Ng Public Servants Resent

Rent Charges

JN the Australian Parliament on April 22, Mr. T. W. White said he had received from the Public Service Association of New Guinea a telegram reporting that public servants in the Territories were protesting against the imposition upon them of rental charges which were not authorised by the Public Service Ordi nance and regulations. The Association considered that the charging of rentals in this way savoured of star-chamber methods, and members had been advised to refuse to pay.

Mr. White asked if the Minister would deal with this matter before he went abroad, and whether he would permit dis cussion of Territories affairs, under a notice of motion standing in his (Mr.

White’s) name.

The Minister (Mr. Ward) said the re port about the PS Association was not intelligible to him; but he would inquire into the matter.

He added that he would try to have the notice of motion discussed “as I am desirous of hearing the puerile attack which I have no doubt the honourable member will launch against the adminis tration of Papua and New Guinea, and also because I desire to give an effective reply to him.”

Mr. J. B. Mawson, rector of St. Andrew’s

College, Christchurch, New Zealand, has

been appointed headmaster of the Suva Boys’ Grammar School, Fiji. He has had a distinguished scholastic career and served with the Machine Gun Corps in World War I during which service he was awarded the Military Cross. During World War 11, with the rank of Lieut- Colonel, he was in Fiji as commanding officer of the 30th Battalion NZEF. He expects to take up his new duties in Suva in July.