DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 May 1927, Page 3

DOMINION ITEMS.

[iJY TELEGRAPH—PER PRESS ASSOCIATION'.] COAL PROFITS. AUCKLAND, .May 4. the report of the Tanpiri Coal .Mines Ltd. shows a profit of C 10,919 for the year. A payment of a final dividend ot Is 3d per share is proposed, absorbing C 7002, also the transfer of -Clooo to the Accident Reserve Fund and a carry forward of I'lo.olS.

P. AND T. SALARIES. AUCKLAND, .May I. Mr 'I. McNamara. Secretary of the Post and T ! ‘graph Department, stated to-day i ■! (here was no immediate prospect >i , all-nniml increase in the dcpnrtmcu.nl salaries. The vote for the Department was at present over Cl,ol 10,000, and an all-round increase would mean a large expenditure. Further, the Department was anticipating a had year. If tile business outside is not good, lie said, that of the Department must fall oil' accordingly.

.Mr .McNamara says that the business may improve in the spring. The expenditure in the Department has been curtailed during the last year, ’litis has combined to show a profit.

The Ferret ary stated that the salaries of some officials of the Department are increasing from time to time, hut that is only where the growth of the district has warranted such increase. I hose salary growths are going on all the time, but only very slowly.

.MORE BURGLARIES. AUCKLAND. May I

Burglaries in Auckland continue. The shop of A. 11. Ciirnick, at Greenlane, Remuern, was raided last night. Sixty pounds’ worth of tobacco was stolen. Ten packets of cigarettes was all that was left of the stock in the tobacconist portion of the shop. An audacious daylight theft is reported from Poiisonhy, where a man entered the house of Mrs Clark. Seymour Street, and stole cash amounting to Cdf) Os ltd, a child’s money box and a gold watch valued at CIO. The theft took place yesterday afternoon. Afi's ( lark was working in her flower garden, and her son was making a toy boat in the bathroom. The child ran out to his mother and staled there was a strange man in the house. .Mrs Clark state.- that she went round to the front of the house, and that the intruder jumped over the fence into the next-door garden. The money hud I been taken from a hag in .Mrs Clark’s room, and the child’s money box. which the burglar also had taken, was dropped in the neighbour’s garden.

MAN’S DEATH. CHRISTCHURCH. May o. The death occurred in Christchurch yesterday of Frederick Robert Carson, manager of Wood Brothers, flaxmillers, and managing director of District: tors Ltd. BETTING FINES. CHRISTCHURCH. May At the Magistrate's Court to-day. charges were heard against various persons for betting with Alfred Vivian Whitts, who was convicted of being a bookmaker and lined f 100 in March. The cases were practically the first of their kind to he brought in New Zealand. Mr Mosley. S.M.. took a serious view of the offence and inflicted penalties ranging from L'.'l up to C2O and costs and fixed imprisonment of substantial nature by way of default or non-compliance with distress warrant.

Those convicted and lined were:—G. 11. McCrnc and Z. Beri. (.'29 and costs, in default two months. C. A. Duff ditto. E. W. Flicker L' 3. in delault II days; .). Ilalkett. Lin. in. default one month: I), floss, ditto; F. G. Hedges, Till, in delault, one month : ■L Ryan, ditto; W. .1. Roy. L'3 ; I’. I'. Tlmrphy C2O, in default two months. Before imposing the above penalties, the Magistrate said ho could not hut take into consideration the fact that under the legislature the maximum penalty was fixed at CIOO or six months' imprisonment. It was nonsense to say that a man betting with a bookmaker did not know he was committing an offence. “I cannot disguise the fact from myself that unfortunately, within the last day or two. the effects of gambling have been brought before this particular 'Court.” added the Magistrate. ‘Several men have been ruined, probably through their own fault, and have defrauded their employers of large sums of money through betting with bookmakers, i cannot sit on this Court, day after day, without recognising the vast amount of evil done to members of the community through gambling.

PRISONER DISMISSED. DUNEDIN, Alay 5. “Prisoner, you are discharged. 1 do not disagree with the verdict of the jury, but at the same time I want to point- out to you that vour behaviour was distinctly discreditable, and you should not have provoked these people as you did.” So spoke Justice Re.od in the Supreme Court when a verdict of not guilty was returned against William Duff, schoolmaster, charged with using obscene language in a dance ball at .Macrae's Flat. 1? EVIDENCE BURNT. GISBORNE. Abiy 5. The fourteen roomed residence of J. J. Burke, of Kaiinoe latutahi. was destroyed by fire.’ Nothing was saved. Insurance'£l7so in New Zealand Office. A RUMOUR DENIED. DUNEDIN, Alay 5. As the result of a rumour that the building of the new post office for Dunedin bad been abandoned and the plans pigeon holed, a. large deputation waietd on Hon. K. S. Williams, who assured the speakers that there was no truth in the rumour. Any delay was due, not to the intention of afbandoning the scheme, but to consideration of bow many other departmental offices could be boused in one building. It was the intention of the Prime Alinister to proceed with the building when the plans were fixed.

TELEPHONE rates. AUCKLAND. Alay 5. Air G. AfcNanutra. Secretary to the Post and Telegraph Department. informed an inquirer that there is no hope of a decrease in the telephone rate to subscribers at present. While the Telephone Department bail been making profits, the position a.t present was too insecure to permit of any revision of charges. New Zealand had the second cheapest telephone system in the world. Canada having the cheapest Tho linking up of the North and South Islands was expected to be completed in about two weeks.