Local and General

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 May 1943, Page 4

Local and General

“We are lacing a pretty desperate position on the food front,” said Mr. W. W. Mulholland (Dominion President oi the New land Farmers’ Union) at the annual conference of the Mid-Canterbury Farmers Union at Ashburton yesterday. Mr. Mulholland said that the stores in the country were nearly empty of all produce, an d there would be no emergency stocks in hand at the end of the season. At least 200,000 pigs had been slaughtered as baby-weights in the North Island, because of the iood position. No doubt the meeting had heard something of butter rationing. There was a need lor rationing, not because New Zealand could not produce enough for itself, but because it was necessary to share the butter with other nations.

Wages totalling £913 were received by one member of the Auckland Waterside Workers Union for work on the Auckland wharves during the year ended March 31, according to the figures of the waterfront pay office. Another received over £9OO, numbers exceeded £BOO, and there are few permanent union men who made under £5OO or £6OO. Foi- income tax purposes the men are now being informed by the pay office of the amounts they earned during the year. To earn £913 the highest-paid man must have had long hours of constant overtime. It was a busy year for the Auckland waterfront and union members frequently worked 84 hours a week. Night-shift employment and the extra 1/- an hour offered by the American Transport Service in return for certain concessions helped to increase watersiders’ earnings.

An announcement that it had been decided to take back into the Police Force, if they wished to rejoin, those men who had resigned from the service to join the Armed Forces, after giving a month’s notice, before the Police Force Emergency Regulations came into operation on June 3, 1942, was made last evening by the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser). He said that if through war service any of the men concerned were so impaired in health as to be no longer fit for police duties, arrangements would be made for placing them in suitable employment under the rehabilitation provisions. Representations on the subject were made to the Government by both the Returned Services’ Association and the Police Association,

The patriotic shop conducted in Greymouth, yesterday, by the combined churches realised £72.

Deposits to National Wai; Savings accounts in Greymouth this week totalled £797/15/4, giving a surplus of £3OO/15/4 above the quota.

A first offender for drunkenness arrested in Greymouth yesterday was convicted and fined 10/-, the amount of his bail, by Mr. G. G. Chisholm, SM, at a sitting of the Magistrate’s Court, at Greymouth, this morning. Back-to-school traffic on the railways was heavy to-day with the end of the term vacation. The express from Greymouth to Christchurch consisted of nine carriages and had 260 passengers, while the train from .Christchurch will bring 360 in ten cars. The double-unit rail-car from Greymouth had a capacity load of 120 passengers last evening.

The Christchurch Manpower Appeal Committee will hold a sitting in Greymouth in ths forenoon of Saturday, June 5, to adjudicate on appeals against decisions of the Manpower Officer at Greymouth. So far, only two cases are set down, th esc being by employees of the Railways Department who have been refused permission to terminate their employment with the Department.

The provision of central depots from which dairymen could deliver milk and cream to householders, thus avoiding the present long journeys entailed in travelling from the farms, was discussed at a meeting of local producer-vendor dairymen in Greymouth, last evening. It was pointed out that such a procedure would be in general conformity with the vanbus retailers’ methods of conserving •Petrol, tyres,'and man-power. Mr. W. H. Martin, Westport, addressed the meeting, which set up a committee to investigate the proposal.

Commenting on the demand tor pork, and the shortage which had led to the prohibition of its consumption by civilians for two months, the Minister of Agriculture and Marketing (Mr. Barclay) informed delegates to the dairy conference in Wellington that members of the United States forces had no taste for New Zealand lamb, and could not be induced to eat it. Mr. J. Boyce (Manawatu) commented that if they did not like it .they should be made to go without, and they would soon develop an ap'petite.

Over 50 girls have recently been interviewed'at Greymouth, Hokitika, and Reefton by officers of the National Service Department to ascertain their availability for direction to employment with the Mental Hospitals Department, Hokitika. It is understood that the Department at Hokitika is understaffed to the extent of twelve persons, and it is hoped to direct a dozen girls considered suitable. However, prior arrangements will have to be made to have these girls interviewed by the Mental Hospitals Department.

The methods adopted by the Income Tax Department in dealing with taxpayers who failed to make returns by the due date were criticised by Air. F. H. Levien, S.M., in the Afagistrate’s Court, Auckland. He said that the department seemed to be particularly soft-hearted with defaulting taxpayers. He suggested that when the offence was a continuing one, as was often the case, the department should make very heavy assessments and increase them each year. The only payments made by some people, the Magistrate commented, were the tines they paid to the Court.

The Prisoners of War Inquiry Office Headquarters received from the International Red Cross a cabled report on P.G. 129, visited .only last month. It states 'the camp is situated in a healthy region that should be safe from bombing. Sanitary arrangements, clothing, food, health, and medical attention are satisfactory, although there is a lack of cigarettes in the canteen. Religions services are held regularly and intellectual needs attended to. Discipline is stated to be good. The mail arrives very slowly. The only requests from prisoners are for New Zealand sports news and full-size hats.

The Greymouth Rationing Officer to-day clarified the situation with respect to the introduction of licensing for business in rationed clothing as from June 1. Persons hawking clothing will be required to produce their local authority license before obtaining a new license, while a separate license will be nevessary for hawking or country travellers, even where one has been issued for a shop. When licenses are issued they will be accompanied by a booklet containing a digest of rationing procedure, which must be available to customers upon demand.

A Westland Tribal Committee was, this week, established at a gathering at Arahura, with the object of cooperating with the District Manpower Officer,, Greymouth, in arranging for members of the Native community to engage in essential industries. Captain H. Pohio, of Lyttelton, who is the Maori War Effort Organiser for Waipounamu (South Island) and liaison officer for the purpose between the eight Manpower Officers in the island, addressed a meeting of residents of Arahura, after which the following Commitee was set up: Ehaia Weepu (Chairman), Taura Rititia Meihana (Secretary), Tuhuru Taimif, juni'., Mere Tawhare and Nikau Tainui.

An assurance that there would be a tightening-up of the system of penalising workers for absenteeism from industry has been received by the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association in a letter from the Minister of Industrial Manpower (Mr. McLagan). The Minister’s letter was in reply to a communication from the association on April 21, in which concern was expressed at the continued increase of absenteeism. The Minister said that manpower officers in all centres had been given instructions to tighten up on the administration of the absentee provision of the regulations. Where the general record of the worker showed that he or she was a willing worker, he said, and the absence was probably a reaction of long hours and conditions of strain, isolated lapses should not be heavily penalised, but the full penal provisions of the regulations were to be invoked against industrial malingerers. He considered a warning was sufficient in cases of innocence.

A meeting of Controllers and instructors of first line units of the Greymouth E.P.S. was addressed in the Borough Council Chambers on Thurday afternoon, by Mr E. J. Rishworth, oi the Civil Defence branch of the National Service Department, and Captain Kidson, Civil Defence, Chistchurch. Mr Rishworth spoke on methods of training the classes. It was made clear that the Lines of Communications (signal unit) are to act as civilians until mobilisation, and that if required they are to participate in trials. It was also stressed that the Communications Unit would have to bo built up to a strength of approximately 80 members. C-.iptain Kid Son gave details of the ararngements that would have to be made for instruction of persons to deal with unexploded bombs, and also emphasised the necessity of having at least four ‘ incident” officers. A resolution was passed that the police be asked to check up on the enrolments of civilians to see if all who have an obligation to do so have enrolled in the E.P.S. or the Home Guard.