Maori Woman To Seek Election To Parliament

Northern Advocate, 8 June 1949, Page 3

Maori Woman To Seek Election To Parliament

NEWS IN BRIEF .

The first Maori woman to seek election to Parliament is Mrs Ka Nutana, of Raglan. She will be the candidate of the Kauhanganui Independent Maori Party for the Western Maori seat. Mrs Nutana is a prominent member of the Waikato tribes. She is honorary secretary of the Maori Women’s Welfare Society, which assisted in the establishment, of a Maori hostel in Auckland.

The sitting member for Western Maori is Mr M. Ratana.

Seven sitting Labour members of the House of Representatives, including three Cabinet Ministers, have been endorsed as official Labour Party candidates for the general election. The only Auckland seat affected is North Shore, where the sitting member, Dr A. M. Finlay, has been selected. The others are: Hutt, the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash; Sydenham, the Minister of Health, Miss Howard; Lyttelton, the Minister of Education, Mr McCombs; Christchurch Central, Mr R. M. Macfarlane; Napier, Mr A. E. Armstrong; Avon, Mr J. Mathison.

Three nominations for selection of a National Party candidate for the Eastern Maori seat were made at a meeting of the Eastern Maori electorate committee of the party at Whakatane. The aspirants are Messrs A. J. Carroll, farmer, of Wairoa; Raniera Kiingi, of Rotorua, and C. Anaru, a legal officer of the Department of Maori Affairs, Rotorua. The* final selection will be, made at a meeting at Ruatoki on June 18.

Because of bad weather, the Paraparaumu airfield was closed yesterday from 11.40 a.m. Lodestar aircraft due in after that time were directed to Palmerston North and Douglas machines to Ohakea. Cook Strait services were cancelled.

A cyclist, Mr George Thomas, aged 38. of Mt Wesley, near Dargaville, was struck by a motor car on the Darga-ville-Te Kopuru main highway on Monday night. He received head injuries and was admitted to the Northern Wairoa Hospital.

The English film star and stage comedian, Tommy Trinder, has agreed to tour New Zealand after he finishes work on the Ealing picture “Bitter Springs,” now being made in South Australia. The Tivoli circuit in Sydney has signed a contract with Trinder, in conjunction with Mr R. J. Kerridge, of New Zealand. The comedian will open his New Zealand season in Auckland in October. ’

The Auckland Veterans’ Home in Mt Roskill. is to be purchased jointly by the New Zealand Patriotic Fund Board and the Canteen Funds Board. A decision to this effect was reached at a meeting in Auckland yesterday afternoon between representatives of the two fund boards and the Veterans' Home Board, The -price -to be paid is £31,000.

Mrs Alexandria Preslancl, aged about 68, who was seriously injured on Monday afternoon when a car in which she was a passenger ran off the Summit road, Christchurch, died at about 2.30 p.m. yesterday afternoon. Pier husband, Mr Bertram Charles Presland, aged 78, North Parade, was killed in the same accident.

“In the past 12 months there has been a marked improvement in the availability of key materials,” said Sir James Fletcher, chairman of directors of- Fletcher Holdings, Ltd., at the annual meeting yesterday. “Supplies of reinforcing and structural steel, which for some years have been most inadequate, are now relatively freely available. The company’s stocks of steel in the four main centres are now the highest they have been in the last 10 years. Complementary to the greater availability of steel will be an increased cement supply as a result of cargoes of overseas cement now en route to New Zealand. These conditions should enable a relaxation of building permits for commercial construction, particularly in cases where the building owner will agree to the use of the higher priced imported materials.” * * * *

Two men were each fined £IOO by Mr J. S. Planna, S.M., in Wellington yesterday, after they had pleaded guilty to separate charges of bookmaking over the week-end. Eugene Peters, clerk, 29, was stated by Chief Detective E. H. Compton to have taken £575 in bets up to the time he was apprehended at 1 o’clock on Saturday afternoon. Ralph John Ryland McRandall. 54, watersider, had taken £147 in bets up to 2.15 on Monday afternoon.

No sailing ships are left in the Tasman trade following the removal recently of the after mast of the explosives schooner Pin. Equipped with a 265 horse-power Diesel engine, giving her a speed of about nine knots in good weather, the Piri will remain in the trade, carrying explosives from Melbourne to Auckland and down the coast to Dunedin. The Piri’s mast was removed following her survey. It was found to be attacked by rot and was condemned. The foremast has been retained and the Piri will now sail with an auxiliary rig of fore-sail, stay-sail and jib. * * * *

The latest addition to the Northern Steamship Company’s coastal fleet, the former Swedish motor-vessel Vestria, of 555 tons, left Genoa at the weekend on another stage of her voyage from Barry, Wales, to New Zealand. With one of the company’s masters, Captain J. Appleton, in command, the vessel left Barry on May 8, and has since visited Tiegnmouth, Gibraltar and Genoa. After calling at Livorno to complete discharge of her British china-clay cargo, the Vestria will go to Sfax, Tunisia, to load phosphate for New Zealand. Her Dominion port of discharge has not yet been announced, but the motor-vessel is expected on the coast late next death.