NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 40, 17 February 1943, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

In Aid Of Patriotic Funds

Sales throughout the Dominion of a British Ministry of Information publication, "The Battle of Britain," have realised £70 Os 8d in aid of the patriotic funds. The 32-page illustrated booklet gave a vivid account of the great air attacks on Britain between August 8 and October 31, 1940. The number of copies of the booklet sold in New Zealand was 9775—3955 in Auckland, 3795 in Wellington, and 2025 in the South Island. The money is being distributed among the provincial patriotic * councils by the National Patriotic Fund Board. The Wellington council's share is £16 14s 7d. Works 17 Hours a Day. "Do you mean you work from 3 a.m. until 10 p.m. seven days a week?" asked a member of the No. 2 Armed Forces Appeal Board at Morrinsville of a reservist. "Yes, sir. I have been doing that for the past three years, as I am unable to get any assistance," replied the reservist. The reserVist 'stated that he had owned a milk vender's business for the past 15 years. He also owned a property of 60 acres which was carrying 46 cows, one bull, and two horses. He had two daughters still at school, and" his wife assisted with the milking. He had to serve 210 customers and delivered 64 gallons of milk a day. Undue hardship would be caused to th-- public and his family if he entered the Army, he maintained. The case was adjourned sine die. Home Guardsmen's Protest. A telegram has been sent by the Midhirst Home Guard to the Minister of Defence (Mr. Jones) protesting against the alleged failure of the authorities to prosecute men for not attending parades. As a further protest a commissioned officer has resigned and non-commissioned officers have handed in their stripes. More than forty members of the Midhirst platoon attended a protest meeting after a parade. Many of the men had been regularly attending parades for well ov r two years, said the chairman i of the protest meeting (Mr. Lepper), and they knew of cases where men exempted from military service conditional on joining the Home Guard had refused to attend. "Our platoon commander has resigned and all the n.c.o.s threw in their stripes," said Mr. Lepper. "We want to make it clear that this is a protest against nonprosecution of the defaulters." Tramways and Essentiality. In reply to the Auckland Transport Board's request that its undertaking as a whole be declared essential, the Controller of Man-power, National Service Department, stated that the request could not be met at present. The letter, which was received at this week's meeting of the board, stated that the ruling applied to all tramway services in the Dominion. The Manpower Utilisation Council had advised that, for the present, no employees should be covered by extending the declaration of essentiality. Stationery for the Forces. The cost of providing stationery for the New Zealand Forces is a big item in the National Patriotic Fund Board budget each year. In addition to issues made direct by the board and supplies sent overseas with transports, the various welfare institutions acting as agents for the board are receiving on the average over 2,000,000 sheets of writing paper and 858,000 envelopes monthly for distribution to camps and stations in the Dominion. Details of the average monthly issues to the institutions for distribution in New Zealand are as follows, the first figures in each case referring to note paper and the second to envelopes:—V.M.C.A., 1,432,000 and 489,000; Church Army, 464,000 and 226,000; Salvation Army, 410,000 and 143,000; Catholic War Services Board, 50,000 sheets of paper. All the stationery is purchased by the I Patriotic Fund Board and is issued I from its Wellington store. The stock position was helped by the arrival isome weeks ago of paper from New iYork, this being the gift of the Anzac | Division of the British War Relief [Society of the United States.