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Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 288, 2 November 1934, Page 8

The Legislative Council met yesterday at 2.30 p.m., and adjourned a minute later, there being no business on the order paper. The current Gazette contains a proclamation declaring that from and after February 1 next year British silver coins of the following denominations—namely, crown, half-crown, florin, shilling, sixpence, and threepence—shall not be legal tender in New Zealand. The first 50 men to be dismissed at the Waitaki hydro-electric power works following the completion of the dam and its oflicial opening on Saturday last received their notice on Tuesday. It was officially stated in reply to enquiries that within the next few weeks several hundred, men at present employed at the dam site will receive notice. Efforts are being made by the Public “Works Department to place the men on other works. “I have solemnised about 1000 weddings, ” said Canon Percival Janies, m the course of an address at the Wellington Botary Club’s “husband and wife” luncheon, “and the amazing thing to me is that the bride will say, without winking, the word ‘obey’; and she knows, and lie knows, and she knows that he knows that she has not the slightest intention of doing so. But tliev will soon buckle down —if she will, she' will; and if she won’t, slio won’t.” The Native Affairs Commissioners report that “the Controller and Audi-tor-General complains of excessive toll calls by the Native Minister. For the year ended March 31, 1933, the toll calls of the Native Minister amounted, in round figures, to £641, and those of all other Ministers to £1079; and for the year ended March 31, 1934, the toll calls of the Native Minister amounted to £7Bl, and those of all other Ministers to £llßs. In these two years, therefore, the toll calls of the Native Minister amounted to £1422, while those of all other Ministers amounted to £2264. By the end of March, 1933, 54 land development schemes were in operation, and before April, 1934, they had increased to 76. The Minister’s method was to keep in touch with all parts of the field and to direct operations in detail. If the Minister were justified in attending to administrative details, then we should not be disposed to cavil at the telephone charges. We are clear that he was not justified in attending to administrative detail to the extent which he did.”

Caught as a youngster in the high country at the hack of Apiti, a tame red deer which had been brought up oil the bottle is an interesting exhibit at the Spring Show. The animal is three years old. Good business is reported by traders exhibiting at the Motor Olympia in the Spring Show, where salesmen have been inundated with inquiries concerning the various classes of vehicles. It is understood that during the first two days about twenty transactions for the purchase of new cars were finalised, whife in other instances negotiations were opened up. One firm sold four cars yesterday. Two New Plymouth residents, Messrs E. Whitwell and 11. Whitwell, a father and eon, have drawn Andrea in the Irish sweep on the Cambridgeshire Stakes. Neither are thinking; of the £30,000 they will receive if Andrea wins, but they are content with the thoughts of £4OO for drawing a horse. They previously held several unsuccessful tickets. The father is a service station proprietor and his son a hank clerk.

One arrangement for the Associated Chambers of Commerce conference at Christchurch had to be hurriedly cancelled. The preparations by the Canterbury Chamber for the entertainment of delegates included the appointment of a women’s committee to arrange hospitality for wives and daughters of the visitors, and plans were made, including a morning tea party for yesterday, but there was a regrettable anti-climax when it was found that the delegates were not accompanied by women folk.

The system of providing unemployment relief for Maoris is reviewed in the report of the Native Affairs Commission. There are 11,850 contributors to tile Unemployment Fund. So far the total subsidies authorised amount to £118,530. The Commissioners say there was a partial distribution of Maori unemployment funds, but without an exhaustive examination of contracts they cannot deliver any concluded finding on the subject.

“The high exchange rate is much quoted as equivalent to a further protective tariff, but I think it can be agreed that, while the resultant depreciation of our currency gave local manufacturing industries a temporary aid, the benefit has been largely evanescent, and, in accordance with the recognised economic principle conditions have so adapted themselves as largely to nullify any exchange advantage,’"’ said Mr A. M. Seaman, in his presidential address to the annual conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce in Christchurch yesterday. The erection of the new building for the Public Works Department at Palmerston North and the construction of the new science block at the Boys’ High School have created an increase in the building returns for October as compared with the previous month. Ten permits for houses were issued to a total value of £6llß as against £8909 in September. The total value of permits for business premises was £8653, of which the Public Works Department building was responsible for £8177. The value of the additional block at the High School, which is classed, as educational premises and given 'in a separate return, is stated to be £4200. The value of alterations and additions to other buildings in October was £1735.