DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 April 1924, Page 4

DOMINION ITEMS.

[by TELF.OItArn Mat PHESS ASSOCIATION.]

WOMAN’S BODY FOUND. > WANGANUI, April 7 The body of n woman named Mary Louise Glare, ageil 63, residing on Somme Parade, was found in the river this morning. CAR CAPSIZES. WANGANUI, April 7. A man named Howard C. 0. Wilson, a land agent at Marton, was seriously injured .this morning through the capsize of a motor car. He died shortly after his admission to tho hospital. HARSH PUNISHMENT. FOR CHILDISH PRANK. DUNEDIN, April 4. An extraordinary case was reported to tho “Star” to-day. It appears that two little girls attending a country •school not many miles distant from Dunedin, were imbued with a bright idea. One Tuesday morning, knowing that it was April Ist., a day still cherished by children as one on which to spring iokes on their friends, the girls wrote the following lines on two pieces of paper: “Duck in a pond, fish in a .pool; the person who roads this is a big April fool.” The papers, enclosed in an envelope, came into the hands of the head teacher, who showed his resentment by calling the offenders to the front of the class and telling tffliem that they would receive a certain number of strokes of the strap unless they masticated the offensive papers and swallowed them in a time limit of five minutss.

The girls became thoroughly .frightened and so, it is alleged, did what they were told while the teacher stood over them. One of the girls developed some sickness while on her wav home afterwards and had to receive attention.

A Maori boy pupil was also implicated. He was ordered to masticate and swallow the envelope, hut he could not manage the undertaking. He was therefore sent homo. The parents of the girls became so incensed as the result of the proceeding that they immediately placed the matter in the hands of ai solicitor, and legal proceedings will ho taken through the Court.' ABOUT A DOUBLE, AUCKLAND, April 4. That he loitered in Holiston street for tlie purpose of bettin’g was -the cliaigc preferred against Claude Oswald McCTillv, a. carter, at the Magistrate’s Court to-day. Mr Bienwcki appeared for accused, who pleaded not guilty. Evidence was giveH by Detective Meiklejohn, who said he saw McCully approach another carter in Hobson street. He did not see any money pass. McCnlly admitted to him that he had asked a mate to take a double. He told the detective that it was the first double he had ever laid, and he would not have done it liad he not been out of work.

During the course of his address on behalf of the accused, Mr Biernacki submitted that the man had only approached a friend witsh the object of making a little bet as between one man and another. “All carters arc sports and

“Sport you call it,” interjected Mr Poynton S.M. “Don t call it sport it’s a degradation to the name.”

It was .stated that accused was a man with a wife and two young children. $

Mr Poynton adjourned the case tilt next week so that he could look into the matter. CLARENCE BRIDGE. BLENHEIM, April /4. Scathing reference is made to the fact that up to tlio present stage the driving of the piles in the reconstruction of the Clarence river bridge has been carried on by man-power. It is related that men laboriously hoist a great “monkey” to the top of a derrick by means of a hand-power windlass, .and it takes four and a half minutes for each lift of the “monkey”. A pile which was set up on Saturday morning was still not home on Monday night. These methods are,,illustrated by a set of photographs brought hack bv a Blenheim resident who visited the Clarence recently.