DOMINION NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1928, Page 4

DOMINION NEWS.

(By Telegraph —ler Tress Association. SYSTEMATIC THEFT. WELLINGTON, Jan. 11. : Frederick John Dean Board, fortysix a carpenter, pleaded guilty and was committed for trial to-day on two charges of breaking and entering and the theft of goods to the value of £7l-3 from the warehouse of the Excelsior Supply Company. Accused lived at the rear of the warehouse, and was occasionally employed as a casual labourer. The goods had been missed for two years. Two auctioneers gave evidence of auctioning toys and other goods for

the accused. A detective said that when employed some time ago to lit a new lock on the door. Board kept one of the keys, using it to enter the premises.

CHARGE OF ASSAULT. ! W'ELILTNGTON, Jan. 11. Anker Jacob Carlo Jensen, aged 31, was tu-dav lined £lO for assaulting a man named Murdock, half the fine to go to Murdock. Two witnesses said they saw defendant striking Murdock while the latter lay on the ground unconscious. Three stitches had to be put in Murdock’s bead. Jensen, it was stated, was on probation for assaulting an old man nt Christchurch, and breaking his collarbone. Murdock had refused to lend Jensen five shillings.

GOVERNMENT'S POLICY. DAR.GAVILLE, Jan. 11. In dealing with the Government s loading policy in his main -speech today, the Prime Minister (Mr Coates) mentoned that GOOD lni'.cs of highways had been mapped out, and they had been faced by an immediate demand for more improvements. In the firstyear of the programme, 1921, the expenditure per mile was £ol. lit 1025 it had been £73, and in 192 G it bail risen to £lll. If £3 [>er ear was only sufficient in 192-1 to pay £3l per tuilu, who was going to pay for loading at £lll per mile? On the 'principle that the users should pay, the petrol lax had been imposed, and with tlu- added revenue it was intended eventually lo increase the mileage of the highways by 3900. The cost of maintenance was almost in exact ratio to- the increase in the number of cars imported. In the year 1923-26 local bodies had contributed £183,000 for road maintenance, and in 1920-27 they had paid £273,000, yet they had been unable to meet the demands for expenditure by £200,000. Where had the money come from to pay for the 'extra cost of Loading? It had come olf the land, and the effect, apparently, had been that by-roads bad suffered. Taxation ot land would have to be steadied tip or they would have increased difficulty in settling new areas and in keeping on the land those settlers already there. Nobody, lie claimed, could find fault with the Government in its effort tc

relieve local taxation and place tho load fairly on the shoulders of those who ought to pay. SENT BACK TO MELBOURNE. AUCKLAND, Jan. 11. David Wappan Bon, aged thirtyeight, and Ina .Tohannc Thomas, aged twenty were charged to-day with conspiracy to cheat and defraud at Melbourne. The case arose out of the sale of a motor car. I hey wore ordered by Mr I-'. K. Hunt. S.M. to be sent back to Melbourne. T.ORRY CAPSIZED. NELSON. Jan. 12. lan Coleman, aged 19, was killed last night thioUgh a motor lorry which lie was driving, running off the road and capsizing on iho Baton Saddle.

Deceased tv as the son of Edward Coleman, of Motupiku. lb was engaged in carting timber from a sawmill in Baton to Tapawera.

Deceased was travelling by himself and no one actually saw the accident. The first to discover it was a man who was driving a lorry some distance behind. FALSE PRETENCES!. AUCKLAND, Jan. 12. Alter hearing evidence in respect of three (barges of obtaining money by false pretences, brought against William Madison Alt. motor engineer, formerly of Drury and Papakurn, and now believed to be in Honolulu. Afr F. K. Hunt. S.M., in the Police Court, granted an application for a warrant to give legal authority for him to he brought to Auckland. The first charge was of obtaining by false pretences £432 from Basil Buddie, as agent for the New Zealand Cuarantec Corporation Limited (Wellington).

Buddie, in evidence, said he advanced £432 to Alt whom ho knew previously on his representation that he had sold a motor lorry to Thomas Robertson. of Papakurn. It. subsequently transpired that no sale bad been made, and no such truck as the one mentioned existed. It was staled that Alt left Auckland by the Aorangi on Dec. 20th. Evidence regarding two tin t her similar charges was also given.

A SERIOUS CtlAKHrl. AUCKLAND, Jan. 12. i A charge of attempting to murder; Ins wife, and with having caused her’ actual bodily harm, was preferred; against Lawrence McKenzie, aged 41,’ of Parnell, in the Police Court to-day.;

The Police evidence alleged that accused had attempted to kill his wife early on the morning of December 30th. when she slept in bed. A hammer produced in Court was alleged to have been the weapon“with which the woman had been hit.' Accused’s wife, Honor C. McKenzie, said that on the night in question, she went to bed about 8.4-3. Late in the night she remembered waking and trying to find her way out of the loom. She felt sick and her face was wet with blood. Her husband was awake and she told him she wanted to get a drink of water. Accused thereupon caught witness by the throat and .said : ‘‘No, you don’t get a drink of water. AYe are in here to die together.” Then I struggled towards the window and pushed it up at the bottom continued witness. I tried to get out on to the street because I could not get tbe door open. 1 could not get out, but I put by head through the window to get some fresh air. I could smell gas very strongly.

When witness went back to the bedroom she saw a gas tube hanging from a jet over her bed, and .one end of the tube was under the clothes, which were bloodstained. A constable stated that he was accosted by accused in the street early in the morning. Accused said lie wanted to give himself up for something he had done to his wife, but he would not say what he had done. Later, accused said he could not remember what had happened. A doctor gave evidence that it was probable that the cut on the woman had been inflicted by a hnnunerr. Accused pleaded guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial.