DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1944, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

STOLEN BICYCLE. CHRISTCHURCH, November .9. Patrick Mcßae, who appeared on a charge of stealing a woman’s bicycle, valued at £ 15, the property of Valerie Facer, was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within three years. He was ordered to return to the West Coast and not to leave there for two years.

LIQUOR TRAFFIC. HASTINGS, November 9. The Presbyterian Assembly concluded its sessions yesterday and the delegates returned home this morning. “That the Government be urged to discontinue the system of cash-on-delivery for the carriage of alcoholic beverages on the railways in the King Country, as this was a serious infringement of the intention of the pact with the Maori people,” was a resolution passed at the assembly. Rev. J. D. Smith. Auckland, said that the Railways Department . was acting as an agent of the liquor trade in collecting not only freight, but also other charges from the purchasers. The existence of this practice, he said, was being used as an argument for the abrogation of the pact with the Maoris.

TRANSPORT COMPETITION. WELLINGTON, November 9. The appointment of a committee to investigate competition, between the railways and coastal shipping was announced to-day by the Minister of Transport (Mr. J. O’Brien). The committee has been appointed under section 11 of the Transport Licensing Amendment Act, 1936, and its order of reference is to make inquiries generally regarding competition between the railways and coastal shipping and the desirability, in the national interest, of controlling such competition, and methods to be adopted for such control. The personnel of the committee is Mr. H. B. Smith, Assistant-Commis-sioner of Transport (chairman); Mr. H. C. Langford, commercial manager, New Zealand Government Railways; and Captain S. Holm, New Zealand Shipowners' Federation. The committee will hold public sittings and will commence soon .