NEWS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 3, 3 July 1943, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

.WEATHER FORECAST

Light but slowly freshening northwesterly winds. Weather fair to fine. Cold again to-: night, but moderate day temperatures. The further outlook is for weather cloudy at times; The Moon. —New moon, today. High Water.—Today. -5.39 p.m.; tomorrow, 6.10 a.m., 6.28 p.m. t ' ' :— ~.,.. 1' Something Useful. "I have been in a defaulters' camp for 14 months and have not done one useful day's work. There are 700 men in the same camp who do nothing but twiddle their thumbs," stated Thomas Smith, who "was charged in the Magistrate's Court, Palmerston North, with refusing an order to cut kindling wood. In imposing a sentence of three months' hard labour, states a Press Association message, the Magistrate, Mr. Lawry, commented: "You'll find something .useful to do there." Gift to Patriotic Fund. On his return to Wellington from the South Island Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyherg met Mr. G. A. Hayden, secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board, and discussed general patriotic activities with him. The General advised Mr. Hayden that he was sending the Patriotic Board a cheque for £ 100 in appreciation of the ] services given to the New Zealand Forces by the patriotic organisation. Concessions Sought. A lowering of the standard ofi examination fitness required from sol-1 dier students who returned from the war to resume interrupted studies was advocated by the Hon. M. Connelly1 (Otago) in. the Legislative Council yesterday He suggested that in those cases the ex-soldier students should be required to achieve a lower percentage than usual in order to pass examinations for professions which did not involve* the safety of j human life, and he instanced account- ] ancy as one in which his suggestion; could be adopted. Teachers, he said, had already asked for a lowering of the standards in some of their examinations. The Leader of the Council (Mr. Wilson) said he could give a pledge that the suggestion, with hun- i dreds .of others concerning returned' servicemen, was receiving and would receive the most earnest consideration of the Government. . Whatever could! be done to assist such students without lowering the standards of the professions too much would be done. Increase in War Borrowing. The tremendous rise in the cost' of the war since it started was pointed out by the Hon. T. Bloodworth (Auckland) in the Legislative Council yesterday afternoon. He said that under the War Expenses Act, 1939, authority had been taken to bor.row ten million pounds. Next year they took authority to borrow forty million, in 1941 eighty million, and in 1942 one hundred and eighty million. This year, under the Finance. Bill No. 2 then before the Council, they were taking authority to borrow for the war three hundred million pounds. Colonel Frank Khox had recently been reported as forecasting a war of three or four more years, and if it became necessary for New Zealand to increase her borrowing powers at the rate shown in the past they would build up -a great load. It was perfectly true that millions had lost their meaning and the rates of interest were lower than those of the last war, but the vast increase in the amount borrowed, together with the fact that productivity was not increasing, made an almost terrifying problem. The Leader of the Council (Mr. Wilson) replied that there was not much likelihood of production remaining stationary. Inventions and efficiency were increasing it.