 1, said Mr. Perry. People were now insistent that this day should refer not only to the men of the last war but should include those of the present war also. “The New Zealand Returned Services Association is making representation to the Government for the purpose, of having the Anzac Day Act amended accordingly,” Mr. Perry added. Auckland Landmark Not to Go. A report that the old windmill on the Partington estate, Symonds Street, Auckland, is to be demolished was categorically denied by the company managiug-thn estate on behalf of the sjx next-ot-km othe late Mr. Joseph Partington, who have become its owners. It was stated ffiat the owners bad taken steps to demolish an old shop and certain other dilapidated buildings on the property, and to dispose of some old machinery and other cba--tels. However,’ the demolition of the windmill was not contemplated and had not. even been considered. The mistake arose from the wording of an advertisement. Methodist Conference. A Methodist conference of very reduced numbers was to be opened in Auckland yesterday The annual conference was to have ‘been held in Dunedin in February. but it was abandoned because of the railway restrictions. However, it is stated that this decision has had an exceedingly serious effect on the administration of the affairs of the Church, and with Government permission it has been decided to hold the reduced conference. On.v urgently pressing business will be dealt with by the committee, this business including financial authorizations, limited transfers of ministers and such other decisions as are required by law to be made annually. Autumn Art Show. Entries closed yesterday evening for the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts autumn show. It is yet too early to say what the quality of the work will be this year, but it is known that New Zealand artists have been spurred to unusual endeavour in order to take advantage of the favourable market now offering for all paintings of merit. The selection committee —the council as a whole—will have an interesting time next week, when Ihe job of selecting which works are to be exhibited will be undertaken. After that the hanging committee will get to work. The official opening of the autumn show has been fixed for Friday night. May 19, in the National Art Gallery s temporary rooms in the D.I.C. building, Wellington. Rabbit Trapping. ~ . ’ „ . , . The trapping of rabbits for their skins appeared to be a sideline in commercial activity in which the adult and the schoolboy alike engaged in parts of the Otago district, said the Minister of Internal Affairs. Mr. Parry, who has returned to ’Wellington from a visit to the South Island. It was not an uncommon si-'ht he said, to see' boys carrying a bundle of traps which ther set for action before returning to their homes. Rabbitskins today brought a high price and a good profit was obtained by the trappeis. “The carcass, too. of the rabbit is valuable as a food,” the Minister added, "and it is with the object of retrieving the carcasses for export to Britain that a campaign is proceeding under the direction of Major G. F. Yerex.”