NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1354, 3 February 1912, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

ißy Mcgraph—Prc?s' Association.) * MOTORIST CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER. . . Christchurch, February 2. An information has been laid in conni'o tion with tho fatal accident \yliich occurred in Cathedral Square, near Broadway's Corner, on the afternoon of Friday, January 19, when Thomas llyan waa knocked down and run over by a motorcar, his injuries proving fatal in a fenhours. Tho information charges the driver of the car, Reginald Blunden, of Bennett's, with manslaughter. Tho casa will be heard next Thursday afternoon. INJURED IN AN EXPLOSION. , . Auckland, February 2. William Shirt, a miner employed at Iluntly, met with a serious accident yesterday afternoon. While blasting legs in a drain near his homo, a charge rf gelignito went off before ho was nolo to get clear, and his right hand was badly shattered, and both his eyes so seriously injured that it is feared he will loso tho sight of one, if not of both.- Ho was removed to the Waikato Hospital, wlier* four fingers havo been amputated. THE LITHGOW STRIKE. Christchurch, February 2. At a meeting of tho Canterbury Gonoral Labourers Union it was decided to take a plebiscite on tho question of voting .£4O to assist tho wives and children of tho Litligow strikers. HOSTILE TO DEFENCE. Christchurch, February 2. At a meeting of tho Canterbury General Labourers' Union tho following resolution was passed— "That this meeting of Gcnoral Labourel's strongly protests against thonction of tlio military authorities in picking out a few of tlio boys who have refused to register under tho Defenoo Act, 1910, for prosecution, and wo declare that wo will do all in our power to resist tho Act." £300 COMPENSATION CLAIMED. Dunedin, February 2. Tho Arbitration Court , to-day heard a compensation ease in which Mary White Ashlon claimed .£3OO from William Isaac Ashton, a plasterer, in .connection with the death of her husband. Tho respondent was her brother. Doccased was a plasterer's labourer, and it was claimed that death had ensued from fumes which emanated from lime, which he was slaking in a room. . t Frank Oakden, manager of the Milburn Lime Company, which supplied tho lima, said that they employed two methods of burning tlio lime. ' The process was started about a year ago. For slaking lime, an enclosed room would bo very unpleasant and undesirable. He know of nothing that could cause the genera- . tion of'a poisonous gas in the slaking of tlio lime, unless tlio water contained somo foreign substance. Tho gas-fired lime was purer than limo burned by other processes. Kvidence as to the unusual nature of tlio lime which deceased had been slaking was given bv John Stevenson, Charles , Wilkes, Walker, Homer, and William Hull, employees of respondent at tho time. . . 1 Professor Park, of Otago University, said that, in the process of .slaking pure lime, tho only gas given off was carbonic acid gas, which was quite odourless. If a gas with an odour was ffiven off it must be some gas foreign to lime. Ho thought that the evidence given as to smell indicated that sulphuretted hydrogen had been given off. Sulphur was present in an abnormal quantity in Shag Point coal, and in All Brown coals. Lime was a powerful absorbent of gas, and was nsod to purify coal gas for domestic purposes. Dr. Williams, who attended deceased, said that tho fact that Hie patient had succumbed so rapidly and completely to an attack of pneumonia was so unusual that there must be some special reason to account for the vulnerability shown. This spocial reason appeared to be that deceased lwd been overcome through working in a vitiated atmosphere. Tlio Court reserved decision.

THE HUNTLY KORERO. Auckland, February 2. The Native meeting at Hinitly is still proceeding. A grout ileal-of Discussion, has taken pluco regarding the grievances of the Maoris, and steps are to bo taken to redress them, but no decision has yot Iwou arrived at. It is probable that A decision may bo arrived at to-morrow.