DOMINION NEWS FOUR SHIPS BOUGHT BY UNION COMPANY

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 March 1946, Page 2

DOMINION NEWS FOUR SHIPS BOUGHT BY UNION COMPANY

Four 7000-ton cargo vessels of the Park Line operated by the Canadian Government have been acquired by the Union Stfeam Ship Company..to replace war losses. The ships are the Parkdale Park, the Salt Lake Park, the Sunnyside. Park, and the Dominion Park. They will be renamed the Waikawa, Wairuna, Waitomo, and Waihemo respectively. Launched’ within the last three years, the ships are similar to Liberty ships, . and have a cargo capacity of about 10,000 tons. The change of ownership is being effected in Canada!. The Sunny; side Park, which is proceeding to New Zealand, will arrive here as the Waitomo. The Parkdale Park is .also on its way to the Dominion. It is the intention of the Union Company to operate a monthly service between Vancouver, San Francisco, New Zealand, Sydney, and Melbourne with the new ships.—(P.A.)

Killed While Painting House. . A married man with four children was killed instantly when he made contact with electric wires while painting a house in Auckland yesterday. He was Roland Oliver Morrison, aged about 47, of Bowling avenue, Epsom. Morrison was severely burned aboiit the neck and arms. —(P.A.)

Opium Charges. A Chinese market gardener, Jimmy Fong, was fined £.50 and costs by Mr G. G. Chisholm, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Timaru yesterday for permitting premises he occupied at Saltwater Creek to be used for the concealment of prepared opium. Another Chinese,, Chung Yee Boor, employed by Fong, was fined £25 ana costs for being found in possession •of prepared opium.—(P.A.)

Servicemen’s Wives. n Bound for Auckland to embark 40U dependants of United States servicemen. the liner Monterey has left San Francisco and is expected to arrive in New Zealand near the end of this month. Among the liner’s passengers are 29 American wives of New Zealand servicemen. After two other ships have embarked more America servicemen’s wives in April, it is expected that all those awaiting P a «ages will have been accommodated. —(P.A.)

Questions in Parliament. “One of the greatest safeguards of democracy to-day is the question in Parliament,” said Dr. D. D. Raphael, professor of philosophy at the University of Otago, in an interview on his arrival from England. “In Great Britain it is a powerful weapon. If people who have a grievance can have a question put by their member they can be sure that the mattei will be thoroughly investigated by the department concerned before the Minister is supplied with a reply.”

Davis Cup Tennis. Cabled advice was received by the secretary of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association, Mr. A. H. Richards, yesterday, from the United States Lawn Tennis Association, that New Zealand will be required to play in the final of the 'American group of the Davis Cup against the winners of the .North American section, in the Philadelphia district, before July 22. The teams in the North American section are: Mexico, Canada, Philippine Islands, and the United States.—(P.A.)

Help for War Brides. _ Appreciation of the aid given to. New Zealand war brides by the American Red Cross is expressed in a letter which has been received from the mother of one of the New Zealand women who recently went to the United States in the Matson liner Monterey. She says that the Red Cross arranged tours at every port of call for the mothers and their babies, and supplied, free of charge, special food, orange juice, sieved vegetables, and medicines. Bowls of fruit were also sent to the cabins and replenished as soon as thpy were emptied.

The Family Benefit.

Applications for the payment of the Universal Family Benefit of 10/a week for each child as from April 1 next, have not come forward as promptly as was expected. It is nearly four weeks since the Minister of Social Security, Mr. Parry, announced that application forms were ready, but up to the end of last week the total number of applications received was only 62,000, or approximately one-third of the number that is expected. The Minister yesterday expressed some disappointment that the response had not been greater. The first pay-out of the Universal Family Benefit will be on April 11. Unless application is made before the end of April, the family benefit cannot be paid for that month, because the law provides that the benefit is to commence not earlier than the first day of the month in which application is received. — (F.A.)

Surplus Aircraft. The Sunderland aircraft at present in store at Hobsonville were being overhauled and held pending the arrival of new propellers which were expected next month, said the Minister of Defence (Mr. Jones) in reply to an inquiry last night. The Sunderlands would then be placed on the overseas Pacific service. They would replace the C 47 aircraft at present in use. The latter would probably be diverted to the Japanese service. The Minister added that the Mustang aircraft, which were also in store at Hobsonville, were ordered before the .end of the war, but arrived just at its conclusion. _ “The problem of surplus aircraft is one which New Zealand shares with all the United Nations. Their ultimate disposal is receiving consideration,” said Mr. Jones. “It is therefore impossible to state at this stage what action will be taken in regard to these aircraft.” —(P.A.)

New Zealand Claims. Any person or concern of British nationality resident in New Zealand having a claim of any kind, either for debt or for other moneys, or for loss or damage to property situated in Bulgaria, Roumania, Finland, or Hungary, may now have it recorded with the Public Trustee, Wellington, as custodian of enemy property, according to information released by the Prime Minister’s Department. In 1941, a register of debts and register of property were set up to record claims by persons of British nationality in regard to Germany and Italy, and at a later date the scope, of the registers was extended to include

Japan. It is now proposed to extend the registers still further to include the countries named above. The purpose of the registers is to provide a record of all claims. It is emphasised that the entry of the. claim in the register does not imply any recognition of its validity, nor does it constitute any guarantee that the claim will eventually be met. The registers will be closed on May 31 ndxt.—(P.A.)

Boardinghouse Conditions. , In the belief that, the Auckland City Council’s By-lhw 38> which fixes minimum requirements for boardinghouses and apartment houses, is an .oppressive measure, the Amalgamated Apartment and Boardinghouse Proprietors’ Association has instructed its members hot to pay the licence fee authorised by the by-law. “We throw out a challenge to the council to prosecute the first offender under the new by-law, and if necessary we will take the case to the Supreme Court or even the Higher Court,” said the chairman of the association (Mr. G.'V. Mullenger), Many sections of the bylaw, he said, were unduly severe on the proprietors, and in view of the shortage of building materials, it would be impossible to comply with the requirements. Mr. H, P. Burton, chairman of the council’s housing committee, said the association had previously given no evidence that it was dissatisfied with the by-law. The public, he added, had no idea of the condition of some accommodation in the city. The council, however, was

not likely to take an arbitrary attitude in the enforcement of the by-law as the housing problem was fully realised.—(P.A.)

Train Ferry Proposal. A report advocating bringing two experts from England, and America to sit as a Royal Commission and give an unbiased opinion on whether there should be a train ferry between the North Island and the South, was submitted to the council of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association at Christchurch last evening by the vice-president (Mr. B. J. Masters). The council decided to refer the report to a sub-committee which will report back. Mr. Masters reviewed the drift of industry and population to the north, in spite of the South Island’s natural advantages. The South Island was still lagging in expansion. Cook Strait, he said, was inclined to give people a two-country complex, and those in the south were rapidly getting an inferiority complex. The sooner South Islanders - came out of their coma the better for New Zealand as a whole. The answer seemed to be a train ferry, which vitas surely of more capital import- , arice to the pountry than a bridge over Auckland harboui? for which the Governihent had appointed a Royal Commission. Quoting steps in other parts of the world in support of the train ferry proposal, Mr Masters said that profit arid loss should riot be the ruling factor in a project affecting the economy of the whole Dominion.—(P.A.),