LOCAL AND GENERAL

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23288, 25 August 1945, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Native Land Court.—A three-day sitting of the Native Land Court concluded yesterday at Temuka. Cases dealt with included probate of the wills of three Arowhenua members of the Maori Battalion killed overseas, confirmation of the leases of native lands and successions to native estates. Judge A. A. Whitehead presided. Mr Oka Haketa acted as judge’s associate and Mr E. J. Corcoran attended as counsel for claimants.

Seamen in Court.—Charged with absenting themselves from the ship. Raranga, without leave or sufficient cause, John Jones and Frederick Douglas, two seamen, appeared before Messrs P. B. Foote and C. W. Wood, Justices of the Peace, in the Timaru Magistrate's Court yesterday. Prosecuting Senior-Sergeant S. King said that both men were arrested at the Timaru Railway Station the previous day. They both had rail tickets to Christchurch in their possession and said they intended to join the Raranga at Lyttelton before she sailed on Saturday, but warrants for their arrest had already been issued. Mr Foote, in entering convictions, ordered both men to rejoin their ship. The Court did not wish to impose a penalty, added Mr Foote, because of the war service both men had given in the British Merchant Navy. Behaviour in Streets.— “ The exhibition in the streets by young people celebrating the coming of peace was disgraceful,” said Mr Martin Luckie at a meeting of the Wellington Fire Board. “If children are going to be brought up the way they are in New Zealand to-day I don’t know what we are going to do about it.” said Mr G. S. Amos. Mr L. Glover had suggested that the Board urge the City Council to take steps to prevent bottle-smash-ing on streets. The practice was dangerous, especially to fire engines which might be travelling at a high speed. The chairman, Mr S. S. Dean, said that the Board had given its support to measures to prevent vandalism, and that should be sufficient.

Hours of Work. —-“I do not know why we should be so concerned about reducing the hours of people who work only 40 hours a week and give no consideration to the people, such as the farmers and the housewives, who work 70 or 80 hours a week,” sajd Mr J. A. Brailsford when, after a lecture in Invercargill on the question of full employment, he was asked if he thought full employment could be assured by reducing the hours of work in industry. Mr Brailsford said he knew some people contended that the farmers worked only six months of the year, but that was not his view. He also considered that every effort should be made to provide help for mothers in the home. The reduction of hours in industry would not necessarily lead to a reduction in unemployment, though it was possible that a time would come when a 3-hour week would be practicable.