Local and General

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 May 1943, Page 4

Local and General

A woman, aged 26, who resided at Ashburton, has died from infantile paralysis, according to information supplied last evening bv the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. 1. Fletcher Telford). A suspected case ol paralysis from Spotswood has not yet been diagnosed as positive. The patient is a boy aged four years.

The power load in the Grey district is at present* the heaviest ever experienced by the Grey Electric Power Board. Mr. Sinclair Trotter, Engineer, stated to-day that while the load normally increases during the Winter period it has this year grown steeply due to greatly expanded demands by coalmines and dredges. Over the last few years the graph tracing the load has shown a steady upward curve.

Fifteen men have been released from the military forces to undertake employment in West Coast sawmills. Of these three have been released from camp as a result of selections by liaison officers of the Forestry Department, a large numbei' of such men having been drafted to the North Island. Two men have been released from a local unit and ten youths in the 18-19 year group who lodged their own applications have also returned to the industry. However, it is stated, there is still a marked labour shortage.

There are five plumbing firms in Greymouth at present and, without exception, they are greatly inconvenienced by shortage of staff. Giving evidence to this effect to the Armed Forces Appeal Board yesterday afternoon, Mr. W. H. Jackson declared: “We can’t lose any more men, otherwise, we will have to go out of business.” Various witnesses indicated that 12 plumbers have left Greymouth to join the Forces and that the men were far in arrears of the work required. In the case of one firm three of four men had joined the Forces; another had two left out of seven, and another five left out of eleven. “Plumbers have more work than they can cepe with, and a great deal must remain in abeyance in the meantime,” stated a witness. It was explained that deferred work included sewerage.

No appointment has yet been made by the Grey Hospital Board to fill the vacancy caused on the medical staff by the resignation of the Chief Surgeon, Dr. D. A. Arnott. As a result of the calling up for the Army Nursing Service of Miss B. A. Stedman, who has been masseuse at the Hospital for the past five or six % years, the institution is now without a staff masseuse or masseur. Miss Stedman received advice of her calling up yesterday morning, and she left Greymouth last evening. A masseur, with private practice, has been employed part time at the Hospital, but all the time he has available for the Hospital will be taken up with the treatment of in-patients and massage treatment of out-patients has had to be discontinued m the meantime. Efforts are beins made by the Board to secure a full-time masseur or masseuse.

A miner, Anthony Inwood, married, o£ Blaketown, received injuries to his back when he was struck by a fall of stone while at his work in the New Point E co-operative coal mine at Dunollie to-day. He was attended by Dr. Ongley, of Runanga, and was admitted to the Grey Hospital. His condition this afternoon was reported to be satisfactory. At a well-attended meeting of delegates to the Wallace branch of the National Party it was decided to give support at the forthcoming elections to the sitting member, Hon. Adam Hamilton. The Dunedin West branch of the New Zealand Labour Party has unanimously reaffirmed the selec - tion of Lieutenant-Commander P. G. Connolly, D.S.C., R.N.Z.N.V.R., as the official party candidate for the Dunedin West seat at the General Election. Dr. D. G. McMillan, the present holder of the seat, announced some time ago that he would not be a candidate.

The passing of a sentence of life imprisonment on a man found guilty last week of murder, raises the point of what is actually meant by such a sentence, many people having the impression that, in practice at all events, a definite term has been fixed. A life sentence means exactly what it says—imprisonment for life. Any sentence is, however, subject to review from time to time by the Prisons Board, and the Governor-General, on the recommendation of the Prisons Board, may remit a portion of the sentence 'or release a prisoner.

A Cambridge soldier in the South Pacific, writing home, states that a welcome, change recently was the inclusion of more New Zealand food in the rations. The American diet had been all right at first, but it was soon found to lack the substance required by the Kiwis. One of the foods issued at present is tinned rabbit, which can be served up to make a very good meal. Although no doubt very true, the wording on the tins, which has cause much amusement, is that the rabbits were “fed on finest New Zealand pasture.”

Supplies of wire netting imported from America under lend-lease are now available for the specific purposes only of rabbit control, and the making of maize cribs, and poultry, pig and sheep enclosures. The wire netting is to be distributed by merchants who have been advised by the New Zealand Wire Netting Distribution Committee on the .conditions under which it may be released and prices as authorised and fixed by the Commissioner of Supply. Purchasers are required to obtain permits, states an exchange.

After a lapse of several years, the Westport Competitions Society has revived its activities with a festival which commenced yesterday and will conclude this evening. Three Greymouth judges are officiating: Miss M. Trott (dancing), Mr E. R. Moss (vocal, instrumental and bands), and Mr R. T. Bush (elocution). Flora Monk (Rewanui) was placed first hn the Irish Jig, the Sword Dance and Skipping Dance, and the Highland Fling yesterday. At the Christchuren festival Evelyn Kiely (Greymouth; was third in the character Recital 3 and under 12 years.

The fact that all aliens on the West Coast have not fulfilled their obligations to register with the National Service Department was stated by an officer of the Department in Greymouth to-day. It is the Government’s policy that aliens of military age should take precedence over British subjects in the same category in the matter of undertaking essential work and that they should make personal sacrifices comparable with those of the British subjects, particularly in the 18-45 year group. Since last October all aliens have been required to register, but it transpires that numbers have not yet done so.

The opinion that many girls were having too good a time being entertained by Allied servicemen, to be seriously interested in work of real essentiality to the country was expressed by a Wellington man who recently visited smaller centres of the North Island in search of prospective trainees lor work in the capital. He said they were to be found loose on the streets at night, but all sorts of lame excuses were offered when work was mentioned. It appeared, he added, that the canker which had established itself in Wellington and Auckland, and was a potent contributor to absenteeism in industry, had spread to the provincial centres.

A revised list of approximately 3300 civilians who were reported upon reliable authority to have been in Malaya, Borneo, and the Netherland East Indies at the time of the capitulation of Singapore and Java has been received from the Malayan Research Bureau, Sydney, and may be perused at the “Evening Star” office. The list, it is emphasised, is still small compared with the large number of civilians who must, have been unable to leave Malaya and the East Indies. The Bureau advises that a cablegram received in March from the Colonial Office stated that, according to unofficial but reliable reports from the Swiss Consul at Bangkok, 20,000 to 25,000 missing prisoners captured in Malaya (including British and Volunteer personnel) are now interned in camps in the Banpong and Kamburi districts of Siam. The general conditions appear to be satisfactory, but communication with the outside, and mail, are forbidden.

Before the war the Building Labourers’ Union had an active membership of about 300 in the district from Greymouth to Hokitika. To-day there are only between 70 and 80 men left, the others having either been called into the Army or drifted into essential undertakings elsewhere. Giving this evidence to the Armed Forces Appeal Board in Greymouth, yesterday afternoon, Mr. F. G. Wilkins, Chairman of the Builders’ Association, stated that all Greymouth tradesmen had apportioned to them work on prefabricated buildings, which must take precedence over all other jobs. In addition to helpings Dunedin builders to complete their quota, Greymouth firms would have to fill their own allocation. Men were working as much as 50 hours a week. A painter stated that painting work was six months in arrears, much time having been occupied on the prefabricated structures.

You would not go to the' Club or take your wife to the pictures with bow yangs on your trousers. Well, why wear your suits with those baggy knees when you can have those smart tailored lines and knifelike crease by having them sponged and pressed by experts, and then again it saves you the extra expense of having them cleaned so often. Phone 136 and that smart appearance that denotes personal pride in your wearing apparel will be yours.— Westland Laundry Ltd., Gresson Street., Depot 27 Albert Street. — Advt.