TELEGRAMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 September 1920, Page 4

TELEGRAMS.

[PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. —COPYRIGHT.] * CHARGE OF FORGING A WILL DUNEDIN, September 1. Three well-known residents of Oghir ---William Charles Pitcher, hotelkeeper lllpgh McAllister, Stock inspector, aiql William wfcite, labourer —were charged at tile Police Court at Clyde to-day with forging a wi|l in favour of William White, one of the accused, and purporting to be.the will of a deceased person, George Reaper. From the evidence giyen it appeared that Pitcher wrote out a will and signed .it a,s a. witness. He got White to forge Reaper’s mupe, and arranged with Mnealister to sign as a witness also. The three accused made written statements confessing their guilty. They reserved their defence, and were committed for trial In fixing heavy bail, the Magistrate (Mr E. C. Levvey) remarked that the offence was a very serious one, and was punishable bv imprisonment for life. HARBO UR' * COLLISION INQUIRY. WELLINGTON, Sept. 1. Tht Magisterial inquiry into t(ie collision between the harbour ferry steamer Duchess, coming from Day’s Bay during a fog on July 27, and the New Zealand Shipping Company’s Ruahine, lying at the Queen’s Wharf, was resumed to-day. Damage was done to the Ruahine to the extent of £SOOO. Sydney Mayson, boatswain of the Ruahine, gave evidence that the Duchess was travelling at the rate of seven or eight knots, and was headed straight on to the Ruahine. He did not think she could have avoided hitting the Ruahine in the circumstances. She was too close in. The impact was such that the Duchess rebounded five or six feet. George Scott, butcher on the Ruahine, agreed with the previous witness that the accident lyas unavoidable. Captain Lowry, of the Duchess, deposed that he ran into a thick fog, and reduced the speed from eleven knots to three knots, and then thinking that he must be getting near Queen’s Wharf, and although lie could not see a thing, he stopped the engines altogether. He saw the Ruahine when he was only four or fivo feet away from, her, and struck her stem oil. The collision occurred a minute after lie stopped the engines. VICTORIAN ONIONS. DUNEDIN, Sept. 1. Victorian onions are likely to he dear. Private advices from Melbourne to-day report a sharp rise to £25 per ton for tiie onions that were to be shipped to New Zealand, and the same cablegram states that American onions over there have gone up. considerably.