DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 April 1926, Page 1

DOMINION ITEMS.

[ny TELEGRAPH —PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] PASTOR DIES. DAXXEVIRKE, April 14. The death is announced of Pastor 'H. M. Ries, aged sixty-two. He was one of the pioneer settlers of the district, arriving from Denmark in 1866. lie was ia pastor of the Lutheran Church, a former Mayor and member at different times of various local l>odies of the district. He was a prominent Forester. LORRY DRIVER DRUNK. AUCKLAND, April 14. Tu the. Police Court, Mr Hunt, S.AL, lined Edward Ashton Adams £SO and cancelled his license for being drunk in charge of a motor lorry. “A GENERAL .MIX-UP.” 0 AMARU, April 14. Described hy one witness as a general mix-up, an affray at the Terminus Hotel. Tlakataramea, about midnight on I'obntarv l;i, led to the appearance of four young men of Timaru in the Magistrate’s Court to-dav. when three of them, I'rank Ward. Leslie Doekwill and Charles Fra mp to it were charged with being mi licensed premises after hours. The fourth, Stanley Shanks, was similarly charged, and also had to answer a charge of assaulting the licensee. Maurice Barrie. The police evidence was in sharp contrast to that brought hy the deI'Miee, At one stage of the hearing the Magistrate, Mr J. G. L. Hewitt, was forced to remark that it was hard to say iust a lint did happen. Defendants, who pleaded not guilty, were represented by .Mr F. IV. Ongley. Alter hearing lengthy evidence the Magistrate staled that, in Itis opinion, Shanks did gel one on in the licensee as they were leaving. On the charge of being on licensed premises, each detendant was fined L"_'. while on (lie assault charge Shanks was fined an additional C.'L Knelt defendant also was ordered to pay C'l Is costs. MAINTENANCE DEFA I' I.TKR. DUNEDIN. April 14. .lospeh llretiiin Harrison was charged with breach of a maintenance order. Counsel stated that Harrison had £12.000. hut had lost it and gone bankrupt. He had treated the order contumaciously. Defendant stated lit- had losl £.51100 mi it farm and he and his wife worked as a married couple for £llO annually. The Magistrate held that the order had been limited and sentenced Harrison to three months’ imprisonment, to he released on payment of idle arrears, £6B, and the cost of his transport from K it row. A NELSON FIRE. NELSON, April 15. A bakehouse at Bright water, belonging to Mr E. C. Schroder, was totally destroyed by lire yesterday. I lie origin of the lire is unknown. hut it is thought that a quantity of firewood drying in the oven preparatory to the night’s baking caught alight. A party of Nelson howlers, including Mr A. T. Dee. lnrmerly captain of the Nelson Fire Brigade, gave valuable assistance in preventing the spread ot the lire. A HID I’UR( 11 ASK. (ROSS AND BLACKWELL VENTURE. WELLINGTON. April 14. The wholesale and retail grocery, trades will he interested to learn of the fusion of Crosse and Blackwell and O. and IS. Morton. The British Trade 'Commissioner in New Zealand is advised that an agreement between the firms was entered into to ensure close co-operation and ensure more economical production. The companies will retain their separate identities. The shareholders oi the Crosse and Bliaekwell recently authorised a debenture issue up to £1,500.000 t„ enable the directors to purchase the control of an unnamed business. Crosse and Blackwell already own controlling Interests in .fames Keillor and Son. E. Lazenby and Son, the Sosnielli Packing Company, Robert Kellie and .Son, Batgcr and Co and Alexander C'airns and Sons.

C. and E. Morton, Ltd., which own a number of retail shops, have a share capital of C 850.000, of which £400,000 is in participating preference and the rest in ordinary shares. Only the preference shares are quoted on the Stock Exchange. For each of the three years to 1921. the preference shares received 7 per cent and the ordinary 10 per cent. MOTOR CYCLIST HURT. NELSON. April 15. Mr G. Scott, of Upper Moutero, a motor cyclist, sustained a fractured leg as the result of a collision with a motor car. MAN FOUND DEAD. AUCKLAND, April 15. A labourer. Michael McClair, aged 50, was found dead in his shack in Marton Road, Point Chevalier, early 011 Wednesday morning. The discovery was made hv the police, who state that there was a clothes line round deceased’s neck. At an inquest to-day, it was stated the deceased was admitted to Auckland Hospital on March 9th. suffering from heart trouble, and was discharged on March 20th. The inquest was adjourned. TETANUS. CASES TN AUCKLAND. AUCKLAND, April 11. Of eight cases of tentanus in the Auckland province last year, five were fatal, while three deaths, two of which have been in the city, have already occurred since December last out of five cases already reported. Tlie seriousness of this state of affairs cannot lie too highly appreciated in Auckland where infection is more liable to result oil account of the great amount of time spent out of doors. The bacillus tetani is found mostly in soil well manured and cultivated and the disease is apt to follow infected or septic wounds particularly about the hands and feet. As long as oxygen is kept from the bacillus it is a strange fact that it will not germinate, so that- it may be living dormant for an illimitable period. The seriousness of the after effects is not at all compatible with the size or nature of the wound, and for this reason neglect is often the cause of infection. In a case at Chelsea recently it was a full week Itefore medical aid was summoned, but the time which had elapsed was too great and the patient died. In strong contrast to tlie present day small proportion of deaths the mortality years ago was much higher, though .it never reached a figure to be compared with that produced by epidemics which periodically swept the country in the days of the Maori wars. Tetanus was frequently met and the soil in the districts around Onehmga where camps

were situated was particularly dangerous. SERVICE, BUS DESTROYED. NEW PLYAIOUTH, April 15. A service bus, carrying fifteen eases of benzine, was totally destroyed by lire on the Inglewood-Porangi road this morning. While the bus was proceeding through a cutting, the driver heard a roar behind him, and had only time to pull the bus to the side of the road, and jump clear, before the vehicle was enveloped in flames. The lire burnt for an hour, during which time traffic through, the cutting was field up. Only the engine and a few pieces ot iron were left when the fire died down. The bus was the property of Mr L. Prestige. The insurances are not available yet. POWER HOUSE DAMAGED. lIAWERA, April 15. Shortly before one o’clock this morning, the new power house at liupoiiga, belonging to the Town Board, was seriously damaged hy lire. Hie Fire Brigade promptly arrived, hut the outbreak had secured a hold. The engineer visited the power house at 11.50, when there was no sign oi anything unusual at the plant. The origin oi Hie outbreak cannot definitely he stated. It is presumed an electric fusion look place behind the switchboard, creating an arc, which set the root ablaze.

The damage includes the destruction of the switch-board, turbine, Hy wheel, and hearings. The generator is damaged, Imt not beyond repair. I lie '.lamaue lias approximately been assessed at £IOOO. The insurances amount to £0.30. The town supply is drawn from a separate power house, and is not alI'eeted, but till to-morrow night no country supply will he available, and then only a limited quantity. A RADIO WONDER. INVERCARGILL, April 15. A notable wireless achievement has I ice 11 recorded at A\i|.irua wireless station. where the operators succeeded in communicating on a short wave experimental set "ilh the whaling ship Sir .James Clark Ro-s, now within one day's steaming oi Xoriolk. on the Alla n 1 ie coast o| the 111 i ted Stair-. Ever since the w.s-el 1 11 Stewart D|:,iu|. vnilv last month, the Awarua nation lias been loeping up lat ion with ver, satisfactory results, until Due vessel was in the Panama Canal, when the local signals failed to gel a response. On Wednesday night the operators carried on a conversation with the vessel. which then was near the Bahama I lands. The Sir .lames Clark Ross reported she was proceeding first. to Norfolk for coal, and thence to New York to discharge her cargo of whale oil. WATERS! DER INJURED. AUCKLAND. April 16. A married man named Schofield, aged 60, while unloading the steamer Waikawa was struck was a swinging backet ami knocked on to a stringer, from where lie fell into the harbour. He is in the hospital with several broken ribs. SHIR’S LOADLINE KINKS. WELLINGTON. April 16. The Royal Assent to the Shipping amt Seamen’s Act, increasing the line on ships entering port with their loadlines submerged, to a maximum ol CLOCK) lias been received and a proclamation has been issued in the " Gazette ” announcing the act comes into force on 6th Ata.v. AUCKLAND WATER SUPPLY. AUCKLAND, April 16. Tlie City Council has accepted the. tender of the Candy Filter Coy. of £61.817. for the erection and installation of till ration plant, for ihe municipal water supple in furtherance of the scheme. COVERNM ENT OFFICES CENTRALISATION. AUCKLAND, April 10. In connection with the centralisation of the 1 Government, departments in Auckland city Sir IT. Rhodes stated the Cabinet had approved of tlie purchase of a vacant site at ihe corner of Chancery Street, Courthouse lane and High Street. It, was proposed to erect a four or five storey building with the State Eire and Accident Office on the ground floor and the other depart - niciiix "ii the upper.

STODDART CASE. BEFORE FULL COURT. WELLINGTON, April 1,1. The Full Court was engaged this morning in. hearing the case of Leo Robert .Sioddart, of Willoughby, a farmer (for himself and five children) against the chairman, councillors and inhabitants of the County of Ashburton. This is a. case which was moved into the Full Court hy Mr Justice Adams for argument on the question of 11011-suit or judgment lor defendant 011 the ground that the verdict of the jury awarding plaint ill’ £J2SO was against the weight, of evidence. The facts were that- 011 August 18, 1925, Elizabeth May Gladstone Stoildart, plaintilUs wile, while, driving along the mad at 7.30 at night, did not notice an obstruction in the shape of a stake and netting erected by ihe council for the purpose of keeping the public off parts of tlie road damaged by floods a month previously. It was unlighted and the result was that the gig was upset and Airs Stoddart was killed, i’laintilf alleged negligence on the part of the county in not having tho obstruction lighted. The jury found that there was negligence and the obstruction was in the nature ol a hidden trap that could not have been noticed in the circumstances. Defendants alleged contributory negligence on the part of deceased in that the gig was insufficiently lighted and deceased did not keep sufficient look out. The Court consists of the Chief Justice (Mr Skcrrctt), Mr Justice Stringer. Mr Justice Adams, Air Justice MacGregor and Air Justice Alpors. Messrs F. 8. Wilding and A. K. North are appearing for plaintiffs, and Air \y. J. Sim, for defendants, in support of the motion. After argument had been partly heard the case was adjourned till Friday. TOO -MANY “SECTS.” BLENHEIM, April IG. Frederick Broadley Farinar was fined £ls and costs at the Pieton Court on „ eb.irge of being drunk while in charge of a.motor car. 1 arm a r dtoxe the car from Blenheim to the Pieton wharf. He mistook a turning and found himself on the railway line with a bit-king train coming along the metals. A serious accident was averted l,y Farmin' slewing the car off the line on to a fence where it was found hy the police. Counsel pleaded leniency, saying his client was well and favourably known throughout- Marlborough. On the day in question he met an old friend and ! they had one or two drinks. If Farm- * ar’s license was taken away it would I affect his business activities. I • The Afagistrate said that probably the publicity would be a greater pun- ! islimenb than a fine or disqualification, j so he would not deprive the accused of bis license.