DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 February 1925, Page 4

DOMINION ITEMS.

[by TELEGRAPH PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.j EMPIRE PRESS UNION. ROTORUA, February 23. At the annual meeting of the N.Z. Branch of the Empire Press Union, Sir Geo. Fenwick presided, there being 25 members present. The following new members were elected:—Ale.sdames Page and E. L. Pirnni, Messrs Mills, Henderson, Page, Easton, Bony R. li. Bell and Wright. The Chairman delivered his address, alter which the balance sheet was jia.ss-

Sir Geo. Fenwick was unanimously elected Chairman. ,

The following were appointed a committee to make arrangements to welcome the delegates to the Conference at Melbourne this year when they passed through tlie Dominion :—Sir Geo. Fenwick, Messrs C. S. Smith, Horton, Leys, M. Blundell, C. Earle, Selig and Huie.

CROPS IN NORTH OTAGO. OAMARU, Februarv *2l

Threshing results so far indicate that the average yield of wheat will greatly exceed the earlier estimates. One ease is reported of nearly sixtytwo bushels an acre, being obtained from an area of sixty acres. AYith many other good returns, the aggregate average for the whole country will probably be thirty bushels. Oats are proving a failure. A STRANGE TRAGEDY. AN ELECTRIFIED FENCE. TE AAV.AMUTU, February 23. There was a sensation at Terore settlement, ten miles from Te Awaimitu, about eight o’clock this morning. A. well-known settler, named Llewellan Hendrickson, was driving a herd of cows across a road, when he touched a fence, and was fatally electrocuted. His wife noticed Hendrickson on the ground, and thinking a bull had gored him, ran to assist and called two neighbours, Messrs Coxhead and AlcKinnon, and also Mr Coxhead’s employee, John Carruthers, a recent arrival from Canada.

Carruthers went to turn the cows into the paddock, and lie also touched the fence, sustaining a severe electric shock, and bad burns across the bs.<k and on the left hand. He was removed to the Waikato Hospital. One cow, belonging to Hendrickson, a mare belonging to another -nghbrnr Mr Garrett, and -Mr Coxhead’s dog were all fatally electrocuted. A bittern was found beneath some 3000 volt broken wires 200 yards n»uy. It is surmised that the bittern flew into the wires, knocking them togg-h----er and causing a break in one of the wires, which fell on to the fence eb-e----trifying it for 300 yards. Air Hendrickson was highly respected and was a returned soldier. He leaves a widow and two young children.