DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 November 1928, Page 5

DOMINION ITEMS.

(My Telegraph—Press Association)

PRISONER STILL AT LARGE. TAIHAPE, Nov. 2

Tlic escaped prisoner. Charles Wiliiani Wahle, ala is Mcßae. who escaped from the Raetahi Gaol on Tuesday. Oct. 23rd, is still at largo. Ho knows the district since boyhood. The police have been scouring the district night and day. The prisoner is suspected for breaking into a Chinese fruit shop at Ohakune .Junction and the Pokaka Post Office. lit* called at a house and boasted to a woman that he would never be recaptured, and also that nO ( bolts or locks would hold him, as be would easily pick any prison lock. The suspected man was seen walking along the railway line in the early hours of yesterday near Mangawoka. FLOOD DAMAGE, WELLINGTON, Nov. 2. Beyond a few slips, no great damage was caused bv the sudden lapse into winter, except in one instance. A viaduct crosses Tinakori Road, connecting Kiel burn with the suburbs of Xorthlands and Karori. A large slip came down right underneath it. blocking the road below, and rendering the viaduct unsafe. A number of tramcars are cut off on the other side, and the passengers are being transferred till the road is cleared. The viaduct itself is also closed for vehicles. A HUTT SETTLEMENT FLOODED. WELLINGTON, Nov. 2. Sunshine prevailed in Wellington this afternoon, and the wind dropped considerably. The Moera Workers Settlement, in the ITiitt Valley, is flooded. The water is eighteen inches deep in the streets, but is getting away well. One house in the city was slightly damaged by a slip, a wall being slightly stove in by a fall of earth. TROUBLE ON TOFUA. AUCKLAND. .Nov. 2. When the crew was being signed on the articles of the steamer Totua this morning a dispute arose regarding the number of stokers. I lie men refused to sign. The Union demand was that six extra stokers should he signed on. thereby increasing the manning scale to that necessary for four boilers instead of only three boilers. The company emphatically declined to accede to the request, because, they said, in the past the fourth boiler on the Inina lias been used only on the return voyages from Fiji to Auckland, and that to cope with this extra tiring, biji firemen have been engaged at Suva at award rates. Particulars of the dispute were telegraphed to the head office of the Seamen’s Union in 'Wellington. A reply was received in the afternoon, which instructed the men to sign on the vessel. This reply was discussed at a meeting of the local union. It was then decided to relinquish the demand for the extra stokers and to carry out the instructions from Wellington.