DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 December 1923, Page 1

DOMINION ITEMS.

[by TELEGRAPH —PElt PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

A TRUSTEE CHARGED. PALMERSTON N., Dee. 17. At tlie Magistrate’s Court, Wilson Hodges was charged that on divers dates between December 1919 and December 15)22, being a trustee under the. will of the late George Hodges, of Port Chalmers, medical practitioner, with intent to defraud and a violation of the trust by converting to his own use C 2369 received and held in trust. The accused was remanded to appear at Dunedin. RAILWAY STATION BURNT. TE KUITI, Dec. 17 The Otnrohanga. railway station, ten miles north of To Kuiti, was totally destroyed by fire at live this morning. The cause is unknown and so far as is ascertained, nothing was saved. HUTTER-FAT PRODUCTION. INVERCARGILL, Dec. 15. A splendid record of hutter-fat achievements has been established by a dairy herd belonging to Mr.W. D. Hunt and the progeny of the sire Rosevale King.

The first six daughters of this hud to calve were placed under test, and the average biittor-fat test was 111 per cent. Unfortunately, after producing 52(5.8711) of hutter-fat in a period of nine months, one heifer eked. Had she completed her test, the six two-year-olds would easily have averaged over 150011, of hutter-fat. Actoil Hv they averaged 1-1,152.311) ol milk and 580.1711) of butter-fat, or imre than three and one half times the pio Ruction of the average New /.cabin .

It is also announced that one oi tls? sires hied by Mr Hunt has now ten tested daughters, one of which has broken the New Zealand record for senior four-year-olds by producing 23,203.31 bof milk, with an average test of 3.92, and 910.531 bof hutterfat. while two others have given over lOOth of bufter-fixt. Another daughter has given over (50011), and three others over 5001 b, all as heifers. Since the close of the 1922 sensor eighteen Friesians have completed records at Bainfield, and have averaged 012. IPi of hutter-fat for 3(55 days. All hut one of these are heifers.

To date twenty Bainfield Friesians have averaged 713.31 bof hutter-fat, and ten have produced over 2000 gallons of milk in the year, a performance unequalled in any other part of the Empire.

AID FOR SEAMEN. WELLINGTON, Doe. 15 At the annual meeting of the trustees of the Sheepowners’ Debt to Seamen Fund, the Hon E. Newman presided. The report stated that 5215 applications for relief had been considered, and payments fo sailors and dependents during the year had totalled (.1)119. It was anticipated that the assistance required lor permanently disabled sailors and dependents will he not less than £2OOO per annum for some years to come. Assistance also given in certain eases in the lorm of loans without interest and the usual distribution of Christmas presents to the children of the. fund’:-: beneficiarier. made the fund's capital, after the expenditure of IMO,OOO now £ 100,000.

The chairman expressed appreciation of the assistance rendered hv the Salvation Army, Navy League and other voluntary helpers. Mr Newman said that he wished subscribers would take a keener interest in the land, which was unique and peculiar to New Zealand, where it was peculiar to one class of residents —the sheep fanners. The report was adopted and the office-bearers were re-elected. A H TRUMAN KILLED. CKKYMOT'TIL Dee. 1? At .'i.bO p.m. yesterday a fatal accident occurred in the Bell Hill Rawmill hush, a man named Bernard Manse.v. ,18 years of age, a native of Canada, and a married man, losing his life through being struck on the head by th.* decayed limb of a falling miro tree. Three others with Mansey were falling the miro, when it became entangled with a birch tree, which they then decided also to fall, in order to fell the miro. After scarfing it, they were sawing through, when the birch trunk split upwards a distance of 40 feet, and then : 'kicked hack” beyond the stump a similar distance, liberating the miro, which, in falling, struck another miro tree-, and was deflected so that a decayed limb of it split Mansoy’s skull, killing him instantaneously! This is the first fatal accident Brownlee and Company have had among their employees in 50 years milling operations. Deceased was a recent arrival.

R.WYAI 111. O'KSTROYBD. TIM ADC, Bee. ID Young Biethers' sawmill at Orowai was destroyed by fire on Saturday night, together with IOO.OOUit. of timhoY. There was no insurance. This is the fourth mill burned in the Damn district, during the past three weeks. Hush fires covered a large area, hut are now under control- I he thy spell and high winds made fire-fighting arduous and difficult. honesty. ARHBI'UTON. December ID Ronald Dalton, a prefect at the Ashburton Technical School, "ho . "<ts journeying by tram from his village home at Hinds, picked up on a carriage floor a fat wallet. He " e,,t twice through the trail, inquiring >t anybody had lost it, and -a busine-s feeling his pockets, discovered his. wallet missing. It contained about £IOO. , .i Ibilton stubbornly declined :i rewau nut the owner declares that he will | u > a . from him at (‘hristclum.-li. LICENSE LAPSESP U3IKRSTON NORTH. Dec. ID novel case in connection with the 1if . 01 ,,e of a local hotel was revealed at the adjourned meeting of the Licensing Committee to-day. At hist sitting. Mac Robinson, wl.o held the temporary m-onse of the hotel had been -uccess,ui in having the license made permanent, and she sought to transfer it to D Hoskin. The latter, however, ms withdrawn, and. as the ternary hcen-e uAicv stated; no one roponsi . control of the hotel. Counsel tor the pioprietor said the latter was willing to take over the ease and clear matters up' but it was pointed out that aa matter of law, the license would levert to the previous licensee, did she return to-day from Auckland, or else I it would laps® altogether. The previ-

ous licensee uas willing to assist the parties in straightening out matters. The chairman said:—“lt would be best if the previous licensee did not come hack. It would only complicate matters it' she did. If she does not conic- hack and no one is holding the Incuse, we can grant it to some other person. In the meantime it appears that the hotel is desertd so far as the license is concerned, and no one has authority to sell liquor.”

lie added the Bench would take no action until counsel could state what, was the actual position—whether the pievious licensee returned in time to clear the reversionary license, or whether it lapsed altogether. In the latter event, the'chairman and two members of the Committee could grant a license to someone.