NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 810, 6 May 1910, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

■9 ■ — NAPIER LOANS. IRREGULARITIES DISCOVERED. Napier, May '5. The harbour loan poll recount disclosed ii cases of supposed dual voting, and one of treble voting, mainly at the Napier and Hastings booths. Supposing the whole of the dual votes were taken from those recorded against the loan, tho number required to carry the loan is still a ■ few short. On Monday the Magistrate will hear legal argument as to tho validity of the nail consequent on the alleged irregularities. The Borough Council has decided to invite tenders for a loan of .£134,250, in preference to accepting the Government's offer of part of tho loan.

IMPORTANT TO HARBOUR BOARDS. Nelson, May 5. Mr. Justioe Cooper delivered judgment to-day in the case of the Motueka Harbour Board v. Rankin, of importance to harbour boards. Tho case ivas an appeal from the decision of the stipendiary magistrate giving judgment foT the respondent for the'value of a ton of sugar short delivered by the .appellant board, and lost from the wharf under the board's control. The magistrate held that notice of action was not necessary under Section 219 of the Harbours Act, as the board's right to act as wharfingers was derived from its by-laws, and not statute, and that an implied contract was entered into between respondent and appellant, by which the board became not wharfingers, but bailees, of the sugar, and liable upon contract to account for it, the matter being one of contract. His Honour upheld the • magistrate's contention that Section 219 did not apply to breaches of contract, but reversed the magistrate's decision that.there had been a contract entered into- betwetn the boaT<l as wharfingers and the shippers. His Honour held that the failure to deliver goods was a breach of a duty imposed by statute, and that the section applied, and that notice of action was necessary. The appeal was, therefore, allowed wjth costs. GOVERNOR'S INDISPOSITION. i Palmerston North, May 5. Lord Plunket's condition now Bhows decided improvement. Progress is steady, but rather slow. HOUSE BURNED. - Nelson, May 5. A house at Belgrove, owned and occupied by Mr. Nisbett, with its contents, was totally destroyed by fire last night.