TELEGRAMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1917, Page 1

TELEGRAMS.

[PER press association. —COPYRIGHT.] SOLDIER. DROWNED. DUNEDIN, This Day. A. returned soldier named Charles Wilson, while returning from Dunedin to Port Chalmers under escort yesterday afternoon escaped from the train at Burkes. He later went to the port commandeered a small boat, and attempted to row to Quarantine Island. The sea was rough and. Wilson was seen at 6.30. p.m. struggling in the - water. The police secured a launch and went to his rescue, but Wilson had disappeared. The body was not recovered.

MEDICAL BOARDS. WELLINGTON, Dee. 21 The Minister of Defence stated today that his attenion had been called to a suggestion made at a meeting of the 'Protestant Political Associatiopn that .Military Medical Boards were influenced in their decisions by the religious beliefs of recruits. It was scarcely necessary to'say that there wa« no word of truth in the allegation. The medical officers were of high standing in their profession and they did their work impartially and conscientiously. The system of medical examination said the Minister, provided safeguards against any favouritism at all. The recry its came before the doctors stripped ; their names were known only to the military officers in attendance; and no doctor served on a Medical Board in his own district,

• WAR. REGULATIONS. WELLINGTON, .This Day. Additional Whir Regulations Gazetted provide for the deportation to any Allied State, of persons liable for compulsory military service in that State. Regulations also authorise the military or naval authorities to seize, whether aboard ship or ashore, any document or other thing* ..which may be evidence of an offence committed, or about to be committed, against the Whir Regulations, Military Service Act, or Army A*fc; AN UNREGISTERED SHEARER. RAWER A December 21. In the Magistrate's Court four slieeplarmers—lll. (.'. Lysaght, C. J. Ilnwken. ,T. Blair, and A. Hunter—were each fined £2O for halving employed a shearer named William Humphreys, who had failed to register under the Military Service Act. • Humphreys was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for failing to register.

EAST COAST RAILWAY. OPOTIKI, December 20. The Minister of Public Works lms informed the Opotiki County Council that the railway from Matata to Tancn.tua has been surveyed and the work will proceed a.s rapidly as funds and labour permit. Tim route, from Tanpatua to Opotiki has been approximately decided upon, and his intentions are to have the work completed by returned soldiers after the war. FOUND DEAD. NEW PLYMOUTH December 20. The body of an old age pensioner named Harry Williams was found in a cottage which he linQ occupied alone. Apparently he had been dead two or three weeks. There was no sign of lbul play, but. the surroundings were squalid. BLOWN OUT TO SEA. NEW PLMOUTH Deeembre 20. Two Maoris, who were blown out to sea yesterday morning during the southerly gale, in a flat-bottomed sailing. boat, and for whose safety some anxiety wa s felt, were picked up by a motor launch early this morning about eight miles out none the worse for their adventure.

wreckage found. MASTERTON, Dec. 20. The sergeant of police at Masterton received a telephone message to-night stating that two mattresses, five or six new pillows, and a number of boards apparently from tbo deck of a vessel, wore, washed ashore on Riversdale bench this afternoon. There has been heavy weather on the East Coast during the last day or two.