DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 October 1928, Page 5

DOMINION ITEMS.

SOLICITOR FINED

(By Telegraph—Press Association)

CHRISTCHURCH, October 2(5

For breaches of the Law Practitioners’ Act relating to.payment into the bank of trust monies, Percival L. C. inder, a young Christchurch solicitor, was fined £2O in the Magistrate’s Court to-day. On a second and similar charge/ inder was convicted and discharged.

Three charges against Samuel Ernest McCarthy, formerly in partnership wtih Inder, were dismissed. Tlie charges were brought at the instance off the Law Society. I

Magistrate Mosley said McCarthy’s Actions had been quite honest throughout, and the information against him would be dismissed. With regard to Inder 1 don’t want to inflict a heavy penalty, but 1 must inflict a penalty that will show young solicitors the necessity for the observations of the provisions of the Act.

FALSE PRETENCES

PALMERSTO NN., Oct. 26

Stating that accused had apparently been making a habit in this class of offence and a severe penalty was necessary, Mr Stout, S.M., sent Albert Frederick Clarke, who had several aliases, to gaol for a year, to be followed by two years’ reformative detention for false pretences. Accused issued valueless cheques to a local storekeeper, receiving a loaf of bread and over £7 in change. The police stated since 1921 accused bad been going about the country committing similar offences, having been convicted eleven times.

AN APPEAL DECISION

ELTHAM, October 26

Justice Ostler lias given bis reserved 'udgment in the appeal oif “ The Dairyman,” against 'the judgment of Mr R. W. Tate, S.M., in which he awarded £250 damages to G. H. H. Fitzgerald, of Eltbam.

His Honour found that the respondent, Fitzgerald, had successfully proved the first count of the libel, charging him with incompetence, but that in-the remaining two counts, the charges were the same imputations of incompetence, and the appellants were not separately liable for these counts. The magistrate’s judgment for £125 on the first count was affirmed and the appeal was successful as regards the last two counts.

A JUSTICE FINED

AUCKLAND, October 26

W. L. Roland, who is a Justice of the Peace, was fined by Mr Hunt, S.M. £5 and costs, on a prosecution concerning an alleged false document, claiming a refund by a Dalmatian of benzine tax, the document being antidated June 30th, instead of August 14th. The Magistrate said the explanation made by Roland was absurd and that he had no right to be a Justice of the Peace at all.

NEARLY SUFFOCATED.

GAS WORKERS’ ACCIDENT,

DUNEDIN, Oct. 24

Four workmen who were engaged in putting in new gas-pipes at Mornington. this afternoon, had an unenviable experience, and but for the prompt and resourceful action of a young man named Leslie Croat, might easily have lost their lives. As Croat was returning to work after lunch he noticed one of the men waving very feebly from the edge of an excavation that had been made. Running to the spit, he found two men unconscious in the pit, while the other two were only semi-conscious. Croat lost no time in removing the men to the surface, and medical aid was at once summoned. About ten minutes elapsed before the men regained consciousness.

NOMINATIONS. DUNEDIN, October 26. Election nominations —H. U. Tapley (Reform), 0. S. Thomson (Independent Liberal-Labour) for Dunedin North.