General News

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 1 December 1945, Page 4

General News

Jurors Not Required On Monday. Jurors summoned for duty at the Supreme Court on Monday (3rd December) will not now be required as all the jury cases have been disposed of.

Rhodes Scholarship Nominees. Victoria University College. Wellington, nominees for Rhodes scholarships are Alan Miles, 8.A., and John Douglas Todd, M.A. Both are 25 years of age and have served overseas in the Royal New Zealand Navy for more than four years with rank of lieutenant. They were overseas when they entered their applications. Vital Statistics. An increased number of births and marriages and a considerable reduction in the number of deaths were shown in Nelson’s November vital statistics in comparison with the figures for the corresponding month last year. The registrations last month, with comparative figures for November 1944 in parentheses, were as follows: Births 36 (29), deaths 16 (38), marriages 25 (14). War Brides for America A total of 101 war brides and 60 young children are aboard the American ship Permanente which was due to sail from Auckland to-day for San Francisco via island ports, states a Press Association message. The brides come from all parts of New Zealand. Twenty Fire Calls. The number of calls received by the Nelson Fire Brigade to fires and supposed fires during the quarter ending 30th September totalled 20. Of this number 6 were property fires, 4 gorse grass and rubbish fires, 7 chimney fires. 1 motor car and 2 false alarms. (1 justifiable and 1 malicious). The causes of fires were: children playing with matches 2, cigarette ends and matches thrown down 2, airing clothes in front of fire 1, rats carrying matches to nest 1, back firing of engine 1, fat boiling over on kitchen range 1, faulty chimney 3. foul flue 7. Total 18. These figures were given by the Brigade Superintendent, Mr A. J. Drummond, in his report to the quarterly meeting of the Nelson Fire Board. Freedom For Private Enterprise. A plea for unity and co-operation among employers’ association was made by the president of the Canterbury Employers’ Association (Mr C. S. Peate) at a meeting of the South Canterbury branch of the association (reports “The Press”). Employers must stand together, otherwise it would be impossible to prevent the encroachment of the Labour Government on private enterprise, he said. Discussing manpower regulations, he said there should be as little control as possible for the freedom of private enterprise. The Employers’ Federation had asked for a lapse of manpower control and certificates of essentiality. If private enterprise was to play a part in rehabilitation it must have complete freedom. Unless all employable persons were employed, employers were not doing their full job, he said. Workers themselves must help in the rehabilitation of former servicemen and women and must help each other. They could do this by giving their support to local industries. Much had been said about the relationship between the employer and employee, continued Mr Peate. Freedom of expression must be allowed employees, he said, but he did not approve of works councils and production councils in any particular undertaking, for they were apt to bring too much power for employees, and the employer would become the servant of those committees. He added that workers should have every consideration and employers should be tolerant and take them into confidence and listen to their grievances.

Leave For Full-time Studies keave on full pay to a maximum of three months to enable ex-servicemen and women of the Public Service to at. tend approved educational courses can now be granted, according to a recent decision by the Public Service Commissioner. The period of three months is for attendance at any one full-time course at a recognised educational institution. and it has to be shown that the subject matter of the course is directly related to the work of the particular officer’s department. The officer concerned must also satisfy the usual conditions laid down by the Rehabilitation Department as to military service and suitability for concession. Leave on full pay is not granted where an officer is receiving rehabilitation payment other than books, tuition fees, and so on. It is also stated that the usual concession leave to ex-service-men of up to ten hours weekly for parttime study applies not only to attendance at university lectures, but also to other approved forms of study not involving actual attendance at lectures. Payment of Jurors and Witnesses Two notices published in this week’s Gazette deal with the payment of jurors and witnesses. In both instances the amount payable by the department has been increased to £1 a day, or 10s for a half day. University Examinations. The New Zealand University Entrance and Scholarship examinations start on Monday. There are 35 Nelson candidates who will sit their examination in the Presbyterian Church Hall. The supervisor will be the Rev. James Hay. Ratepayers’ Lack of Interest What might well be a record for lack of interest in ,a loan proposal put forward by a local body in New Zealand was that revealed by ratepayers of Havelock North in a £2OOO roading loan poll conducted this week, says a Press Association message from Hastings. Out of 412 eligible ratepayers, only 27 or six per cent, exercised their voting powers, the proposal being carried by 22 votes to 5. Vegetable Prices Hot-house grown french beans are retailing in Christchurch shops at 2s 6d a lb. Nelson peas are selling at 8d a lb. Broad beans in Christchurch range from 4d to 6d. Late Whitebait Though it is unusually late in the season, good catches of whitbait continue to be caught at Greymouth, mostly on the Cobden side of the river and beyond the Cobden bridge. Supplies in southern rivers are diminishing, though fairly good catches are being maintained in the Buller dis trict. Rehabilitation Assistance. Educational and housing assistance were the forms of rehabilitation most sought after by members of a recent draft of servicemen who returned from overseas, according to information gained by an education officer on board one troopship. Of about 1600 men who were in the draft, mostly Air Force personnel, one man in seven said he required no assistance, one in four was uncertain what form of help he would need, and in several cases more than one form of assistance was sought. Surprisingly few said they had no intention of returning to their prewar occupations. Some of these showed a tendency toward farm or trade training, with apparently the ownership of a farm or small business in view. Public Trust Office Estates to the value of £817,010 were reported and accepted for administration by the Public Trustee during the month of October, 1945. The total value of estates and funds under administration by the Public Trustees on the 31st March. 1945, was £67,876,066, and the new business for the seven months ended 31st October, was £4,949,049. Grants of administration made by the Court in favour of the Public Trustee numbered 261 for the month. During the month 507 new wills appointing the Public Trustee executor were prepared on behalf of testators and lodged for safe custody, and 500 existing wills were revised to provide for changes desired by testators. The total number of wills now held in the Public Trust on behalf of living persons is 131,083.

Gold Production on West Coast. Arahura gold dredge, the most useful unit operated by Gold Mines (N.Z.), Ltd., on the West Coast, early this month passed the 100,000 oz mark in gold production, a particularly fine achievement for little more than five years’ operation. The most payable of the three former units of the company, the Arahura dredge is probably one of the richest dredges to be operated in the province since the revival of dredging about 15 or 16 years ago, though there were one or two units of the “mosquito fleet” operating at the turn of the century which netted richer returns, but nothing like the same quantity in an even greater period of years. Kanieri, another unit operated by Gold Mines (N.Z.), Ltd., during the last six and a half years, has won a total of 88,7060 zof gold to date, while yet another unit, Barrytown, now inoperative, won a total of 53,2650 z. The total amount of gold won by the company up to the end of October by the three units was 241,807 oz, or nearly a quarter of a million ounces, valued at approximately £2,418,070, on which one eighth of a million pounds alone has gone to the State in payment of export gold tax of 12s 6d an ounce. Socialistic Experiments. Recalling that the Socialist Government in its early days had a “flutter” with potatoes on a glutted market, shipped 3000 tons to Uruguay and lost £30,000 on the deal, the “Otago Daily Times” says on that occasion the tubers wore eventually taken out to sea from Montevideo and dumped. Now there seem to be grounds for the suspicion, that is rapidly mounting to a certainty, ir the produce trade that once again in the matter of potatoes the Government has “rung the bell.” This time it appears to have been on a short market. New Zealand needed more potatoes. The trade knew it, and applied for a license to import 10.000 tons from Australia but the Government decided that any importing that might be necessary would be done by the Internal Marketing Division. In due course, an officer of that organisation went to Sydney, and bought the tonnage required to stave off the Dominion’s impending famine. It all sounds very simple, but the outcome of the transactions proved exceedingly complicated, and according to conservative estimates has already cost the taxpayers of Now* Zealand £70,000. Actually the sum of £IOO,OOO has been suggested as the cost of the Internal Marketing Division’s good deed for consumers of potatoes, but on the question of actual cost only the division or the Government can be explicit. On the last occasion it was a considerable time before the deficit of £30.000 on the South .American shipment slipped into the national accounts.