DOMINION NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 August 1927, Page 1

DOMINION NEWS.

(Py Telegraph—Per Press Association,

.KNOW AT UAXMER SPRINGS. HANMER SPRINGS, Aug. 20. Snow commenced to fall on Friday afternoon and at daylight to-day there were three inches on the flats. Jt. was reported that there had been a heavy fall in the back country. A good thaw lias set in. Tbo glass is low, but the weather is line, though overcast.

SHOP BURGLED. DUNEDIN, Aug. 22. On Friday night Alfred Dunstnn, a shop-keeper, received a telephone call stating liis sister was in the hospital, having been knocked down by a motor. Arriving at the institution be found lie bad been hoaxed, and on returning discovered his shop burgled, a quantity of cigarettes being taken.

INFANT’S MUTILATED BODY CHRTSTCHUROH, Aug. 22. With the lower part of the face and throat apparently eaten away, a liody which is supposed to bo that of an infant only a few days old, was found on the river bank this morning, opposite Dallington Terrace. The body appeared to have been carried to the spot in a paper parcel, and a light cloth covered the trunk, only the face and neck being exposed.

INFANT FOUND DEAD. DUNEDIN, Aug. 22,

An inquest concerning the death o' Vivian Robertson Webster, the infant son of Francis Robertson Webster, of Anderson’s Bay, was held this afternoon.

Francis Robertson Webster, the father, said the child was twelve months old. He had been left playing in a cot by his mother on the previous evening in a room by himself. At 9 p.m. the mother looked to see the boy and found him all right. Witness went into the room at 7 a.m. to-day and found tbo oliikl dead. Dr Fitzgerald was summoned at once. He said there were indications that the child had been sick, and in witness’ opinion- death was due to asphyxia, following discharge of stomach contents. The deceased was apparently a perfectly healthy child. The Coroner, in returning a verdict according to the medical evidence, added that death was purely accidental. and every sympathy must bo expressed to the parents in tb?ir lows.

STABBING AFFAIR. AUCKLAND, Aug. 22. Alexander Percy Outhbcrt Bentley, aged about thirty, was admitted to the hospital about eight o’clock to-night, suffering from a severe wound in the back of his neck. It is believed to have been caused by slabbing. He resides at C’Jonbern Road, Reunion!. and the stabbing is alleged to have occurred at or near a house in Wanganui Avenue, Ponsonby. RIVER BOARD SEAT.

BIJENHEIM, Aug. 22,

An extraordinary vacancy has been caused on the Wairau River Board, Mr R. Ham. one of the Omaka SubDivision members, having been deprived of his seat on technical and legal grounds. Air Ham held a lease of certain of the Board's reserve area along the Wairau, in the vicinity of Condor's Bend. He -was not legally entitled to retain his seat oil the Board. Mr Ham ,it may -be mentioned, has held the lease in question for seme years, but neither he nor the Board had any suspicion that he wa.s mvt on solid legal ground, in holding office. The position appears to be purely technical. It seems that in the Counties Act, and River Boards Act, it is laid down that no member who holds a contract with a. local body may become a number of that body, but in the first two mentioned statutes, a, lease is specially exempted from the definition of contract. This, however, is not so in the case of the River Boards Act, which does not particularise in connection with leasers, and there is no option but regard the lease as a contract.

A FATAL ACCIDENT. CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 22. John Holmes Hartley, of Rangiora, carpenter,' received a,n injury last evening, through liis head striking an electric light pole while travelling in a motor. He was bospitalled in a critical condition and died later. A verdict of accidental' death was returned at the inquest.