LATE MAIL NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 August 1919, Page 3

LATE MAIL NEWS.

A SHOT IN THE DARK

LONDON, June 23,

Frederick Dyer, 28, a flower-seller, and James Stevens |24, seaman, both of Wiflord Road, Croydon, were charged there yesterday with. stealing growing asparagus from Willow Farm Nursery, Mitcham. A foreman said he kept watch and •shortly after mid-night saw the two men helping themselves to asparagus., He fired a gun over their heads, the pre-arranged signal to alarm the police. The men ran about 50yds. and he fired again and they were caught. The prisoners were remanded.

BLINDED MAN’S BRIDE. LONDON, June 23.

A romance of the war lies behind the announcement that Mr Clntlm Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New- Zealand, and Lady Mackenzie, is engaged to Miss Doris A. Sawyer, younger daughter of Mr Tlnrcourt Sawyer, of Springhill, Windsor Forest.

Ml- Mackenzie is 24. When war broke out he enlisted in the-New Zealand Mounted Rifles, served in the Dardanelles, and was blinded by a bomb at Suvla Bay. Miss Sawyer and Mr Mackenzie first met at St. Dunstan’s Hostel where Miss Sawyer helped to look after blinded men.

Mr Mackenzie, who is 6ft. Sin. in height, is on his way to Now Zealand where he hopes to stand for Parliament and take up literary work. Miss Sawyer is- to join him there, and the wedding will take place about October.

ROGUE ELEPHANTS. LONDON, Juno 24. Owing to the ravages of rogue elephants, the bad elephants of the family, it is stated that the South Afri- . can Government intend to shoot the elephants on the Addo reserve, the scrub, forest near Point Elizabeth, Cape Colony. An offer has been made by the World’s Zoological Training Co., ! through the High Commissioner of j ’ | South Africa- in London, to take over j I the reserve, kill all the rogue elephants and capture and tame the remainder. “There are about 250 to 300 ole- I pliants on the reserve,” said Mr John u Jordan, a director of the company, yesterday, “and it seems a pity to slaugli- (| ter all because there are a few rogues among them. Tho African elephant is very valuable and much bigger than its Indian brother. )r Many zoological gardens in Europe . and the United States are anxious for (. specimens. The present price is from £BOO to £1,000.”’ I For generations this reserve has been, . an obstacle to farming and people have h: been killed by the elephants.

BURGLAR IN BEDROOM. LONDON, June 24

How a burglar entered her bedroom

and forced her by means of a revolver j to tell where her jewellery was Kept j was told yesterday by Mrs Coomer, • daughter of Councillor Warren, a LuI ton magistrate. j Mrs Coomer and her little daughter ’ were on a holiday visit to her parents, i In the early hours of Monday, Mrs Coomer awoke to find a man, described as young and respectable looking, confronting her with a revolver. As her mother was lying ill in the next room, Mrs Coomer begged tho man to go away, and he assured her she would come to no harm if she told him about the jewellery and money in the room. At intervals lie had a whispered conversation with someone on the landing, said to be a confederate. He is said to have been in the room nearly l half an hour. Before he left he made Mrs Coomer promise not to raise an alarm if he left quietly. Thoroughly frightened and too much. alarmed to call her father, it was not | until threo hours or so later that Mr Warren was told what had occurred. He immediately went to telephone the police, but found the receiver thrown away and the wires cut.

Numerous drawers were found open about the house, but nothing was missed beyond Mrs Coomer’s jewellery, valued at £SO.