DOMINION NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 July 1928, Page 3

DOMINION NEWS.

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association,

COMPENSATION CLAIM. AUCKLAND, July 23

The question of tlie degree of dependency was argued in the Arbitration Court in a claim by Louisa Ellen Beath, against the Auckland Fire Board for compensation for tho death of her son, R. G. Beath, the fireman, who died from the burns which he received at the oil fire last April. If the plaintiff, a widow, were held to have become totally dependent on the deceased, the compensation would reach a total of £995. Her counsel contended that she was totally dependent on the deceased, her only son, having regularly paid her £2 weekly and other amounts as she required them. There was one daughter, a nurse, who was unable to contribute toward her support. The plaintiff held two properties, but both were heavily mortgaged, and the annual expenditure on each was a little over £IOO.

Counsel for tho Fire Heard said that one could not but he keenly sympathetic in such a case, hut the mattei was ono of some public interest, and it was not for the Fire Board, nor the insurance companies to make any gratuitous payments. The mere fact that the plaintiff was receiving something from a girl who was staying in her house took the case outside one of total dependency. As long as the plaintiff had any assets at all, she was not totally dependent. Mr” Justice Fraser said that the Court could not say it was a case of total dependency, although in their opinion it came very close to it. Judgment was given for £650, and for £l9 10s funeral expenses, and £l2 12s costs.

FARM WORKER’S TRAGIC END TEAWAMUTU, July 25.

Charles McVinisli, aged 36 yeais a single man was found hanging from a rafter in a wliarc this afternoon.. Deceased worked on a farm at Teralni, five miles form Tea wamatu. He lmd lunch with a workmate to-dav being then in apparently normal spirits.

PRESBYTERIAN ORP HANAG K AUCKLAND. July 25.

The trustees of the estate of the late ]>. M. Dingwall, of Reniuera. have completed the purchase of 30 acres at Papatoctoc, on which to establish a Presbyterian Orphanage as provided for in the will. Between £190,000 and £900,000 u-ill 1)0 available lor the Orphanage under the Dingwall bequests. \ system of cottage buildings has bec-n decided upon in preference to one large institution.

‘POSSUM DEALER FINED. INVERCARGILL, July 25. The question of disposing of opossum skins by poachers arose at tlie sitting of the Police Court this morning .before Mr G. Cruickshnnks, S.M. when Francis Thomas Vernon Kmgsland, a licensed broker, was charged with that he failed on receiving 177 opossum skins from Thomas Jackson Smith, to make entries in the register kept for that purpose, of the correct name, address and occupation of the person from whom the skins were obtained. He was also charged with being illegally in possession of opossum skins on March 27, 1923, about tho same time concerning which the first charge was laid. Defendant was fined £2O on the charge of being illegally in possession of opossum skins, and £lO on the charge of failing to make the entries in the register.

BRANDY NOT TRUE TO LABEL INVERCARGILL, July 25.

William Latham Hogg, licensee of tlie Golden Age Hotel, Bluff, was fined £2O in tlie Police Court to-day for selling brandy from a bottle with a wrong label. It was stated for the defence that the bottle was merely there for filling decanters with draught brandy, and counsel submitted that it was only a technical offence, defendant admitting it quite freely.

The Magistrate said, that it all depended on what was meant by the term “bottling.” To pour liqour into a bottle was bottling, and in his opinion the offence was proved. RAILWAY LINE FLOODED. HAMILTON, July 25.

Railway communication with regions beyond Te Aroha is still prevented as the result of flood washouts. The weather is now improving. It is estimated that lost night the water was eight feet deep over the railway in some parts. MAORI BOY ELECTROCUTED. HEAD SEVERED BY WIRE. ROTORUA July 25, The adjourned inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of ltatu Rapniui, abov nine years, of age on July 18th, was held this morning by Mr iS. L. Paterson, S.M., District Coroner.

John McAlister, linesman in the employ of the Public Works Department, j stated that on July 18th he was patroling the line. He at Monrea about 12.45 p.m., and was told - by a Maori woman that she had seen j a' flash on the Rotorua-Opotiki trans- - mission line which had a voltage of 1 50,000 He went along and saw the J body of the hoy on the top of the structure, 3o feet from the gtound. The boy was dead. His head was > severed from the body and lay about 50 yards from the polo. There were steps on the pole, by means of which > the hoy could have climbed. He might have got on to the. telephone hut and 1 then started 'to climb up, and then ' come in contact with the live wire. • Ho thought he had got a shock and then fell forward on the wire, which severed his head. ft was dangerous to go within three feet of a wire caiijing 50,000 volts. The telephone lint was a- permanent structure. It was about 10 feet high, and the boy could get on the telephone box. He rang the operator at Ngongotaha to cut off the current. The verdict of the Coroner was that deceased, Ratu Rapana, by misadventure came in contact with liigh-vol-tuge electric-' power line, and was electrocuted. He further said that tele- ( phone huts or similar structures should not be placed so close to polos .carrying power lines, as to permit persons stepping therefrom on to steps placed on such poles. POLICE INSPECTOR DEAD. DUNEDIN, July 26. Obituary.—Police Inspector Kemp, of Timaru. FOUND HANGING. NEW PLYMOUTH, July 26. A farmer named Julius Albert Ludvic Kurth, aged 63, was found liaiig- ’ jug to a tree in uio busli, on his farm at Barett Road, yesterday afternoon. He went out in the morning to grub furze anil was.seen at work, but as lie did not return to dinner, a search was nude and his son-in-law found the body as described, life being extinct. He had lately been in poor health and was attended by a doctor. He was a 1 very highly respected and a useful t settler. ' • BODY FOUND. DUN’EDEx, July 26. I The body of William Heuery Warren aged 49, bootmaker, of Owaka, was was found in the sea at Brighton. He had spent a few days there. How he got into the water is unknown.