DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 April 1929, Page 5

DOMINION ITEMS.

FORTUNE TELLER FINED

(By Telegraph—Press Association)

GREYMOUTH, April 29,

Madame Sonia was fined £2 wit! costs for telling fortunes. She hac two previous . convictions at Christ church.

Two policemen were defendant’s clients and were made extravagant promises. They paid her os each. Today they asked the Magistrate to order a refund, but Mr Meldrum said he thought they had got their money’s worth.

A FIRE

GREYMOUTH, April 29

A fire this morning destroyed a tenroomed residence, “ Fernhill,” in Alexander Street. Nothing was saved. The occupants escaped in their night attire. It was owned by Mr M. Molan and occupied by J. Ross and family. The house was insured for £BOO in the State office, but none on the contents. The house was to have been auctioned to-day.

LORRY DRIVER’S PENALTY. AUCKLAND, April 27. A fine of £SO or three months’ imprisonment. and his license cancelled for 12 months, was the penalty which Alfred Jackson has to pay for drinks' he had yesterday. He was charged before Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Police Court, this morning, with being in a state of intoxication while in charge of a motor lorry. Sub-Inspector P. J. McCarthy said Jackson had backed his lorry out of Victoria Street across tram lines at the Hobson Street intersection, and it had ended its career by hitting a tram car. The motorman had jumped out and found the man was drunk. He had a woman with him, who had been fined that morning for' drunkenness. Air Holmden, who appeared for accused, said he had already been severely punished, for the damage to his car totalled £SO. Air Hunt: “Well he is fined £SO, and his license is cancelled for 12 months. He will be allowed 14 days to pay. That will give him time to sell his lorry.”

A BANK DEPOSIT. CHRISTCHURCH, April 29

A boy deposited £lO in the Post Office Savings Bank, and later lost his book. Imagining this involved the loss of his deposit, too, he made no inquiries until, well advanced in years, he learned better and wrote to the authorities. He found his money still there, but increased by interest to sixty pounds. The bank officials also found that his hand-writing had never changed in of) years.

A RICCARTON FIRE

CHRISTCHURCH, April 29

A fire at Upper Riccarton early this morning destroyed R. Brake’s grocery store, a well-known landmark and damaged the post office adjoining. The tenants of the store, S. Woods and wife and family, had a narrow escape from their living rooms above owing to smoke and flames blocking the stairway.

ALLEGED BURGLARY. CHRISTCHURCH, April 29. As the result of an alleged burglary in a bowser station at Papanui on Friday evening, Gilbert Bannister Simpson appeared at Court charged With breaking, entering and theft of £1 Bs. He was remanded till to-morrow. it is stated that a neighbour saw two strangers in the station and investigated and was knocked down.

A SERIOUS CHARGE,

CHRISTCHURCH, April 29,

John Boyd Clark, charged with negligently driving a car on March 31st so as to cause the death of a girl, Maureen Mitchell, was committed for trial with bail of £SO. One witness' said that after hitting a post, the car spun round four times like a top. The girl was a passenger and one of a party returning from a dance.

A SLANDER CASE. WELLINGTON, April 29. Before Mr Barton, S.M., a slander action is proceeding in which £3OO is sought from Jessie Jackson, married, oil' Webb Street, by Emma * Mulcahy, married, of Wellington. It is claimed defendant sent a letter to Hardie Boys (solicitor) and Mulcahy (plaintiff’s husband) which allegedly identified plaintiff with a woman named Smith who once stood trial for murder for one Conway, and whose story was recently recalled in the press by telegraph messages from Auckland, a clipping of which was enclosed with the letter, ft is claimed that by the letter and clipping, tho defendant meant plaintiff had by poison murdered one, Conway, and one, Brown. That in respect to the death of Conway she was under suspicion of murder; that she had committed a criminal offence in administering poison; that she was a person of no repute by reason of suspicions attaching to her actions.

drunken car driver. WELLINGTON, April 29. When considering what sentence to

impose on Walter Frederick Marris, a Customs agent, 30, whom he was convicting of being drunk while in charge of a car, Mr McNeil, S.M., asked what was known about the man. Senior Sergeant Butler said besides a number of minor offences defendant was fined £lO in 1924 tfor failing to stop after an accident and in 1927 was fined £lO and had his license cancelled for three months for being drunk while in charge

oi a car. Mr McNeil—From 1923, defendant has been convicted no less than thirteen times for offences in (oillieclion

—■—■—■—M—l with driving a oar. He would be failing in his duty if he did not inflict a substantial penalty. He yasS fined £2O. license cancelled, and prohibited from obtaining anotluT For twelve months.