NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 26, 30 July 1938, Page 8

NEWS OF THE DAY

Price of* Bread.

"Any increase we had in the price of bread has been used up by costs and we are now on the down grade," said a witness for the employers in the bakery trade giving evidence before the Court of Arbitration yesterday. He agreed that the Government's action in fixing the price of bread had been of assistance, but he contended that profits in the trade were not as good today as they were ten years ago. Soldiers' Sons for Australia. An invitation for 50 New Zealand boys to visit Furlough House camp, Sydney, next year, was received at the R.S.A. conference yesterday^. The camp, which is controlled by the A.I.F. Wives and Children's Holiday Association, is to bear the whole of the cost of the stay in Sydney. The invitation was referred to the Dominion executive of the R.S.A. Witnesses Not Excluded. "Parties to a case cannot be ordered out of court as witnesses—that is a well-established practice," said Mr. Justice O'Regan in the Arbitration Court yesterday, when refusing an application by Mr. E. J. Watson, workers' advocate in the bakery dispute," that the employers' witnesses be ordered out of court. Mr. D. I. Macdonald, advocate for the employers, objected on the grounds that the witnesses he proposed to call were parties to the dis-| pute. Rarotongan Bananas. A change in the system of banana! packing and inspection has been intro- J duced, states the Rarotonga correspondent of the United Press Association. Previously bananas have been cut and carted loose from plantations to the packing sheds and there packed and inspected. The fruit will now be packed on the plantations and then carted to the wharf, where it will be inspected. A Soldier's Monogram. The New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association conference yesterday decided that it would not have an official blazer, but one member suggested that there should be a blazer with the following monogram:—A crown and anchor embroidered on one sleeve, two pennies and a kip on the other side, a rum jar with S.R.D. (service rum diluted) embroidered on the back, and the two lapels to be neatly embroidjered with the words, "And you." The 'suggestion was greeted in typical soldiers' style. Island Dictionary. After a lifetime of study Mr. Stephen Savage, ex-Registrar of Courts, Rarotonga, and a present Commissioner of the High Court, has completed a dictionary of the Rarotongan I language, states the United Press Association's Rarotongan correspondent. ! The manuscript has been forwarded to New Zealand. The work contains vast information relating to the history and {traditions of the Cook Islands. Mr. j Savage has resided in Rarotonga since 1898. Arbitration Courts. i The Court of Arbitration yesterday concluded its special Wellington sittings, and the members of the Court, Mr. Justice O'Regan, Mr. W. Cecil Prime (employers' representative), and Mr. A. L. Monteith (employees' representative), will leave Wellington during the next few days and proceed [to Auckland, where the Court will commence its northern sittings on August 4. The Second Court of Arbitration is at present sitting in the South Island, and it is unlikely that there will be a sitting of either of the Courts in Wellington for at least a month. A Scenic Route. The council of the New Zealand Forestry League, at a meeting held recently, passed a resolution urging the Lands and Survey Department to preserve as far as possible the scenic native bush along the road which is being constructed between Taumarunui and Tokaanu. This road, which is at present under construction by the Public Works Department, will open-to the public a large portion of the area of bush remaining in the centre of the North Island. Anzac Dawn Parades. There will probably be A.I.F. dawn parades in New Zealand on future Anzac Days. It was reported to the R.S.A. Conference yesterday that members of the Australian Imperial Forces in New Zealand were anxious to hold parades at dawn —the time of the Australian landing at Gallipoli—and the conference resolved that local returned soldiers' associations, if they so desired, might co-operate with the members of the A.I.F. in such parades. The Australian landing, it was stated, took place at 4.15 a.m., and the New Zealand landing about 8 a.m. One delegate said that R.S.A. dawn parades were held at Wanganui, and were most popular. Measles in the Islands. On July 2 a case of measles was diagnosed at Avarua, Rarotonga, and eleven new cases were reported the next day, states the Rarotongan correspondent of the United Press Association. This is believed to be the first outbreak since 1894. To avoid the spread of the disease' all schools, churches, the cinema, and gatherings have been closed or suspended. Over 200 cases have been isolated up to the present. Before the first case was discovered the schooner Tiare Taporo left on June 9 for the northern islands and Tahiti, but had arrived at Tahiti prior to the discovery of the outbreak in Rarotonga. To date one case has been found at Manihiki and ten cases at Penrhyn. The schooner Tagua called at Aitutaki before the disease was known, and twelve cases have been reported from that island. Stringent precautions .are being observed throughout the group of islands. Youth Labour and Industry.

"A hundred years ago this week, there were thousands of women and children employed in coal mines in England, Mr. Macdonald. I tell you that industry will do anything if it pays it," said Mr. A. L. Monteith, workers' representative on the Court of Arbitration, yesterday when Mr. D. I. Macdonald, employers' advocate in the bakers' dispute, was opposing an alteration in a clause in the proposed bakery award, dealing with the employment of youth labour. Mr. Monteith expressed the opinion that the clause, in its present form, placed very little restriction upon the employment of youth labour, but Mr. Macdonald, in reply, contended that the amount of youth labour employed was strictly governed by the amount of unskilled work offering. He strongly refuted Mr. Monteith's suggestion that the industry would "do anything if it paid it," and said that present conditions in the bakery trade disproved this.

I Mr. Savage's Speeches. A quotation from a speech by the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, was used on Thursday night by Professor R. M. iAlgie, when illustrating a point in a speech at the Leys Institute, Auckland, states the "New Zealand Herald." "I always find in reading the Prime Minister's speeches," said Professor Algie, "that it is the first sentence that you want to read to get what he means. The rest just follows on to make a go of it." Departmental Returns. United action to check the growing demand for Departmental returns in the dairy industry was urged by Mr. S. W. Smith," chairman of directors of the Bay of Islands Co-op. Dairy Company, at the annual meeting of shareholders recently. "The extra work involved in making out returns for Government Departments is growing at an alarming rate, and it means that you gentlemen are paying for the services of a clerk to supply information and act as a check for and on behalf of the Government," he said. "It is time united action was taken by the I industry to stop this," he added. ' Preserving Native Bush. The New Zealand Forestry League is ascertaining what steps are being taken by the Government to acquire many of the beautiful areas of native bush adjacent to the new East Coast road from Opotiki to Cape Runaway. Arrangements were previously made by the league's representative (Mr. Nielsen), with the Native owners of the bush for certain [ areas to be set aside as reserves, and it was understood about a year, ago that the necessary legislation to give effect jto the taking of the land was being I prepared by the Government. Considerable time and trouble was taken by Mr. Nielsen to obtain the consent of the Natives to setting aside these j areas, and the league considers that unless immediate action is taken all this work may be wasted.