In Town And Out

Southland Times, Issue 23599, 29 August 1938, Page 8

In Town And Out

Brief Power Failure

There was a brief interruption in Invercargill’s electric power supply just after 10 o’clock last night, and the city was plunged in darkness for a few moments.

Touring Rugby Teams The members of the Taranaki Rugby football team will arrive by the afternoon express today. The manager is the Hon. R. Masters, and the party numbers 25. The members of the Hawke’s Bay team which defeated Southland on Saturday left for Dunedin by the night train yesterday. Spectators Ordered Off

An unruly crowd interfered with the progress of the Rugby football match between Wrights Bush and Turi at Winton on Saturday, and on no fewer than six occasions the referee stopped play and refused to allow the game to proceed until the spectators, withdrew behind the lines. Finally he took the extreme measure of ordering two spectators off the field. A great deal of interest was created by the match, as the feeling between the two teams had become fairly tense.

Efforts To Refloat Tug

Two attempts to refloat the Auckland Harbour Board’s tug Te Awhina during the week-end were unsuccessful. Tides backed up in the harbour by an easterly gale were the deciding factor on each occasion. Rain reduced the number of spectators on Saturday, but yesterday afternoon the salvage work was watched by several thousand people on the western viaduct.—Press Association.

Paying For Superannuation “I was amused,” said Mr O. C. Mazengarb, National candidate for Wellington Suburbs, in a recent address, “to hear Mr Nash say the other day that only half the cost of universal superannuation (which is to start in 1940) is to be obtained from contributions. The other half is to be provided by ‘the whole of the people’—who are the same persons as those paying the first half. The plain fact is that Mr Nash proposes to get 1/- in the £1 by direct taxation and a further 1/6 by indirect taxation. He knows only too well that by indirect taxation you can tax the shirt off a man’s back without letting him know that you are doing it.”

Saturday Grocery Orders Auckland grocers are likely to discontinue the practice of employing school boys to deliver groceries on Saturday mornings, as under the provisions of the recent award for the trade a minimum wage of 12/- for the morning’s work has been fixed. The award specifies casual rates, but there is no differentiation between adult and junior workers. The rate is 3/- an hour, and payment must not be for less than four hours. Saturday hours are specified as from 8.15 a.m. to noon, but the award further provides that on the day of the half holiday the work shall not be for more than three l and a-half hours.

Air-conditioned Carriages Two first-class cars seating six passengers in a coupe compartment and 29 passengers in the main compartment are included in new rolling stock being constructed by the Railway Department at the Addington workshops. These cars are air-conditioned, the grilles for delivering the cleansed and heated air being spaced in a duct running along the crown of the ceiling. The programme also provides for the construction of 13 second-class cars, and more than 430 wagons of different types. A Historic Document An interesting hand book connected with the Auckland Savings Bank, which was probably one of the first of its kind to be established in New Zealand, is in the possession of the present manager of the institution (Mr E. Sutherland). This hand book, which is dated 1847, is printed in Maori, and draws the attention of the Maori people to the benefits of the savings bank system, and in the oratorical style beloved of the Native race at that time puts forward the many advantages to be gained by the entrusting of moneys to an organization which had as its president the Governor of the colony, and gave the depositors an opportunity of increasing their savings by virtue of interest which the bank would pay on “deposits exceeding one shilling and not exceeding fifty pounds.”