97,000 Milk Bottles Not Returned In City

Northern Advocate, 16 August 1949, Page 3

97,000 Milk Bottles Not Returned In City

NEWS IN BRIEF .

Concern regarding the thousands of milk bottles which were not returned to the Auckland Milk Treatment Corporation after having been delivered to consumers was expressed by Mr F. W. Grey, a member of the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Board, at yesterday's meeting of the board. Mr Grey said that during the past three months the corporation had filled 5,260,613 bottles of milk, and of that total 97,466 bottles had not been returned.

During June 959.832 bottles were filled and of the total 25,452 had to be replaced. The position was serious, as the corporation could not go on buying replacement bottles at that rate indefinitely. A stage may be reached when it may be found necessary to inform customers that milk would be delivered only for bottles returned. The life of a milk bottle was estimated at 60- trips, said Mr Grey, but at the moment the corporation was getting only 25 trips a bottle. * * * * The Napier-Gisborne railway line was open for normal traffic yesterday, after being closed since Tuesday by slips and wash-outs. * * * * A dozen passengers and the driver, Mr A. Marshall, of Greenhithe Road, escaped unhurt yesterday morning when a North Shore Transport Co. bus ran back over a small cliff on the Old Lake Road, Narrow Neck, and was prevented from crashing on to a concrete gun emplacement on the beach by a small pohutukawa tree. The bus was climbing up from Narrow Neck Beach along the Old Lake Road when the back axle snapped and the bus started, to run back. The brakes would not hold the vehicle, and the driver tried to divert into a telegraph pole. He missed the pole and the bus went over the bank.

The 33ft Auckland auxiliary cutter Arethusa. which has been associated with the port since she was built there in 1917, has been sold to Mr W. D. Winstanley, of New Plymouth, and is expected to sail tomorrow. The fourman crew for the 550-mile voyage will be the new owner and three Aucklanders. Mi- A. Magnug and his son, Mr G. Magnus, and Mr C. Hill.

Concern is felt for the safety of Mr Walter Henry Garrett, aged 78, who has been missing from his home at Upper Papamoa, Tauranga, since August 6. A police search for him has so far been without result. Mr Garrett is sft lOin in height, and has grey hair and moustache and light blue eyes. He is short-sighted. When last seen he was wearing a light brown coat with a white stripe, dark grey trousers, brown boots and a brown felt hat. He is believed to be suffering from loss of memory.

Footwear repairs are costing New Zealand an estimated sum of well over £2,000.000 a year, according to the official journal of the New Zealand Retailers’ Federation. Weaknesses in shoes and variable quality in leather, especially in soles, it says, keep repairers working at capacity. Measures are now being taken by the Dominion Boot Trades Association to raise the quality of footwear and the standard of repair work.