Town Talk

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 140, 16 June 1932, Page 6

Town Talk

Clothes Drive. A clothes drive is to be conducted throughout the city during the next fortnight under the control of the Wanganui Ministers’ Association. It is intended to allocate the clothes, when ■collected, to the various charitable institutions for distribution.

Severe Inland Frosts. Intense told has marked the advent of winter to the inland regions behind Wanganui. At yesterday’s meeting of the Wanganui Education Board it was reported that piping at schools in the Ohakune tad Raetihi ’istricts had suffered severely from frosts. Repairs and safeguards were authorised. The board's architect (Mr E. R. Hodge)

said that in one instance a hot-water boiler which, admittedly had been turned off, contained a solid block of ice one morning, recently. Beef Instead of Mutton

At a recent meeting of the Wan ganui Hospital Board it was decide 1 to urge that a supply of beef be purchased for distribution among the unemployed in place of mutton. Yesterday’s meeting of the board received a letter from the Minister of Health, Hon. J. A. Young, dated May 30, stating that the purchase of meat was done through the Unemployment Board, and the letter would be forwarded to that body. Further advice would be forwarded later. It was Stated that a supply of cow-beef had been purchased in Auckland.

Reviewing Rents When an application for reduced rent on a board property came before yesterday’s meeting of the Wanganui Hospital Board, on the suggestion ot Mr. W. J. Rogers, it was decided to have the reserves committee of the board go through the list of rents paid by tenants, for the purpose of making adjustments where it was considered necessary. Mr. Rogers pointed out tfiat when the leases expired on some they were found to be paying rents that were really too high, and it was not lair to those who were now only half way through their leases forthem not to receive equal treatment at the present time. Hospital Salary “Cuts”

Reductions amounting to £9O a month in the salaries paid by the Wanganui Hospital Board were discussed at yesterday’s meeting of the board.

Mr. A. S. Coleman remarked that the Loard was not paying unduly high salaries and in a time like the present anybody on the board’s staff was lucky to have a position and lucky to be receiving the salary they were. The board finally decided that a committee should be set up to go through the list of employees in order to give each individual attention, and report back to the next meeting of the board. The cuts will be 5 per cent, up to £225. and 10 per cent, from that figure up to £5OO, and above £5OO, 12* per cent.

Keeping Down Costs Two delegates from the Wanganui Hospital Board attended the last conference of the Hospital Boards’ Association of New Zealand, held in Wellington, and their total expenses to ♦e board amounted to £4 17s 2d. They left Wanganui on Wednesday afternoon last week and returned on the following Saturday night. “It was a wonderful education, and I will say this, that we have on the boards in New Zealand men who are among the finest in the Dominion,” said the chairman, one of the delegates. “It would be a wonderful education to me how you spent that time in Wellington on £4 17s 2d,” remarked a member of the board. “Speaking privately, I will tell you how it was done,” said the chairman, and proceeded to do so.

Changing Syllabuses “It is time the parents of New Zealand put their foot down and made an effort to stop the waste of paper and school books that is going on throughout the country,” said the Rev. JPaterson at a meeting of the Wanganui Unemployment Committee yesterday morning. He considered that there were too many different syllabuses being used in schools and quoted an instance of a new teacher who went to a school and ordered a book that had never been used before. “When I was a boy I used the books my father and elder brothers used at school,” ho added Mr. R. Rowell agreed with Mr. Paterson and said that he had a stock of at least £lOO w’orth of school books which anyone could have for .£5. They were all books which had been used for a short time in the schools and then given up. dorse —a Noxious Weed? “Is gorse a noxious weed?” asked Mr. T. Dix at a meeting of the Wanganui Unemployment Committee yesterday morning. Not many local bodies wished to see it under the schedule of noxious weeds because it it were a noxious weed, the farmer could not be asked to clear it with men working under the “over-the-fence” scheme. “Personally I would treat it as a noxious weed,” said Mr A. E. Halligan, “but under a different scale than, at present.” It was the speaker’s opinion that a lot of the gorse that was being grubbed today was simply a waste of money. If the clearings could be maintained after the grubbing had taken place and the farmer could put a plough into the land and keep it clear, then the work was good, but unless the land could be kept clear it was just a waste of money. The only other thing to do was to plant gorse-infested land with trees, especially on the hills.

Unemployment Relief “The opinion in Wellington appeared to be that the Unemployment Board is heartily sick of the whole thing and would hand it over to the hospital boards,” remarked Mr. W. E. Broderick, chairman, at yesterday’s meeting of the Wanganui Hospital Board, referring to the offer o* the hospital boards at their recent, conference that they would be willing to handle the relief made necessary through unemployment, as they had the machinery necessary for dealing with that class of work. The meet

ing of the Wanganui board yesterday decided that in conformity with th< resolution passed at the Hospita Boards’ Association Conference, relief given because of unemployment shouh: be discontinued at the end of the present month. The onus was on the Un-

employment Bon rd in that respect said the chairman. They had promised that they would take over at the end of this month and the hospital boards had budgeted for a period to end then.