GENERAL NEWS Club Secretary Denies Luxury Building Charge

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 September 1947, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS Club Secretary Denies Luxury Building Charge

A denial that the building at Papatoetoe, which the Auckland Trades Council, alleging that it is a luxury building, has declared “black,” was intended for use as a clubrooms by the Papatoetoe Club; was made today by the club’s secretary, Mr P. M. Petrie. He said there was a minute to this effect on the club’s books. The property was purchased entirely as an investment, he claimed. It was thought it 'would make a very fine site for shops when the housing shortage was overcome. Mr Petrie added that it was intended to let the building to a tenant as soon as it was finished. —(P.A.)

Rates Struck A motion striking rates for the year was adopted by the Grey County Council this morning. The general rate will be 2|d in the £l, with special lighting rates of Id in the £1 and l-5d in the £1 for the Blackball and South Beach districts respectively.

Railway Wagons from Britain The second consignment of the 3000 railway wagons on order from the United Kingdom arrived at Auckland from- Liverpool yesterday by the New Zealand Shipping Company’s motor ship Orari. The Orari carries 150 wagons, which wall be distributed between both islands. The first shipment of 50 wagons arrived last month in the Brisbane Star. —(P.A.) Serious Head Injuries A nine-year-old boy, Colin Davey, son of Mr and Mrs J. Davey, of Kilgour street, Blackball, received serious head injuries about three o’clock yesterday afternoon when he tell about 14 feet on to a roadway from a duck-walk leading to the State coal mine bins at Blackball. Two other small boys were with Davey when he fell. He was brought to the Grey Hospital by car and his condition today was reported to be serious.

Review Of Penalties Urged The recommendation that the penalties for abortion and kindred offences should be reviewed by the Government was agreed upon at a meeting of the Wanganui branch o± the National Council of Women. The remit suggested that statutory protection should be granted to women who offered information regarding offences and that the law should be amended so as to provide that indictments involving this class of crime should be tried by one, or possibly two judges, sitting without a jury.

Coal From America Notice of his intention to ask the Minister of Supply (Mr A. H. Nordmeyer) what quantity of coal had been imported from America and whether, in view of the necessity to conserve dollar funds, imports would be stopped and contracts cancelled, was given by Mr M. H. Oram (Opposition, Manawatu) in the House of Representatives yesterday. Mr Oram said he understood a vessel arrived recently in Wellington with coal from America.—(P.A.)

Six Persons Injured Six persons were injured in three motor accidents in the Wellington district yesterday. None of the injuries was serious. Four men were injured in a head-on collision between a car and a truck near Porirua.- A woman was taken to hospital after a smash between two cars on a western Hutt road and another man received injuries when a truck crashed over a bank on the old Pahautanui road. One of the men in the head-on collision was thrown through the roof of the car.—(P.A.) New Machine

A planer, constructed by the Grey County Council, has commenced operations on County roads and its progress is to be checked by members of the council with a view to constructing another. The planer, it was stated at this morning’s meeting of the council, did the maintenance work formerly carried out by the graders in a quarter of the usual time. In the vicinity of 250 miles of roads in the county require the attention of the machine, said the acting-engineer, Mr H. E. Higgins. Blackball Water Scheme

The possibility of the estimated price for the provision of a permanent water supply system for Blackball, being reduced by £9OOO was mentioned at this morning’s meeting of the Grey County Council. This, it was said, would be due to the use of smaller pipes. The original estimate for the scheme was £33,000, of which the council was required to find onethird — £ll,OOO. No information as to the commencement of the scheme has been made available to the council so far. Driest Area

The driest part of the West Coast last month was Totara Flat, where 7.8 inches of rain fell, the total being recorded for 19 days. Westport experienced a similar fall—7.lo inches —but on 21 days. Both Hokitika and Greymouth had 23 days on which rain was recorded, but Greymouth’s fall was the heavier, being 9.29 as against 8.45 inches. Greymouth, however, enjoyed more sunshine than the provincial capital, the respective totals being 125.2 and 120.4 hours. The Westport total was 142.4 hours, and this was registered on one day less than Greymouth’s.

Health Camp Committee Arrangements for the street appeal to be held on September 12 were made at the recent meeting of the Greymouth Health Camp Committee. Advice was received from the Post and Telegraph Department that the new health stamps would be on sale as from October 1. Members of the Women’s Institute, Townswomen’s Guild and Crippled Children’s Society joined with the .committee in bidding farewell to its former treasurer, Mr F. Mairs. On behalf of the committee, the Mayoress, Mrs F. A. Kitchingham thanked Mr Mairs for the interest he had taken in its affairs and for the assistance he had so readily given. Food Savings Decrease Food coupon savings in the New Zealand Famine Emergency Committee’s campaign to make more butter and meat available for Britain last week fell to one of the lowest totals since the campaign opened 72 weeks ago. The total of 1568 butter and 87,009 meat coupons was approximately half the total for the previous week. The total number of coupons given since the start of the campaign is 410,273 butter and 11,357,169 meat, representing 9l| tons of butter and 2535 tons of meat. Gisborne maintained first place last week, giving approximately one and a half coupons for each household in its district. Hawke’s Bay contribution was almost as good, and Wanganui was third. —(P.A.)