DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 October 1944, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

DOCTOR’S APPEAL. AUCKLAND, October 26.. The appeal by Dr. W. . Craig Howie, who sought permission to leave the staff of the Kingseat Memorial Hospital, has been allowed on medical grounds by the Auckland Manpower (Industrial) Committee. The case was heard on Tuesday, when it was stated that the appellant suffered from diabetes and neuritis of the legs, and could not stand up to the work at the institution. He had been refused permission to leave.

MOTORIST IMPRISONED. DUNEDIN, October 25. “You rode down a cyclist at night, carried the cycle for eight feet, and though the cyclist might have been dead you drove on with the lights out,” said Mr. Justice Kennedy, sen-, fencing to six weeks’ imprisonment Daniel David Miller Andrews, aged 25, a labourer, on a charge of failing to stop after an accident. Andrews’s driving licence was suspended for two years. His Honor said the prisoner s record as disclosed by the Probation Officer showed a continuous disregard for MOTOR TYRES WELLINGTON, October 26. ' That New Zealanders cannot expect any improvement in the position regarding supplies of new motor tyres until the end of 1945 at least was stated to-day by Mr. Charles Butt, Rubber Controller in Australia, who is about to make an inspection of the rubber position and re-treading industry in New Zealand. Australia, which' is responsible for New Zealand’s essential requirements in new tyres and tubes, has been asked by the Combined War Materials Board to use synthetic rubber to the extent of at least 55 per cent, in her manufactures. He said that this would mean the installation of new plant and the provision of additional manpower in the Commonwealth, and as much of the plant was of a heavy nature it might be 12 months before it was operating. It was necessary, therefore, that persons fortunate enough to possess tyres in new condition should take the greatest care of them, and have them re-capped or re-treaded at the appropriate time. WOMEN AND CHILDREN. CHRISTCHURCH, October 26. The conference of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children was continued on Wednesday and Thursday, when further remits were discussed and arrangements made to wait upon Ministers of the Crown. Remits were passed requesting the appointment of a trained psychiatrist to the Justice Department to report on all cases of assault on young children before sentence is passed on offenders; also the appointment of special justices to sit on the Bench with the presiding Magistrate in cases of domestic proceedings. As a means of providing protection for adolescent girls, a resolution was adopted recommending that the age of consent and also the marriage age be raised to 17 years, and that parental control be raised to that age. The conference agreed to link up the four branches by setting up a National Executive to function until the next conference which is to be held in 1946. Mrs. R. M. Metcalfe (Auckland) was reappointed Dominion Secretary. RURAL HOUSING. WELLINGTON, October 27. “It was reported to the Dominion Executive Council of the N.Z.R.S.A., at a recent meeting, that since 1940 only one house had been built on Land Settlement Board land, and that less than a dozen were at present under construction,” says a statement by the N.Z.R.S.A. “Land reported as available for settlement needed 200 houses before occupation of the holdings could be effected, and it was urged that some degree of priority of building materials and labour should be given to rural housing in order to speed up the availability of land for settlement. “The Prime Minister had assured the Association that equal priorities between town and country would be acceded to as soon as military requirements permitted the expansion of house building. It was resolved to draw the Prime Minister’s attention to the serious need for a speed-up of rural housing and to ask that a definite percentage of the materials available be allocated to that work.”