Dominion News

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 October 1949, Page 3

Dominion News

Smoking On Buses A motion to revoke the ban on smoking in Auckland’s new trolleybuses, with a view to obtaining a full report on the question of smoking on all the Auckland Transport Board’s vehicles, was lost at a meeting of the board yesterday. Passengers will still be - prohibited from smoking, but motormen will be permitted to smoke in buses at terminals.—(P.A.)

i Compton Declines Offer ; Denis Compton, the English batsi man, has declined the offer of the I ’Wellington Cricket Association of an appointment as coach of the next three seasons. The association has been informed that Compton, who plays in the first division of the Association football.league, intends to coni ceritrate on football. Wellington will : have no overseas coach this summer. —(P.A.) Population Of N.Z. “It is a fallacy to say that the people of Asia are casting envious eyes at New Zealand’s empty lands,”, said the Commissioner of Apprenticeship (Mr H. C. McQueen) at Wellington yesterday, when discussing his recent visit to Singapore to attend the International Labour Organisation conference. “More people in New Zealand would mean that less land would be available for primary production,” said Mr McQueen. “In my 14 days in Singapore I didn’t meet anyone who was envious of our -empty lands.’ Too much of it is straight up and down and wouldn’t even support tussock.”—(P.A.)

Mr Fraser Impressed The Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) confessed when he opened an art exhibition by Sam Cairncross at Wellington yesterday, that when, he saw the picture, “On the Hooks,”, -.the painter’s most controversial canvas, it was so realistic that he felt he could carry it away. “On the Hooks,” a slaughterhouse impression, is under offer to the trustees of. the National Gallery. Mr Fraser said that while a sheep carcass did not appeal to him, particularly as a subject, no one could gainsay Cairncross’s realistic approach. He regretted that while he was on the East Coast recently Cairncross had not painted George Nepia, who, Mr Fraser said, “was just as much an artist on the field” as Caimcross was with his palette.—(P.A.) Geothermal Power

Dr. Alfredo Mazzoni, who. supervised the restoration of the Lardarello geothermal power system after the war, may visit New Zealand with a party of Italian experts at the invitation of the Government. He may be accompanied by’ Professor Semenza, professor of engineering at Milan University. Dr Mazzoni does not speak English. Preliminary negotiations for a visit by Italian experts to advise the New Zealand Government on the use of geothermal steam for generating power were conducted by the Commissioner of Works (Mr E. R. McKillop) when he was in Italy recently. “An invitation has been extended and accepted, but we are not ready yet,” said the Minister of Works '"Mr R. Semple) in Auckland yesterday.—(P.A.) Electric Power Plant

Tenders for the equipment for the 100,000-kilowatt generating station to be built at Whakamaru on the Waikato river above Maraetai were to be called by the Government this week, said the Minister of Works (Mr R. Semple) in Auckland yesterday. He said that at the same time tenders would be called for plant for the Roxburgh scheme in Central Otago. This had been approved by the Cabinet. A concrete gravity dam about 900 feet long, flanked by earth dams, is to be built at Whakamaru. The dam will be 180 feet high from its foundations. The power house, set across the river immediately below the dam, will contain four generating units, each of 25,000 kilowatts. They will be driven by turbines.—(P.A.). Price Control Breaches

Law-abiding citizens would be more ready to continue their co-op-eration with the Price Tribunal if it exercised discretion not to prosecute in instances where the offence was very minor or excusable, said Mr W. H. Woodward, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at New Plymouth. He was giving his reserved decision on two informations laid by an inspector of the Price Control Division against Benbows Butchery, Ltd. Two of the overcharges were 6s 61d in a total charge of £24 19s 6d and £1 7s 8d in a total charge of £24 18s. It was these two to which Mr Woodward referred and these he dismissed. Two other charges were of overcharges of £5 7s 6d in a total account of £32 5s and £2 15s 9d in £l3 18s 9d. Fines of £2 10s were imposed in each of these, with costs.—(P.A.) Hostels And Awards

Because it was felt that an outside organisation would not understand special conditions under which it operated, the Wellington Baptist Youth Hostel applied to the Arbitration Court yesterday to be excluded from the list of parties to the New Zealand hotel workers’ dispute. A similar application was received on behalf of Weir House, the students’ hostel at Victoria University College, and a series of other institutions in Wellington and Christchurch. The workers are claiming a five-day 40-hour week, and pay increases to bring them into line with those already granted to the licensed hotel workers. Representing the Baptist Church, Mr G. R. Tucner said the Baptist Hostel was part of charitable works of the church, and could only be considered on the basis of complete cooperation by the staff and the interchangeability of duties. Mr Justice Tyndall said that the Court would consider the Baptist application when it made its award.—(P.A.) Anti-Submarine Training

■A greatly developed scheme for training the Royal New Zealand Navy in the latest methods of anti-sub-marine warfare is believed to be under consideration by the Government. Modern detection and attack equipment for instruction is already in New Zealand, skilled specialists have been lent by the Royal Navy, and the vote for maintaining the anti-submarine school at Lyttelton has been increased ten-fold to £7300 this year. The Navy established an anti-.submarine school at Petone during the war and, when it ceased operating, most of the instructional equipment was' trans-/ ferred to the Lyttelton base,. H.M.N.Z.S. Tasman. This base has since been known as the torpedo and anti-submarine school and maintained on a nominal basis by a resident naval officer and a “caretaker” 1 party of ratings. However, financial arrangements made in the 1949-50 Estimates suggest that it may be recommissioned in an active role. Antisubmarine training, for New Zealand s flotilla of six frigates will also be help- ! ed by the arrival of three T class submarines at Sydney early next year.— (P.A.)