DOMINION NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 August 1927, Page 1

DOMINION NEWS.

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) AMERICAN TIMBER. •WELLINGTON-, Aug. 2. A question of the. use of foreign timbers in workers’ homes has been tallied by Air IT. E. Holland, who will ask the Prime Minister whether lie is aware that American redwood weather boarding is being used in the construction of the latest batches of Government workers’ homes at Lower Hntt, and whether lie considers this is fair to the timber workers of tho Dominion, whir are being thrown out of work as a. result of the mills closing down, through lack of a market for Now Zealand timber. Mr Holland will also ask for a return, showing the number of railway boilers imported from Britain and/ America during the two years ended June JOtli., 1927. and the number of casual and permanent employees put ofF from the Railway workshops in tho same period.

CHRISTCHURCH. RATES. CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 2. The Labour City Council of Christchurch, in,order to balance the budget for the current year, have decided to use accumulated profits of the Electric Light Department of £BOOO and from the Quarry Account of £SOOO a. total of £13,000 the Council having estimated the expenditure at something more than the current fate would yield. The only alternafive was to raise the rate from throe-pence and three-eighths to threepence and nineteen thirty-seconds in the pound. The (.Jiiinr-il chose the alternative mentioned. This policy was opposed strenuously by the opposition party. This party numbers only five, and they were outvoted.

The estimates, with resolutions proviiling for use of these accumulated funds .went, through. The meeting lasted till 2 a.m. It is stated by the Labour Alnyor and Councillors that these appropriated moneys will he repaid as soon as possible. ' At flic elections both parties were pledged not to increase the rates.

THE UNEMPLOYED. PAHTATUA, Aug. 2. As the outcome of a deputation to tho Minister of Public Works, relief work lias been commenced on tlie Paliiatua Track, the allocation being 20 unemployed from Palmerston North, and 15 from Paliiatim. The men arc encamped. They are about a mile from the top of tlie range, on Air E. E. Yiles’ property. Tlie site is a splendid one for the purpose. Relief wages are being paid the men. viz.. 9s for single men and 12s for married men. Tlie work has been going for 14 days. It consists of removing the worst points of the road. The men have shown themselves a good class of workers. Already great improvement in tho route is evident, the present improvements arc being carried out by day work, hut contracts wii’l lie let shortly. Probably the whole route will he widened. A stir, vcy is now being made.

KAI WARR A SLIP CLEARED. WELLINGTON, Aug. 2. The slip on the railway line near Kniwarra Hill, and into which a freight train ran on Saturday night, was cleared to-night at fi.3o, and the full time table for trains running is in operation again. Railway transport to Wellington Ims been blocked for nearly three days as tlie result of the slip. The main trunk express left Thorndon at 7.3] p.m., a few minutes late.

GENEROUS AITCK LA XT) GIFT. AUCKLAND, Aug. •_>. A handsome gift of over four acres of land at Point Chevalier, with a fourtcen-roomed house, lias been made bv .Mr Hnllylmrton Johnstone, a retired farmer. It is proposed that the area should he controlled by a Sports Club, and provision made for bowling and croquet greens and tenuis courts, also for children’s playing areas. Under a preliminary agreement, the condition is made that the donor is to receive an annuity of two hundred pounds a year for life. The profits from the area are to be spent on improvement of the grounds, and any surplus profit is to go to the Orphan (Tomes Trust Hoard.

EXPLOSION IN RANGE. GPLYMOUTH, Aug. .’5. Something in coal used in a kitchen range in a Ulaketown house last evening exploded. The only occupant of the room was Alma Axelsen, I I, who received facial cuts and a gash on the temple necessitating three stitches. The range was blown to hits and a table set for a meal was covered with soot. Pieces of iron and hrielc were scattered about the room. Neighbours rushed in on hearing the explosion and found the girl blindly groping her way round the room.

MORTGAGE DEAL DISPUTE. HAMILTON. A.u|s. Reserved judgment was delivered by ATr Wyvern Wilson, S.M.. to-day, in a case in which Alexander Hopkirk. farmer, of Cambridge ; Harry Dunstan Matthews and Clive Matt-hows, farmers, of Hamilton and the Bank of New Zealand sought to recover from Lucy Burbush, wife of Walter Harold Burbush, stock agent, of Hamilton, £l4O. interest allegedly due under a deed of mortgage. The evidence disclosed an involved transaction in a mortgage deal. Judgment was given for defendant, security for appeal being fixed at £l7 17s.

PRIEST BROWNED. ELTHAM. Aug. _2. Rev. Father Maurice Fitzgibbons, about 32 years of age. mysteriously disappeared early on Sunday evening, after attending devotional service. He fust recently bad arrived from Lee in, in order to assist in the parish. Father Fitzgibbons had been an inmate of Lewisham Hospital, Christchurch, for the last six months, and as the result of the operations which be had undergone. he was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He therefore came up to Father Moore at Eltham, in the hope that a change of some months would do him good. Parties had been searching all dn> yesterday and to-day. and the body of the missing man was found this afternoon in a deep hole in the Wamgocroro River, the hat of the missing man being found a mile further up the river. An inquest will be held to-morrow. The only known relative of deceased is a sister in a convent at Christchurch.

CARELESS MOTORIST. DUNEDIN. Aug. 2. Ashley George Faigan, who was sentenced to three months for negligent driving at the May sessions, appeared for sentence on n manslaughter charge.

The Court of Appeal had quashed this charge and Faigan was discharged. ACCIDENTS. WELLINGTON, Aug. 2. Deserra, Marcus ,aged 44, married, residing at Awarawa Road, Ngaia, employed by the Fletcher Construction Company fell from the scaffolding of a building on which lfo was working and was admitted to the hospital, suffering from severe bodily injuries. Walter Alangin, aged 41, of 24, The Esplanade, Island Bay, was admitted to tho hospital to-day suffering from severe head injuries, the result of his motor cycle skidding and running into a bank. Ifo is progressing favourably. ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. WELLINGTON, Aug. 2. Arthur Longbottom, married, grocer, of Aurora Terrace, Petonc, was admitted to tlie hospital in a serious condition as a result of attempting suicide bv cutting bis throat with a razor.