Man Injured at Puponga Mine

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 30 March 1938, Page 6

Man Injured at Puponga Mine

Mr J. Barker, a miner at the Puponga coal mine, has been admitted to Nelson hospital suffering rib injuries, the result of a fall of coal. War Memorials in Australia "I was greatly struck by the wonderful war memorials all through Australia; every tiny village has its memorial to the fallen, and 1 must say they are extremely impressive and surpass anything of the same sort in England,” said Lieut.-Colonel J. O'Sullivan, London, who arrived in Wlelington by the Awatea yesterday, after spending several weeks in Australia. To Open Up Skiing Fields To open up the vast permanent skiing fields at the head of the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, an aerial railway is proposed, and survey of routes have been advanced recently. Estimates of the cost of the aerial railway, with six towers, are £30,000. The suggested route is from the end of the present road to the Franz Josef glacier to Goatpath (5288 feet), under Thelma Peak, and overlooking the head of the Gallery, the Franz Josef, and the coast. Provision for power for driving the railway has been made in the new hydro-electric plant now being installed at Waihi. The intake is in the Tartary river, the water passing through 1200 feet of tunnelling before falling 150 feet in a length of 200 feet of pipe line to the generating station, 60 chains away from the hostel. The plant will develop 150 kilowatts. Travelling the World "A man without a home” was how Dr. W. R. Repveu. who has been travelling around the world since 1934, described himself to a "Post” reporter upon'his arrival at Wellington from Sydney by the Awatea. Dr. Nepveu will spend about a fortnight in New Zealand before returning to Australia, whence he intends to go to South Africa. His plans after that are as yet unformed; he will go where his fancy takes him. In his wanderings he has visited almost every country in the world, and travelled more than 140,000 miles. Dr. Nepveu, whose doctorate is one of law, gained at the University of Utrecht, is by his travelling making up for 24 years spent in the one city, Apeldoorn, in Holland, where he was burgomaster for all that time. The position, he laughingly explained, was no sinecure. The office was something like that of an English or New Zealand Mayor, in that it carried with it the honour of chief citizenship, but it was a full-time job. and in effect was that of a city manager. Apeldoorn had 70,000 inhabitants, and was made additionally important by being the site of the Queen’s summer residence. Dr. Nepveu was in complete charge of police and fire brigade and all the other civic services He received his appointment to the burgomastership from the Queen and relinquished it only when he passed the retiring age. “I hope to die at sea,” was his parting remark, but his physical and mental vigour, and his effervescent good humour, made it appear that it may be a long time before his hope is fulfilled.

“Medical Socialism” “The doctors are to be the next industry to be socialised,” remarked Mr S. G. Holland, M.P., in a political address at St. Albans, when attacking the Government for its interference with private enterprise. "Each doctor will have so many persons on a panel, and if you want another doctor you will have to pay so much mileage. If you happen to have an appendix for which you have no further use and your doctor is not particularly good at that particular job it will be just too bad.” went on Mr Holland. “There is a consolation, though. He will be under written contract to the Government and therefore will be bound to give it a go.” (Laughter.) "Disease-minded New Zealanders’* "We in New Zealand are diseaseminded when we should be healthmonded,” Mr C. S. Falconer, secretary of the Commandery in New Zealand of the Order of St. John, at the annual meeting of the Canterbury and West Coast Centre of the St. John Ambulance Association (reports “The Press”). "We spend money putting up large and expensive hospitals, but not on the promotion of health. We have more doctors in proportion to population than any other part of the world, and we also have a larger proportion of mental cases.” A Government Promise Disappointment and concern is expressed by employers that the Government had not seen fit to honour a promise made last December that it would introduce in Parliament in March an amendment to the Factories Act remedying a defect in the holiday clauses that places a liability on employers beyond that intended in the legislation (states the "N.Z. Herald”). It is pointed out that the Government’s promise was made without any qualification that it would not only amend the legislation, but that it would also make it retrospective to cover last Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. On that promise employers had withheld payment of claims made for such holidays. "It is hard to imagine that the matter of amending the legislation. could have been overlooked in March,” said an employer. "Whether the Government deliberately let the matter drift in the hope that the Courts will reverse an interpretation placed on the present clauses, or whether it shelved the amendment in March in favour Of the next sitting of Parliament in June it is in either case grossly unfair to employers. It has admitted that the original intention for payment of wages on prescribed holidays was merely to ensure that workers received the ordinary weekly wage without deduction when a holiday fell on the working day.