DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 February 1927, Page 4

DOMINION ITEMS.

[by TELEGttAPR—PEH PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

KAII.AV.VY PORTER DEAD. TAIHAPE, Feb. 10

.VI. ti. T. lle.lell Young, railway porter, who was seriously injured ‘.it Ohakuno railway station on February •Jnd. died at Tnihape hospital yesterday. lie never regained consciousness. An inquest was held hut adjourned till February 18th. TJecefised was aged 21. single. liis parents reside in Wellington.

DEATH OF DR McllAK. NAPIER. Fob. lit. Obituary—Dr Kao Mcßae, aged 43 years. After a brilliant war service deceased returned to the Dominion, having been born at Titnaru. He settled til Xupier five years ago. MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE. TOWN PLANNING. PALMERSTON N.. Feb. !). The Municipal Conference continued ibis morning, when Mr Hammond. Director of Town Planning, addressed the delegates on the salient features. Replying to a question he said tintown planning scheme for part of a borough only, would he unavoidable. Asked why the Board wanted to know the names ol occupants and owners within the Boroughs. Mr Hammond said the information would he important for reference. The clause requiring the Borough Councils to prepaid the planning scheme map or maps of the borough, showing the interior .contours of the area comprised in the borough at fifty feet intervals, was ciitieiscd. 'flic Christchurch delegates stated it would take years to prepare such a plan of their city.

FURTHER DISCUSSIONS. PALMERSTON N„ Feb. i)

A remit was carried urging that independent of the Municipal Corporations Act stamp duty he not chargeable on local body cheques, the mover eontendiii" the Government should not bleed local bodies, but assist them in the direction stated. The matter is not one of North Island versus the South, said Mr Andrews i Christchurch) when moving that the Government be urged to abolish the present Main Highways Board and set up one for each Island, the mover contending that such action would lie in the interests of the country. The remit was lost by a substantial majority. FALSE PRETENCES. AUCKLAND. Feb. I'd. Joint Francis Holcombe, aged 2d. on charges with obtaining thirty pounds by means of three valueless cheques, pleaded guilty in the Police Court. Chief Inspector , Cummings stated the accused arrived from France on 10th April last year and nt->s employed by a large motor firm in Wellington. Ho wsa admitted to probation on two charges of false pretences and subsequently went to Gisborne, Opotiki, Rotorua and Auckland, representing that ho was still with the Wellington firm, by which he had been dismissed. Holcombe, in reply to the Magistrate, said he was a motion picture director tit Hollywood and fell a victim to cocaine. On coming to Now Zealand he got a letter containing Iji.ul news from his folks at homo. He met a man at an hotel in Wellington who gave him some “snow.” It made him think ho was a Roekfeller anti so ho went on. He could make restitution of thirty pounds but did not want his folks at home to know about (his trouble. Ho was remhutded till Saturday to give him a chance to make restitution.

FINGERS CRUSHED. WELLINGTON. Fob. !). At ihe Petono Workshops yesterday .]. P. Ijiikscn, junior, a striker, aged 1!). was placing a block of iron on a two-ewt electric hammer when it, rommeseed to fall olf. lie endeavoured to slop it, but slipped and in falling lie placed bis bat’d on the hammer, the falling block striking the buffer. Han-sen-bad the lingers of his right It md crushed. ABBREVIATED DRESSES. AUC KLAND. February T " Nutt here have I seen shorter skirts than those wont hv Auckland girls,” said a" Aucklander who recently returned from a world tour. "The flappers of London. Paris. New York, Chicago or Sydney cannot teach New Zealand anything about abbreviated dresses. Why, tiny wear them shorter here than they do in Sydney, and Sydney is hard to heat, as von know.”' " Whv is it? Well. 1 will tell you my opinion. This Dominion, of course, is an island, and the inhabitants have ill the conceit which is characteristic of insularity. The girls here live so far from the world n.imrs that they are

compelled to depend upon pictures in the newspapers and magazines, and in their anxiety to be really up to date they interpret extreme samples there displayed as being the current mode. Jt is simply the difference between those who make fashions and those who try to copy them, and unconsciously exaggerate the total ollect.”

CHARGES OF ARSON. TI At A HU. February

At the Magistrate’s Court at Geraldine to-day, before Air C. R. OrrWalker, S.M.. Andrew Blair was charged with that or or about March 31, 1020. at Geraldine, he did wilfully set lire to a dwelling, the property of John William Baxter Brown, and that on or about January 21. 1027. at Geraldine, he did wilfully set fire to a building the property of Howard Tripp. Mr T. Chcyne Karnie appeared lor accused and Detective Walker represented the police. Evidence for the police was given by several witnesses. Detective Walker, of Timaru, deposed that he had made inmiiries in Geraldine as the result ot the two fires. He had interviewed accused on the afternoon of February 2. and accused had given him a statement confessing to both fires. On the night previous to the first one he had tittending a fire brigade meeting. He had lmd a little strong drink, and had placed rubbish under the house, set it alight and made off. Regarding the last out-break of fire lie had been to Mr Mnlhern's house with several others. Mr Symmington had taunted him about the fires, so he thought lie would set fire to an old shop opposite. 11 is motive was simply to gain excitement.

Constable. C'allanan corroborated the two statements.

Air Emmie said he would plead guilty in the Supreme Court. Accused was committed for trial at the next session of the Supreme Court.

NEW ZEALANDERS' SPEECH. DUNEDIN. February 7

It is not so many months ago that a erv was raised in New Zealand about the introduction of a twang into the I use of the King’s English by New Zealander.-. Several more or less learn.l erl opinions were given regarding alleged incorrect pronunciations, but they were not received with any great resneet l>v those who had given a considered judgment to onr voice production. It is now very pleasing to learn another considered judgment on the speech of the New Zealander. Sir James Barrett', the well-known ophthalmisl. of .Melbourne, who lias travelled in many countries, and is now in Dunedin at the Medical Congress. says that one of the features which at once impresses the visitors to New Zealand is the absence of the Cockncv accent and the universal courtesy and civility of the population. '■ ! think, on the whole.” said Sir James, “that the New Zealanders sneak purer English than they do throughout England, because they do not have the dialects. Australia has got to a large extent a Cockney accent and the teachers are doing their best to trv to got rid of it.” Pure sneceh. said Sir James, was a matter of the' standardisation of the vowels, which were not five, as was usually supposed, hut over twenty. Tn some of the States of the Western part of America and Canada the pronunciation was so difficult to iollow that Sir James frequently could not understand what was said to him, '* and of course.” lie added with a laugh “they found it dillietill to understand what I said.”

TCAITA N'fi.ATA MINKHS. WKLLINOTON. February 10. A Ini'ne deputation. representing every .section of the Labour Movement mode a request to the Acting-Prime Minister mid the Minister of Labour 10-dav that the Government should pay the vayes that are due to the. coal miners at Kaitannata who have been a (reeled bv the closing of the New /calami Coal and Oil Company’s mines. The chief spokesman was .Mr W. Nash. Secretary of the New Zealand La hour Party, who stated that the

mines in <|i;e.stion have l>een slnck lor some time. On tilth ol' December lasi, three weeks’ Wildes were due to the i iuers mid the men were informed tlmt tliev would he pit id next d;iy. On the > line <luy the company's manager, .Mr I.ee. stand that if the men would eontinin working until 23rd of December ii vroidd help the company in the finrr.ei.il arrangements that it was making. Thereupon the men agreed. Up to ihe present, no payment had been made, and the position on the 3rd of February was that a total of D 7.112 was ov,tug to about 270 men. The legal aspects of the case had been investigated hv the Miners’ Union and the Union had been advised that, as tho Company consisted of English shareholders there was a possibility of a i laim under an English Statute, but it was limited to the wages earned within two months of the issue of the wind-ing-up order. To prosecute the claim, the union bad paid over its funds to solicitors and bad left itself practically penniless. The result of the action was not vet available. The deputation, therefore, urged that the Government

should pay the wagfs already, earned, and take over the claims of the men against the company. The Acting-Prime Minister. Hon. Air Downic Stewart, pointed out that the proposals made would open up quite a new departure in Government responsibility. and would render the Government open to similar claims trout other workers in similar positions. The Government had already secured work for the married miners, and it would endeavour to find reasonable work for the others. Tho Alinister of Labour (Hon Air Anderson) said that he would do his level best to recover the men’s money Tor them.

CO-OPERATION AAIONG EARAIERS HA MUTTON. Felt. 10.

Speaking at the opening of the Alorrinsville Dairy Factory. Hon Hiuvken referring to tho present fertiliser war. said the movements which had boon responsible for bringing down the cost of fertilisers was the kind which bad been in vogue in Denmark for years. It was really the mobilisation of the buying motive power which should be adopted more extensively by the farming community. Standardisation with a formidable buying organisation was what was wanted. It they hud this combination the tanners would la* able to get their implements and other requirements far cheaper than at present.

Both ATr Samuel, ALP. and AD ARMillan AI.P. spoke lengthily on the fertiliser question, and declared that the farmers had been farmed long enough by the fertiliser people. Only when they'showod the distributors that thev (core not blidling and had formed a company of their own, had the price come down 30s per ton. Air Samuel honed the whole farming community would co-operate with the Legislature support in maintaining the amount of tardy justice which had been meted out to them. The forcing down of prices was a splendid example of what co-operation could do. It now remained for the farmers to bo lovnl in order to retain the advantage gained.