NEWS OF THE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26778, 22 May 1948, Page 6

NEWS OF THE DAY

Art Gallery Facilities The addition of a storeroom at the back of the Art Gallery, Logan Park, and the provision of better facilities for the staff, including improvements to the staff kitchen, are work for which the City Council has called tenders. Adequate storage space has not been available at the Art Gallery in the past, and the new storeroom alongside the present annex at the rear of the building will supply a long-felt want. There has always been a kitchen at the Art Gallery for the staff, but the facilities have not been adequate. Paradox of Mr Nash A paradox existed in the recent visit of the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, to the World Trade Congress at Havana, said Mr J. T. Watts, M.P., in an address in Christchurch. At home in New Zealand Mr Nash was a Socialist concerned with introducing more Government into business. Abroad, at Havana, he talked about making trade freer. Race Buses

The National Council of the' Aid for Britain Campaign has made a recommendation to the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, that bus services to race meetings where there was an adequate train service should be restricted in order to save petrol. The Prime Minister informed the National Council that the Minister of Transport, Mr Hackett, had arranged for the matter to be submitted to the district and metropolitan transport licensing authorities. Rude Awakening Likely Some Dunedin theatregoers who believe in arriving at the “fashionable hour” —that is, five minutes latewili be given a rude awakening if they attend the opera “ Carmen.” For this presentation, the doors are going to be closed promptly at 7.45 p.m.. when the opera will begin, and no one will be allowed to enter until the end of the first act. All persons who hold reserved seats must take possession of them before 7.30 p.m. Transtasman Transport The Australian High Commissioner. Mr A. R. Cutler, announced yesterday that between 3000 and 4000 people were seeking' transport from New Zealand to Australia. Many of them had urgent reasons for travel. His office was inundated with appeals, but, because of the critical position of trans-Tasman travel, it was physically impossible to assist. Mr Cutler added that quite a few had been forced to seek employment in New Zealand to ease the strain on their financial resources. “ Dance Hall Fracas ”

In a report in the Daily Times on May 14, of proceedings in the Police Court against two men who were convicted on charges arising out of thenconduct at a dance hall in Dowling street, Senior-sergeant Hogg was stated to have said that “ one or two women in the hall called out to the crowd to ‘ clean up the police.’ ” We have ascertained that the senior-sergeant was referring to women in the vicinity of the dance hall, who were not patrons of the dance. The dances in this hall are, we are assured, strictly conducted, and the management is concerned that an impression should have been conveyed by our report which could reflect upon the character of their patrons.

University Chairs A private Bill to be presented during the coming session of Parliament will seek permission to use for other purposes income applied until 1946 in financing church chairs in the University of Otago. The annual revenue involved which comes from property and investments, held in trust by the Presbyterian Church in Otago and Southland and specifically designed for the endowment of chairs in the arts faculty at the University, is £2500, and if the Bill is passed the Presbyterian Synod will decide how the money can best be used. It is intended that the funds should continue to be used in general for the promotion of secular and religious education in Otago. The upkeep of the University chairs is now undertaken by the Government. Transport of War Amputees

Several remits asking for improved transport facilities for war amputees were approved at thd annual conference in Christchurch of the New Zealand War Amputees’ Association. It was asked that, where air facilities were available, travel warrants should be made out to cover air transport, if so desired, for war amputees attending artificial limb factories by appointment. The conference asked that war amputees on less than 100 per cent, disability pensions should be allowed to travel on the railways or railway buses at half rates, and that this concession should also apply to wives travelling with them. It was recommended that .double war amputees should be granted free air transport throughout New Zealand, and that the Government be asked to make available to war amputees a car, free of duty and sales tax, once in every seven years.

Furniture for Royalty New furniture which is to be placed in Government House, Auckland, and in Government House, Wellington, where the King and Queen and Princess Margaret will stay during their visit to New Zealand, is to be made in the training centre of the Disabled Servicemen's Re-establishmerrt League. This was stated by the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr Skinner, when addressing men at the Invercargill centre of the league on Thursday. “I expect that the work will be distributed around the various centres of the league and that some of the furniture will be made here in Invercargill, so you men will have to do your very best on that job,” Mr Skinner said. “The fact that the contract for making this furniture has been given to the league shows what good work is being turned out at the centres in Auckland. Wellington, Napier, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.”