DOMINION NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 May 1928, Page 3

DOMINION NEWS.

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association

THIEF IN NURSES’ HOME. AUCKLAND, Alay 23.

“Sorry, wrong room.” The speaker was u fair-haired young man who opened the door of a bedroom iu one of the nurses’ cottages at St. Helens Hospital early on Sunday evening. He made that remark, slammed the door, and vanished, startled by the fact that the room was not empty as at the moment Sister O’Sullivan was reading in bed. The time was shortly before six o’clock, and the other nurseS had gone to tea. Sister O’Sullivan raised a hue and cry as soon as she recovered from her surprise, and the intruder raced off, escaping in the direction of .St. James street at the rear of the Nurses’ Home. When a search was made it was found that tne room of another nurse Sister Ward, had been ransacked, and that in addition to £1 in money, some silk clothing iiad l>een stolen.

The thief evidently knew the run of tlio institution, many people in the locality selling their clocks by t lie gongs which are run for meals. On Sunday morning an electric light in the passageway behind tlio building was found broken, and it is now believed that it was interfered with in order to facilitate the raid on the building. DIVORCE .SUIT. BA' RETURNED SOLDIER. AUCKLAND. A lay 24. llow the war between Britain and Germany led to an Englishman and hi.s German wife separating was told in the Supreme Court to-day, when Percy Tames Pettit applied for a divorce from His wife, a German woman Anna Otteliu Paulina Carolina Fanziska Pettit, on grounds of mutual separation.

The petitioner, an engineer, said that ha was married to his wife in 1914, in London. In 1915 he came home on furlough from the war. and found his wife’s attitude was “very difficult.” About the middle of 1910 lie had more leave, and then found her attitude “quite impossible.” “Tiyo of her brothers, fighting for Germany, had been killed in the war,” said the witness, “and her sentiments were against the British ” Pettit s iii! that the last he saw of his wife was in 1910. lie came to Now Zealand in 1922, and has lived here since then. Mr Justice Blair said he would look into the question of domicile and would reserio judgment.

F. AI. B. FISHER DIVORCE. CHRISTCHURCH, Alay 25

In the Supreme Court, Francis -Marion Bates Fisher, a former New Zealand Cabinet .Minister, petitioned for divorce from bis wife Esther Alice Fisher, on the grounds of mutual agreement to separate. Mrs Fisher crosspetitioned oil the same grounds and obtained a decree nisi to he made absolute after three months, the husband to pay the wife’s costs on the highest scale.

The payment of costs of bearing lengthy evidence before a commission in England was left to agreement between the parties. The husband didn’t proceed op his petition and bis counsel offered no objection to the cross petition.

Air Donnelly, for tlio wife, said Fisher was now a financial adventurer, without definite profession or occupation. “He was at one stage the youngest Cabinet Minister in New Zealand, and apparently peeved at his defeat in 1914 election, ho then went to England and performed valuable service during the war period. Airs Fisher was always unwilling to let her husband divorce her, and eventually decided to take proceedings herself.

Counsel stressed that he did not. use the term “ financial adventurer ” in any offensive sense, except to mean that Fisher was willing to go anywhere where there was a field for his talent.

PIONEER SETTLER. GISBORNE,, Alay 25.

Obituary—Thomas Sydney AVilliams, a pioneer settlor of the East Coast. Tie was horn in the Bay of Islands in 1847, and was a son of Edward AVilliams. He went to AVaiapu district in 1894 and assumed the maiiaginent of the family estate and settled at Kahnrau near Knatoria. AVilliams was closely identified with tho development, of settlement on the East Coast being ■especially helpful to the Alaoris, whom lie encouraged to larm their lands. As the eldest surviving grandson of Archdeacon Henry A\ illiiirns, lie laid the foundation of a stone memorial church at Pallia a few years ago.

A BURGLAR AT WORK. AUCKLAND. May 25

H. Wnlmsley, a railway employee, occupying a flat in Park Road, awakened last night by a burglar in his bedroom, gave chase clad in bis pyjamas. He. came to grips with the runaway, who escaped after a scuffle, bolting into the hospital grounds. A search showed 17s Gd was stolen from Wnlmsley’s pockets. The intruder in his hurried exit, left an overcoat behind.

A REMAND. DUNEDIN, May-25. A woman, aged 30 years, named suppressed, charged with assaulting Charles Wilfred Waldron on May 18th, by striking him on the head with a tomahawk, was further remanded till June Ist. The police stated the injured man was now out ol danger and anticipated the' evidence would disclose sufficient grounds for preferring a more serious indictment, it being suggested she had struck him with a tomahawk while he was asleep. RACE PROGRAMME CHARGE. DUNEDIN, May 25. Mr Bundle, S.M., dismissed the ease telegraphed on May 21st in which Francis Joseph Hayward was charged with publishing^nd circulating on May 4tli a document “Southern Sporting (Glide,’.’ purporting to he the programme of trotting events at Forbury Park on May stli. The Magistrate j., Id that tiie inclusion of a list of acceptances did not make the document a programme. If the document purported fo he anything it was to give information to a gullible public.

U.S. INVITATION. WELLINGTON. May 25

Hon .T. G. Coates announced to-day the receipt from the British Government of the text of the communication from United States ambassador m London to tlie Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in regard to a multilateral treaty for the reunoiatiou of war proposed "by the United States. The United States Government has received with keenest satisfaction Britain’s expression of confidence that India and the Dominions arc prepared to accept an invitation to participate in the conclusion of such a treaty and invitations arc being extended accordingly by United States to the Governments of Australia, 'New -Zealand, South Africa and Inclin to become original parties to the Treaty for the renunciation of war now under consideration.