TELEGRAMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1922, Page 3

TELEGRAMS.

j BY TELEGRAPH —PER PRESS ASSOCIATION

H.M.S. VERONICA AT TIMARU. TIMARU, Feb. 7,

H.M.S. Veronica arrived from Dunedin this morning, receiving a civic welcome. She stays till Saturday and goes thence to Lyttelton.

INQUEST PROCEEDINGS. CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 7

There was an unusual happening at the inquest this morning on a woman who bad died in the hospital.

Doctor Campbell, a member of the staff, was giving evidence as to the woman’s condition on admission. The Coroner demanded certain details of treatment, and for a time the doctor refused to supply them. The Coroner persisted, and during a statement made by the doctor, at the conclusion of his evidence, the Coroner threatened to commit him for contempt of court. In his verdict, the Coroner said that lie was perfectly satisfied with the method of treatment and that everything possible bad been done for the woman, who died from heart failure, associated with acute gastritis.

SUPREME COURT. TIMARU, Feb. 7. Justice Sim, in the Supreme Court, was occupied all day to-day over the charges of carnal knowledge and three indecent assaults against David Thomas Ford, aged 53, schoolmaster, at Clandebovne School, on a girl of 13. The jury disagreed on the first charge, aiid found accused guilty of indecent, assaults.

On this result, by an agreement between the Crown Prosecutor (Mr J. W. White) and Mr C. S. Thomas (of Christchurch, for the accused), the Crown Prosecutor withdrew the first charge. The accused pleaded guilty to the charges of indecent assaults on another girl of the same age. The sentences were deferred till the morning. There was no other criminal case.

| | SENTENCE OF 18 MONTHS, j TIMARU, Feb 8. ! At the Supreme Court, David Thomas t Todd, lately schoolmaster at Clandeni boye, who bad been found guilty of an indictment of assaulting a female pupil 1 yesterday and who pleaded guilty to i similar offences concerning another girl, ' came up for sentence. The Crown Pro- ' secutor abandoned the charge of carnally knowing, in light of the jury’s verdict in a previous case. Justice Sim said the accused had been convicted on 1 a very serious offence, the offence being doubly serious in the ease of persons who had held a posftion of trust. He passed a sentence of eighteen months in each indictment, the sentences to be cumulative.

■ BOOKMAKER FINED. DUNEDIN, Feb. 8. ! For bookmaking, Austin Walker was ' fined £25 to-day. The police statement (.showed that accused, who pleaded 1 guilty, had been in ; business only 9 months, prior to that being an engin- ■ eer on a boat, losing his job when the 1 slump chine.