Local and General

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 May 1943, Page 4

Local and General

Motorists who relicense their vehicles this year will receive a sheet of 12 petrol co pons. The Greymouth postal authoritres e plained to-day that the coupons will be num bered one to 12, one being available for each of the succeeding 12 months. The denominations will be printed in different colours from the preceding issue.

Replying to-day to a statement made recently by Mr. H. E. Herring, when speaking on behalf of the Democratic Labour Party, the Minister of Labour (Mr. Webb) sard rt was not correct to say that the Industual Emergency Council was able to s ®t asicte awards and conditions, and formulate important policies . without vital matters being fully discussed by the peoples representatives. The Council was_ a purely advisory body, and was established to consider and report on the changes made necessary by war conditions. In almost every case the Council had dealt with, recommendations to himself had been made, after both paities had agreed to the changes recommended.— P.A.

Plans and specifications of the proposed new slipway for Greymouth, construction of which was agreed to by the Harbour Board at its last meeting have been submitted by the Engineer, Mr. D. S. Kennedy, to the Marine Department for approval.. The Department has been asked to expedite its decision, and preparations are in hand to commence work immediately this arrives. Mr. Kennedy is engaged on calculating details for the proposed deep-water harbour for Greymouth, and expects to be able, to, formulate fuller plans shortly for submission to the Marine Department. Meanwhile, the improvement in the weather has enabled the first work for months to be done to the North Breakwater, where up to the present more than 6000 tons of concrete have been laid on 8000 tons of stone foundation. It is intended that the final 50 yards consist of solid concrete, with an apron of 20 to 80-ton blocks to protect the base. Work is now in progress on a block weighing 132 tons.

The first nomination received by the National Party for the Lyttelton seat at the General Election is that of Mr. E. B. E. Taylor, who contested the Westland seat in 1938. An announcement of his intention to stand as an Independent National at the coming General Election has been made by Mr. J. N. Massey, National member of Parliament for Franklin. The Franklin electorate executive committee of the National Party, at a meeting, passed the following resolution: : ‘Mr. Massey having declared his intention to contest the Franklin seat as an Independent National, this meeting, after having given serious consideration to the matter, is of the opinion that Mr. Massey can win the seat in this capacity, and earnestly urges the National Party to support his candidature, in order to present a united anti-Labour front.” An announcement has been made by Mr. F. A. Carlisle, of Waiuku, that he intends to contest the Franklin seat at the coming General Election as an Independent candidate. Mr. R. G. Young, of Gordonton, has been ; selected to contest the Hauraki seat in the interests of the Real Democracv Movement. , The sitting member is Mr. A. S. Sutherland (Opposition). Mr. H .T. Head, who ouposed Mr. Sutherland at the Hauraki by-election as an Independent, has also announced his candidature.

It was decided at ajmeeting this week of quantity' surveyors to form a New Zealand institute of such. Mr. C. G. Russell (Wellingtdi) was elected Secretary-Treasure 1 pro-tem, and a committee was sd up to frame the rules. —P.A.

An application was received at a meeting of the Greymffith Borough Council last evening irom the St. John Ambulance Brigade (Grey District) for a donation .towards its funds. The Council deciced to make a donation of 2| guineas, and also to make a similar donation to the Greymouth Red Cross.

During the last week a substantial improvement has been recorded in the depth on the Greynouth bar at high water. Apparently, at the peak of the spring tides, the depth yesterday was 23 feet eight inches —the best for some time. “It is quite a good bar,” commented fie Engineer, Mr D. S. Kennedy.

An amendment to social security and pensions emergency regulations gazetted last night incorporates permanently the bonus of . two shillings weekly for each child in the assessment for family benefit purposes. This is being done to overcome an anomaly in the method of computing the assessment of the family benefit.—P.A.

Supported, among others, by Mr Webb, a deputation of representatives from the northern half of the South Island yesterday met various Ministers in Wellington. Topics discussed were afforestation, land development, hydro-electric supply, establishment of more industries, mining, iron and steel works, improvements to roads and highways, and railway extensions.

Steps to check the tendency to erosion at the northern abutments of tlie Big Wanganui River traffic bridge arc being taken by the Public Works Department. The construction of the bridge itself is finished, but the approaches are still of a temporary nature to enable concrete slabs to be placed in position along the water line. When this is completed the permanent approaches will be built.

The Motor Trades Utilisation Committee met in Greymouth, yesterday, when 14 appeals on sine die adjournments were considered —11 -from Greymouth and three from the Hokitika district. Of these, recommendations for extensions were made in 12 cases, while it was recommended that for one the adjournment be not extended, and another was held over for further inquiry and subsequent report.

A statement that no preference was given to Greymouth over Westport in the allocation of coal trucks was made by Mr G. H. McLean, District Traffic Manager of Railways, when in Westport. They were provided in proportion or relation to orders. Because of shipping orders over which the Railways Department had no control, trucks had been temporarily limited to urgent, perishables, shipping and coal traffic. Ordinary goods on the East Coast during that period had not bcm accepted.

“Once a leper becomes despondent, that is the end of him,” said Mr. P. J. Twomey, secretary of the Lepers’ Trust Board, at the annual meeting of the Board at Christchurch, last evening. Lepers must be kept happy and occupied, he said. In 18 months 100 patients were discharged as cured from the Makogai leper station, and this was made possible only by the help from New Zealand. The prestige of New Zealand was very high among the medical staff and patients of Makogai, said Mr. Twomey, ivho visited the island recently.

Inspector H. Lane reported to a meeting of the Greymouth Borough Council last evening that he had inspected the properties in Blaketown regarding which a complaint had been received at the previous meeting of the Council and found that there was definite ground for the complaint that a fly nuisance had been caused by the deposit of sheep manure on the properties. He had requested the occupiers of the properties to dig the manure into the ground and not leave it" lying uncovered. On a later date he found that while some of the people had made some attempt to comply with, his request others had not made any effort. He asked what course was to be taken if the occupiers did not do what he asked. It was resolved that he take further action if the nuisance was not abated.

During the February-March period 64 classes of absenteeism were reported to the Greymouth Manpower Office. In respect to 61, warnings were issued, no action being taken in the remaining three cases. Over the same period 204 applications to terminate employment in various industries were received, over 90 per cent, being from employees. Approval was given all 34 applications received to employ persons in non-es-sential undertakings in the Greymouth Borough. Practically all concerned persons under the age of 18 and, therefore, not eligible to register for work of national importance or subject to direction. Directions to proceed to essential undertakings were issued during the same period to 15 males and 16 females.

In the course of his annual report to the Greymouth Borough Council last evening, the Engineer (Mr. A. J. Fairmaid) stated that in the 12 months to March 31 last there was little activity in the building sphere in the Borough. Only 43 permits were issued, the total value of the work being £4,814. No dwellings were erected and the highest value for any one permit was £9OO for a commercial building. He attributed the lack of building to the war conditions. In the course of his report on street maintenance he stated that 32,638 gallons of tai’ were used during the year, this being the amount now annually available since the stock in the storage well was lowered to the economic limit. On account of the shortage of staff concrete kerbing and channeling was limited to two chains in High Street in continuation of the work commenced in the previous year.

You’ll come to White’s, of course, for your Coat. They have a large selection of good Coats right up to the minute in style and economically priced too. If you wish make it a layby.—White’s Corner, Your Fashion Centre.—Advt.