GENERAL NEWS MR. FRASER’S TRIP COST £1 A MILE?

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 May 1946, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS MR. FRASER’S TRIP COST £1 A MILE?

On his last visit to England the Prime • Minister (Mr Fraser) had made the journey in the most luxurious plane in the world, ‘stated Mr H. T. Morton, M.P. for Waitemata ; in an address at Khandallah, Wellington. When Parliament met he intended to ask whether it was true, according to an estimate he had, that the flight itself cost the country £ 12,000 or £ 1 a mile. Mr Morton said that Mr Fraser had also made a gesture while in England of presenting a box of strawberries from the Dominion to children in a hospital. The cost of getting strawberries to England in their sound condition was put at between £250 and £4OO. “Surely we have a right to know,” said Mr Morton, “why the money is going in luxuries like that. Would electors sanction such expense?” Privates Fined.

The seven privates of the Gloucester Park military camp, Auckland, who were recently court-martialled for failing to attend a guard duty parade at the stipulated time, were each fined 30/- according to the promulgations this morning.—(P.A.)

Burke's Creek Colliery. The Acting-Minister of Mines (Mr. O’Brien) in a statement in Wellington last night confirmed the report that the State • had acquired the Burke’s Creek colliery. The price, he said, would be subject to arbitration. —(P.A.) Food for Britain.

Fifty-three large cases of foodstuffs were yesterday despatched to Lyttelton from Greymouth for» shipment to Britain. The cases contained 7706 tins, 888 packets, 30 jars and 102 lb. of dried fruits, part of the contributions to the recent food drive. A further consignment is expected to be ready shortly, arrangements having' been made for more packing to be done in a fortnight’s time.

New Chest Hospital. A modern 120-bed chest hospital is to be erected in the grounds of the Wellington Hospital, according to a decision of the Hospital Board last night. The renovation and reorganisation of Victoria and Ewart wards to accommodate another 120 chest cases without overcrowding will follow. At present 200 chest cases are crowded in the old-fashioned Ewart, Victoria and Seddon wards.

Bridge Repairs Preparations are being made by the Public Works Department to lift the Waitangi traffic bridge, near Wataroa, on the main road to the Glaciers. This work has become necessary because of the filling-in of the stream bed with shingle from higher up the river. The work will be carried out during the winter months while the river is at a low level’ and an alternative route through a ford is available. Unionism in New Zealand

“I believe in unionism, but it should not be given too much power —the waterside union is an example,” said Mr H. T. Morton, M.P., for Waitemata, in an address at Khandallah, Wellington. “It is powerful, dominant, arrogant, and selfish.” Some day there would have to be a show-down between a properly elected Government and the trade unions—when that time came he knew that the bulk of public opinion would be behind the Government

Illegal Sale of Ergotin. The sale of ergotin other than in accordance with a prescription by a medical practitioner, dentist, or veterinary surgeon, was admitted by Blyth Harper, a chemist, in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland this morning. He was fined £5. The informations arose from two sales of pills. For the defendant it was stated that the pills were a proprietary line which had been sold over the counter for 50 years.—(P.A.) An Extensive Electorate

The necessity for a member of Parliament consulting his constituents from time to time was emphasised by Mr R M. Algie, M.P., in an address in Wellington. Such, he said, .was his practice. Fortunately, he had an electorate (Remuera) through which he could walk in the course of a morning. “However, the member for Buller (Mr Webb) -cannot do that,” continued Mr Algie, who said that on a recent tour of the West Coast, he had travelled 580 miles to attend four meetings. “I have half a dozen halls or so in my electorate,” he added, “and I address my electors at intervals, so that I am able to obtain a good cross-section of opinion.”

A Mannerism of the Bench Courts over which Mr J R. Bartholomew, S.M., presided during his long term on the bench in Dunedin were characterised by an atmosphere of austerity derived from his sombre judicial bearing, and, in the circumstances, a rebuke from the bench fell with the greater weight upon the unfortunate offender. Counsel who became eloquent to the extent of spending an undue amount of time in expounding their arguments were not endured patiently by his Worship —a fact which became well known to those in regular attendance at the courts —but a mannerism of the magistrate which became equally well-known generally served as a warning of the imminence of a reprimand This consisted of a steady tapping of his Worship’s foot against the .wooden* bench at which he sat. The longer counsel persisted the more urgent became the beat, and the warning was generally reinforced by glances in the direction of the offender that were full of meaning. When, as occasionally happened, counsel either .did not heed the tapping foot or was unaware of what it portended others in court became almost painfully aware of impending magisterial wrath, and the few explosive words with which his Worship eventually indicated that he had heard more than enough came as a relief from the tension which counsel’s pertinacity had created.

See the daring young girl on the Flying Trapeze in the big circus picture “Dark Tower” at the Opera Monday.—Advt.