DOMINION NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 October 1928, Page 5

DOMINION NEWS.

COURT HAPPENINGS. DOBSON MINE CHARGES. (By Telegraph—Press Association). 1 GREYMOUTH, October 1. M. Muir and E. Hallimm, junr, were fined £2 each with costs for having matches in their possession, whilst working at the Dobson Mine. \Thomas Hill was similarly fined for having a cigarette in his possession. He also was fined £1 with costs for using threatening language and £1 with costs lor assaulting a deputy. . Counsel for the prosecution said the Company had every reason to believe that smoking was going on in the mine and anything might happen. The position was becoming serious. They asked that the maximum penalty be inflicted in future cases.

ALLEGED ARSON. PANNEVIRKE. October 1. A man named Walter Heiford, aged about 48, a cook by occupation, was remanded this morning till Friday next on a charge of alleged arson. Accused was seen, about 7 o’clock oa Saturday evening, in the vicinity of Ranfurly House, a boarding establishment near the railway station. He set* fire to the curtains in a room and subsequently he was arrested. A couple of hours earlier the curtains-of a room in another part of the building also ivere discovered on fire, but so far the accused has not been connected with this outbreak.

DUNEDIN STATISTICS; DUNEDIN, September 30$ The vital statistics for Dunedin for September are as follows (with' last year’s figures given in parentheses): Births 134 (118) ; deaths 81 (75) ; marriages, 34 (67). The figures for the quarter ended yesterday are : —Births, 370 (380); deaths, 271 (277); marriages, 135 (180). DUNEDIN, September 30. The Customs returns for the past month are as follows (the figures for the corresponding period last year appearing in parentheses); —Customs, £61,337 7s 6d (£58,755 4s 6d) j beer duty, £17,276 0s lid (£20,253 12s 6d); tyres, £744 11s 9d; motor spirit, £3,252 2s 4d. The tyre and spirit taxes were not levied this time last year. The figures for the quarter ended yesterday are: Customs, £206,031 16s 3d'(£232675 Is 4d); beer, £47,973 5s 8d (£5,184 13s 8d). f.

A SUICIDE. 4 ; s, PALMERSTON N.„ Oct. 1. The death occurred under tragc cir T cum,stances yesterday afternoon of Harry Meadley, 50, a baker by occupation. The body t of deceased was discovered on a couch in a kitchen and a gas tube nearby. WHITEBAITER DROWNED. - r FOXTON, Oct. 1.4A Maori named Rupaha Kemp, single, aged 30 years, a native of Wanganui river settlement,. was drowned at Manawatu Heads on Saturday evening. Deceased was whitebaiting when his boat drifted fiom the shore and he stripped off and swam after! it disappearing a short distance from the bank. The body has not yet been recovered.

DANGEROUS MOTOR DRIVING. CHRISTCHURCH, October 1. “Motorists have no royal right to the road at all,” said Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court to-day in delivering judgment in a dangerous driving case. “There is too much of that feeling among motorists in Christchurch. Pedestrians have the same right to the road as have motorists, especially at recognised intersections. We would all wish that, pedstrian traffic were controlled like motor traffic.” . The Magistrate’s remarks (followed on the hearing of a case in which William Alexander Welsh was charged, with driving a motor car over the Rank of New Zealand intersection m a manner dangerous to the public. Defendant was fined 20s and costs.