DOMINION NEWS

Grey River Argus, 27 April 1945, Page 2

DOMINION NEWS

RADIO PATRIOTIC APPEAL. P.A. WELLINGTON, April 26., The total subscribed in the radio patriotic appeal last night is reported as £66,169, with some late contriuutions still possible. The district totals were: Northland £4,487, Auck- I land £2,321, Waikato £4,472, Bay of Plenty £905, Taranaki £4,702, bast Coast £260, Hawke’s Bay £6,961, Wellington £4,028, Marlborough £o(0, Nelson £4,949, Westland £685, Canterbury £14,074, Otago £13,7/7, Southland £4,178. AUCKLAND FIRE CALLS AUCKLAND, April 26. Though 1022 fire calls were answered by! the Auckland Metropolitan Fire' Brigade during the past year, this figure represented a decrease of 422 on the preceding year, reported Superintendent W. L. Wilson al the annual meeting of the Fire Board. The total fire loss for the year was £76,521. Two persons Jost their lives as the result of fire, and live firemen and six civilians were injured. • It was stated that the wet Summer had resulted in a big decrease in the number of grass and rubbish fires. REVIEW OF TRANSPORT LICENSES WELLINGTON, April 26. Mr. H. J. Knight, National Secretary of the New Zealand Road Transport Alliance, N.Z. Carriers’ Federation and N.Z. Taxi Proprietors’ Federation, said: “Practically every section of the licensed motor transport industry affected, will be astonished and incensed at the .statement by the Minister of Transport (Mr. O’Brien) published on Tuesday, as to his policy decisions to be applied in the review of licenses. It will be astonished because the statement contained direct negations of assurances which the Minister had voluntarily given to representatives of the industry only a few days previously, and incensed with the treatment to be meted out to the industry in spite of the really good job which the Minister said it had done during the war years. On April 13 last, . the Minister had given an unqualified assurance that there would be no confiscation of licenses, and that no change in the law regarding the issue of licenses was even contemplated. The requirement for an operator to make avialable a suitable part of his service for sale to an ex-serviceman is nothing less than confiscation, applied in the smooth technique of Nazis."’

WOOL CLIP RECORD AUCKLAND, April 26. The Auckland wool clip this season will constitute a new record. So far 97,000 bales have been appraised and at the final appraisal opening over the week-end a further 15,000 bales will be catalogued, making a total of approximately 112,000 bales for the season. The previous record was 106,763 bales in 1942-43. while last season 106,694 bales were dealt with. It is stated that there will be no carryover this season and storage space is adequate. If the coming appraisal realises £l9 6s a bale, the average' for the last appraisal, the cheque will , amount to £289,500, which will bring the total pay-out for the season to £2,192.000 compared with the previous record in 1942-43 of £2,039,000. INVERCARGILL LIQUOR TRUST WELLINGTON, April 25. A supporting contention of the New Zealand Alliance that when right’ to sell liquor in Invercargill was ;;.ven to the Trust, an effective body like a licensing committee should have been established to control the whole of the trade, Mr H. W. Milner, General Superintendent of the New Zealand Alliance, said in evidence before the Royal Commission on Licensing that the Trust was already in difficulty because it did not control the brewery in the town. Absence of such a committee was one of the weaknesses of the Carlisle scheme. In view of the Invercargill experiment of State control being still an issue on the liquor ballot paper, and of almost certain increased interest in state control or trust control, the Commission should have before it information about Carlisle. A British Royal Commission in its Criticism of the Carlisle experiment had pointed out that there should be an advisory committee of local people to help in i ts conduct. The Alliance had felt, from the outset, that a committee should be appointed in Inver-rare-ill to function like other commit--1 tees Another weakness in Carlisle I was’the activity of a brewery with 20

tied houses in the area. That also was a weakness of the Invercargill position. The Mary Street Brewery there, which had not produced for ten years, though it had had a licence, had begun to produce again, and was a distributor. There was no monopoly in Invercargill. It had been reported to him that the brewery was underselling the Trust. Other breweries had access to the Invercargill area. The Trust had to meet thencompetition. Philip Snowdon, an aident supporter of the Carlisle scheme, and a member of the control board, had condemned it, because there was no incentive for police to enforce the law, and drunkenness had not been reduced in Carlisle to any greater degree than in the rest oi England. patient assaulted WELLINGTON. April 24. John William Alexander Wardle, aged 29. a male nurse, was committed to the Supreme Court for trial by Mr. J. L. Stout. S.M., on a charge of assaulting a patient in the Wellington Hospital. Evidence showed that the patient, Neil Oliver Moors, was admitted on March 15 suffering from a nervous condition, but wished to le - made several attempts to escape and was forcibly restrained by accused. Medical evidence was given that on March 16 Moore was operated on after a diagnosis of eternal hae morrhaee and was found to have suffered 5 a rupture of the liver winch, the doctor said, could only have re suited from violence.. A fellow patient described how the accused had pushed Moore several times, and knelt bim. An other patient, who saw the incident, said the accused said he was sorry he "“in StnHment to “and his fist, and denied kicking or jumpIng on Moore.