LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 19793, 17 February 1928, Page 9

LOCAL AND GENERAL

A settlement has been reached in the dispute between the butchers and (he company at the Westfield freezing works, which arose over the classification of one' sheep. After several conferences the men have indicated that they will resume work on normal conditions.—A uck 1 and messa gc.

The sixteenth annual conference ot the Methodist Church of New Zealand was opened at Christchurch last evening. The president (the Rev. W. J. Elliott, of Auckland) delivered the presidential address. Mr J. 'V. Shackleford (Auckland) was elected vice-president for 1928, and the Rev. J. F. Goldie (one of the Solomon Islands missionaries) president lor 1929.

There has been an increase in the number of persons seeking employment in Wellington during the past week (says a Press Association telegram). For the seven days ended Monday night, the number who registered at the unemployment bureau of the Labor Department totalled 485, which included 239 laborers. The total for the previous week was 394. The increase in registrations is attributed to the Prime Minister’s request that all the unemployed should register. Subject to certain conditions (says a Wellington telegram) importation ot cattle from the United States is now permissible. A permit has to be obtained from the Minister of Agriculture, and cattle must undergo sixty days’ quarantine. A declaration that the cattle have never been in a place where Texas fever has existed must be made.

The Wellington War Memorial Executive resolved to adhere to the site' in front of the Parliamentary grounds lor the Wellington memorial. It rejected Mr Hurst-Sogar’s proposal to chat ge ihe site to a position near the Basin Reserve. Mr Hurst-Seagar pointed out that the memorial would block the best view of the Parliamentary groin is and buildings, while the reserve site would he a commodious one. Tenders will bo called this month, and the foundation stone laid on Anzac Day. During January the total live births registered for the urban areas amounted to 1,128 as against 979 in December, an increase of 149. The deaths in January were 504, a decrease of 60, as compared with the previous month. Of the total deaths, males contributed 270 and females 234. Sixtythree of the deaths were of children under five years of age, being 12.50 per cent, of the whole number. Thirtynine of these wore under one year' of age.

In the Supremo Court at Christchurch Ernest Clark was found not guilty on a charge of the theft at Kniapoi on December 26 of £SO, the property of Thomas Hiekenbotham, licensee of the Mamlcvillo Hotel. Clark was staying, at the hotel, and it was alleged that he broke open a cupboard and stole the money. Harold Hardgrave was found not guilty on a charge of having broken and entered a dwelling and stolen a gramophone and records. The accused is a window cleaner, and it Is alleged that he took goods from a place where ho was cmployedn. The accused pleaded guilty to the theft of a wooden cider jar valued at £3 from an hotel, and was remanded for sentence. _ William Rothwell Kemp, on the direction of the judge, was found not guilty of indecent exposure.' Herbert William Carey was acquitted by the jury on a charge of having set fire to a property in Ferry road, Christchurch. In view of tho judge’s direction to the jury, the accused was held- to be insane, and will be committed to a mental hospital.

The case was continued in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday in which John Cecil Hope and Harold George Douglas Hope (Mr P. S. Anderson) proceeded against W. Gregg and Co., Ltd. (Mr 11. L. Fairbairn), on a claim to recover £193, damages alleged to be caused as the result of a collision on July 14, 1927, at the intersection of Cumberland street and Albany street between plaintiffs’ motor bus and defendants’ motor truck, which collision was alleged to have resulted from the negligence of defendants' servant, the driver of the truck. After on© more witness had been hoard tha hearing was adjourned until Monday morning.