DOMINION NEWS, PETROL COMPANY ACQUIRING LYTTELTON SITE

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 February 1947, Page 2

DOMINION NEWS, PETROL COMPANY ACQUIRING LYTTELTON SITE

Negotiations are likely to result in the British Petroleum Company (New Zealand subsidiary of the Anglo-Iran-ian Oil Company) taking over the last vacant 10 acres of the 7i| acres of reclaimed land at Naval Point, Lyttelton. The area to be leased by the new company is just west of the naval depot (six acres adjacent to the area being set aside as a recreation reserve for the Lyttelton Borough Council, and part abutting the oil wharf being occupied by the Navy for a base). When the company begins operations at Lyttelton, probably within two years, it will have the biggest holding of any of the petrol and oil com® panics. Officials of the company have had preliminary discussions with the Lyttelton Harbour Board, and the technical advisers of the company have inspected the site, pronouncing themselves satisfied with the wharfage facilities. The company is expected to begin constructional work on its new holding as soon as the details of its lease from the Harbour Board are completed.

Killed by Train. A retired schoolmaster was killed instantly when, he was struck by h mixed goods train as he was walking over a level crossing near Swanson, Auckland, yesterday morning. He was Joseph Butcher McLauchlan, aged 81, married, of Henderson.— (P.A.) Notes Snatched from Hand.

A 17-year-old girl employed as a short-hand-typist by a city firm was robbed of £5O in notes while she was walking through a crowd of afternoon shoppers in Queen street. She had the money in her hand after drawing it from a bank and was on her way back to the office with it when a man came up behind her, snatched it out of her grasp, and made off. A suspect was arrested later.—(P.A.) U.S. Submarine to Visit N.Z.

The United States Navy submarine Sennett, designated S.S. 408, which is attached to Rear-Admiral R. E. Byrd’s Antarctic expedition, will visit I Wellington on February 11 for four days, to provide liberty and recreation for the crew. Under Commander Joseph B. Icenhower, the submarine carries eight officers and 72 enlisted men. The Sennett is specially equipped with devices which permit her to nose round under water at the loot of glaciers, and to pick up bits of glacial deposits which might indicate the nature of the frozen surface. A fleet type of submarine of the latest class, the Sennett is 311 feet long and has a displacement of 1500 tons.—(P.A.) 1 Gas Services The aim of companies was to give consumers the best possible service in spite of difficulties, which, from time to time, might arise, said several delegates at the annual conference of the Gas Institute of New Zealand yesterday. At times there might be a shortage of coal which would necessitate rationing, and last winter rationing had had to be enforced in the North Island because of lack of coal. Generally there was sufficient coal in the bins at the West Coast but lack of shipping caused a bottleneck-. Were it possible to build up reserves it would be possible to maintain full services even though supplies failed to arrive when expected. A suggestion was made by Mr F. J. Kennedy (Wellington) that the main centres should work on a limit of between 300 and 400 tons of coal a clay, and when this limit was reached they should introduce rationing. Less Food for Britain

The following are returns for 20 postal districts in the forty-second week of the New Zealand Faming Emergency Committee’s campaign to save food' for Britain, the districts being listed in order of merit calculated on a population basis:— Oamaru, 120 butter, 5212 meat; Nelson, 134, 5020; Christchurch, 570, 32.485; Blenheim, 59, 1786; Wanganui, 38, 4811; Hawke’s Bay, 205, 4999; Gisborne, 164, 1848; Timaru, 164, 2017; Palmerston North, 290, 2894; Invercargill. 64, 28,880; Westport, 7, 377; Hamilton, 124, 3828; New Plymouth, 67, 2032; Dunedin, 53, 3682; Masterton, 36, 650; Thames, 17, 933; Whangarei, 8, 1020; Greymouth, 144, 351; Auckland, 125, 5536; Wellington, 42, 2158. Totals, 2421 butter , 84,699 meat. Gifts of butter and meat coupons last week fell to the lowest total since the start of the campaign. The contribution represented only one coupon for each five households in the Dominion. The total coupons given during the campaign are 311,563 butter and 7,754,198 meat.— (P.A.) ——========