Buffer Consumption In HI. Now 32.5 Lb A Head

Northern Advocate, 13 October 1949, Page 2

Buffer Consumption In HI. Now 32.5 Lb A Head

NEWS IN BRIEF .

The Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Nordmeyer) said yesterday that the consumption of butter in New Zealand in 1938-39 (before rationing) was 421 b a head of the population. The new butter ration of Boz a week, together with allowance for hotels and other priority users, would make consumption 32.51 b a head. The figure for 1948-49 was 311 b. * * V * The funeral of Mr Matiii Ratana, M.P. for Western Maori, took place at Ratana yesterday. The attendance was more than 2000. Included in the representation from Parliament were the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser), Ihe deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr K. J. Holyoake), and all the Maori members of Ihe House. Tributes were paid by the Prime Minister and Mr E T. Tirikatene.

Negotiations with the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) for a tribunal and salary increases for the Public Service were “well in advance,” it was reported at a meeting of the augmented national executive of the Public Service Association, which was continued in Wellington yesterday. Chairmen of the association’s main sections throughout the Dominion are attending the meeting.

A record catch of 600 cases of fish—the result of two days’ operations—was landed at Port Chalmers yesterday by the deep-sea trawling vessel Taiaroa. About 90 per cent of the catch was terakihi. The fish were taken north of Moeraki. * * * *

The executive of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce has decided to request the Associated Chambers to press the Government for the issue o! additional import licences for motor vehicles in view of the large proportion of cars in New Zealand which are

more than ]0 years old. The Dunedin chamber points out that the number of cars in the Dominion in relation to the population has declined in recent years. Provided a sawmill working on indigenous timber cannot cut the log supplies available to it in 40 hours of work, a subsidy will continue to be paid up to a maximum of four hours a week for such overtime as is necessary in the sawmill to achieve this, said the Minister of Forests (Mr Skinner) in the House of Representatives yesterday. He was answering an urgent question by Mr T. L. Macdonald (O—Wallace), who asked if the Minister would reinstate the subsidy on overtime formerly paid to indigenous sawmills on any hours worked in excess of 40 each week.