FOOD PURCHASE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25211, 25 May 1945, Page 8

FOOD PURCHASE

BRITISH DEPARTMENT proposal for retention The real object of the recent visit of the British farmers' delegation was to tret the Empire to back a proposal to retain the food purchasing department which was set up in England during the war, said the president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, Auckland Province, Mr H. M. Rushworth, at the annual conference. Mr Rushworth said that lie had been told this by the delegation leader, Mr J. Turner, who had said that the British farmers were endeavouring to put forward the proiilr Turner had said that the difficulty facing Britain in the post-war period would be to maintain a price level to avoid a slump owing to competition from Empire and other countries. No Government could survive if it put up the tariff on foodstuffs, Mr Turner had told Mr Rushworth. He had said that he would not be foolish enough to suggest a quota or embargo, but he had thought the British Government department buying food in bulk from all parts of the world for Great Britain should become a permanent institution. Parliament would vote a sum for the purpose that would mean the application of a quota in a most extreme form, Mr Turner had said. He wished to know whether New Zealand would fall in with the idea. "My reply was that it depended upon another action that the British Government could take," said Mr Rushworth. There was potential famine in Europe and there had been actual famine_ in Asia for years. In a part of China 15,000,000 people had died of starvation. J Asia would suffer far more than Europe after the war. Mr Rushworth said that he made the suggestion that Britain should take all surplus foodstuffs from the Dominion for the starving millions of Asia, as New Zealand could not finance the transaction, although Britain could. Mr Turner had said that it was a new concept, but he promised to push it forward when he returned to London. w ' , He did not think that New Zealand should worry about embargoes, quotas or tariffs being proposed oy Britain, and he thought that his suggestion would he considered. Mr Rushworth concluded. One of the problems of the future was that of starving populations, and starvation was one of the root causes of war.

FORGED OLD MAN'S WILL PRISON FOR SYDNEY COUPLE (0.C.) SYDNEY, May 17 A Sydney man, Walter Ellis, aged 47, and his wife, Frances Ellis, aged 50, were sentenced to prison for a "contemptible imposition" on aged people. The man was given seven years' imprisonment and his wife three years. The couple conducted a rest home for aged people, and, according to the Crown, they forged the will of one of the inmates, George Alfred Masse.v. aged 80, who died in February, 1944. The forged will made Ellis a beneficiary. The witnesses to the signatures were carefully selected from the most feeble patients in the rest home. One of thes>' witnesses, aged 70, told the Court that she remembered having signed her name to a document, but did not remember where, when, or why she had signed it. The'foreman of the jury said the jury thought Ellis had dominated his wife In passing sentence, Judg. Kirhy declared that the forging and uttering of a will was so serious an offence that the law provided a maximum sentence of penal servitude for life. The reason for this was obvious, said the judge. "Apart from the seriousness of the act of forgery itself, and the defrauding of persons of property to which they are entitled. there is the temptation of inducement to the offender to cause or at least accelerate the death of the testator to the advantage of the offender. There is, however, no evidence in this ease that either of the accused did in any way hasten death." Ellis and hie wife havp been remanded on three similar charges. JURORS CHALLENGED The empanelling of a special jury of four to hear a damages claim In the Supreme Court yesterday was accomplished otilv after counsel for the plaintiff had exhausted hip ,six possible challenges. Counsel for the defendant had •exhausted five of his. The last juror to I -be empanelled w.as a woman.