General News

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 229, 27 September 1945, Page 4

General News

Pedestrian Injured. When he fell in Guyton Street at about 3 p.m. yesterday Mr. R. D. Boran, 29 Koromiko Road, injured his nip. He was taken to Wanganui Hospital by the St. John Free Ambulance. Seat of Government. In the House of Representatives yesterday, the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) in a written reply to Mr. C. M. Williams (Govt., Kaiapoi), who had suggested shifting the seat of Government to Blenheim, said: “The question no doubt will be kept steadily in view by many successive Governments.”—Press Assn. English People and War.

The New Zealand delegation which visited London lor the wool conference in April and May of this year was fortunate to see the British people under war conditions, said Mr. C. G. Trotter, who was a member of the delegation. He addressed a meeting of farmers in the Savage Club Hall yesterday. The English people, he added, had cheerfully accepted the hardships thrust upon them. They lined up in queues for practically everything, but there was no complaint. “They had their backs to the wall and nothing was too great for the successful prosecution of the war,” Mr. Trotter added. Southerly Abates. The southerly gale which was experienced in the Cook Strait area on Tuesday abated during the night, with the result that coastal vessels delayed at Wanganui were able to depart. The Foxton left Castlecliff at 8.20 yesterday morning for Wellington and was followed by the Hauturu at 9.55 for Picton. There was an improvement in the weather at Wanganui yesterday, but the wind was light to moderate easterly and temperatures were still cold. Rain was experienced in the morning, but the afternoon was fine and at two o’clock the barometer was steady at 29.90in5.

Clothing for Greece. An appeal to farmers to set aside small quantities of wool from the coming season's clip as a gift to the women of Greece to enable them to make homespun garments has been made in the Dominion. The secretary of the Wanganui Provincial Executive of Federated Farmers, Mr. A. R. Donaldson, said at the monthly meeting yesterday that the Women’s Division was anxious to help the Grecian women to make up the grave shortage of clothing. The W.D.F.U. would make arrangements for the collection and despatch of the wool, which would be sen" to Greece in the raw state. More Publicity Wanted.

“We don’t want confidential information, but we do want the information that we are entitled to know,” said the president, Mr W. S. Glenn, referring at a meeting of the Wanganui Provincial Executive of Federated Farmers yesterday to the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board. The following remit from the Waimarino branch was carried : “That as the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board is dealing with matters of vital importance to the farming industry, more information be given through the Press of all meetings of the board on matters affecting producers.”

Restrained Celebrations. Peace celebrations in Britain at the end of the European war were restrained, said Mr. C. G. Trotter, a member of the New Zealand delegation which visited London for the wool conference this year. Addressing farmers in the Savage Club Hall yesterday, Mr. said that the British people seemed to realise that peace did not mean the end of wartime hardships. “They knew that the people in the liberated countries of Europe had to be fed, and that they would have to tighten up their belts and reduce their already meagre rations to enable this to be done,” said Mr. Trotter. The fact that the war in the Pacific had yet to be concluded was also appreciated in Britain.

Prompt Action. A letter dated August 19—four days after V-J Day—received by a Dunedin business man from a friend in Los Angeles illustrates the prompt action taken by American Government and State officials to end wartime controls. The letter states: “All rationing and other restrictions on petrol, areas of travel, speed limits, and food, with the exception of meat, have been lifted.” Industrial control in factories, the writer adds, has also been removed, and all roads out of Los Angeles were soon congested with thousands of directed workers, homeward bound from their war jobs. The writer concluded by describing the main highways in California as “a madhouse of speeding cars with accelerators jammed to the floorboards.” Monotony Relieved

Dramatic and choir work had been responsible for relieving much of the monotony and keeping up morale in a prisoner of war camp in Italy, said Major S. Hanton, when welcomed back to the Wanganui Male Choir at a recent practice. At a camp where he was an inmate, said Major Hanton, a choir of 35 voices had been organised. No music was available and the scores had to be composed and wiitten in camp. Dramatic performances were given, all .••‘■’ I properties be-

ig improvised in on® way and an other in the cam tne Italians, however, would sometimes permit the prisoners the use of special dresses or wigs, on condition of the strictest parole that they should not be used as disguises for escape. Major Hanton added that he was later transferred to a camp in Germany, where music scores of various kinds were obtained through the good offices of the Red Crossi At Ibis camp a performance of Brahams’ “Requiem” was given.