LOCAL AND GENERAL

Grey River Argus, 22 May 1947, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Danish Parliament has approved a Bill to give men and women equal right to be ordained as ministers of religion.

A fair proportion of suit lengths offered in New- Zealand are locally made. In the 1944-45 year New Zealand manufacturers made 2,948,000 yards of tweed and cloths and also 1,009,000 yards of flannel. A sample of New Zealand manufacture was.' the Dominion- battledress. The manufacturers are determined to raise the prices of suit lengths.

Members of te Hutt Valley Federation of Women’s Institutes have just returned from a tour of Canterbury and the West Coast. The 25 women in the party were entertained by members of local Women’s Institutes during their trip. The. Upper Hutt Institute decided to adopt a small isolated institute in North Auckland until it was strongly established. Upper Hutt members are collecting soap to be sent to a sister institute 'in England.

Despite magisterial authority for a warrant to be issued yesterday for the eviction of the “squatters” at Maori Hill, tl-e family is- still in the house. The attorney for the owner stated that he was reluctant to turn the six persons concerned, who included two married women, into the street. For that reason he had decided to suspend the operation of the warrant until the negotiations at present taking place in respect to alternative accommodation were completed.

Although restricted to a fifteenfoot draught, the m.v. Karu with a cargo of coal for Wellington touched the Grey River bar as she made her way out of port yesterday morning. Shoaling has dcreased the depth of water at the bar by another - foot, leaving a maximum depth yesterday of eighteen feet. This will decrease gradually during the week as neap tides approach, and unless scouring occurs the maximum depth will be reduced to about fifteen feet. In such an event, further cargo restrictions will be necessitated.

Sold for 35s in a Christchurch auction room kst week, a vase was worth £5l 12s 3d to its owner. She received that amount after the auctioneer had deducted his normal commission of 1/6 in the £, on a sale at 355. The vase, blue in colour and narrow at the neck, was unpacked from a case with other oddments by one of the auction room staff on Monday and was tagged. It was handled with all the care due to chinaware, and the employee handled it again when he decided to shift it and other articles to another table more under the eyes of the staff. A woman handed the vase in a careful inspection, and left instructions for a bid to be put in on her behalf up to 30s. In the next houi’ other callers handled the vase. After it had been .sold a dealei' ran his expert hands lover the piece of china. Turning the vase upside down, he remarked. “It’s not often you find these in old vases.” Out of the neck came a bundle of £5 and £lO notes. The mystery is, who placed these bank notes in the vase ?

Several Greymouth dancers competed successfully ar the Nelson Competitions Society’s annual festival last week. Miss Lois Thompson, of Runanga, was particularly successful, winning the Cameron Cup for the dancing championship under twelve. She won four dancing events. —Skipping, Eastern, Russian and toe, while her placings included second in the fling, third in the opeatic, sword, Sean Triubhais, hornpipe and character story dances. She was also highly commented for her displays in the tap and barefoot dances. In the under twelve, Miss Zelda Cleghorn won the character dance and novice fling, and was placed first, equal, in the classical dance. She was placed second in the character story dance, and very highly commended in 'the open hornpipe, Russian, skipping, and 'operatic dances and highly commended in the tap dances. Miss Judith Cleghorn was second in the character story and operatic dancess, third in the juvenile dance, and very highly commended in the barefoot dance. Miss Kay Cleghorn was third in the character Story, and second in the juvenile dances, and very highly commended in the barefoot dance. She was also runner-up for the Juvenile Cup. Miss E. Duggan, of Runanea was another successful competitor. All of the Greymouth prizewinners were nunils of the IMiriam Trott School of Dancing.

There is a possibility of securing supplies of Virginian quail eggs for various Acclimatisation Societies in New Zealand. This is being investigated by Mr C. M. Greens-lade, Chairman of the Game Committee of the Otago Acclimatisation Society, who arrived in the United States on May 15. An import licence for 1000 eggs has been obtained, and if Mr Greenslade’s efforts are successful, they will be transported by air to the Otago Acclimatisation Society’s game farm at Waitati. For a number of years, several societies in New Zealand have been endeavouring to obtain supplies of Virginian quail from America, and the indications are that, as a result of the personal efforts of Mr Green.slade, supplies will now be forthcoming.—Press Assn.

The New Zealand National Employment Service has now set up advisory employment committees in the main centres for the baking industry, the freezing industry, the motor trades, road transport, and tramways. A committee for the laundry industry, in Auckland, has also been set up. A recent. 1.L.0. publication records that “most countries attach special importance to reinforcing the employment service machinery with an active network of local committees representative of the management and labour interests in the community.” Canada, in 1946 had some' 62 such committees operating; Great Britain had some 340; the United States and other countries also had wide net-works of employment committees.

Mass will be celebrated on next Sunday (Pentecost Sunday), May 25, at Moana, 8 a.m., and at Paroa, 10 a.m.—Advt.

Indicative that Greymouth chemists have a greater and steadier demands for medicines, is the fact that they are fast becoming unable to maintain their supply of medicine bottles. Pill boxes aZo are becoming scarce, and some chemists have had to resort to the use of a more expensive metal container for tablet medicines-. The increased demand for medicines under Social Security has resulted in a shortage of bottles ranging in capacity from loz to 20oz. Winter ailments have affect'd stocks considerably. At least one proprietary firm has issued a request to its dealers to endeavour to have customers- return empty bottles, and present indications are that if the shortage is not soon alleviated, the public will have to produce bottles to local chemists to ensure prescriptions being filled.

The Government lighthouse steamer Matai, which was wihtdrawn from service on December 12 for survey /and overhaul at the Devonport naval base, is not likely to be recommissioned before August. It was originally hoped that the work would be completed by last month, but the refit has been delayed by the more urgent calls for labour for . the cruiser Bellona, the Government motor-vessel Maui Pomare and other ships. The loss of the Matai for eight months is being felt by the Marine Department, which intends to send her on at last one trip to Norfolk Island before returning to her prewar duty as lighthouse tender. The number of people who attended the Newtown Zoo on Sunday afternoon is believed to constitute a record. More than 2000 adults paid to see the exhibits, and more than 4000 children were admitted free of charge.