DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1929, Page 5

DOMINION ITEMS.

JUDGAIENT GIVEN. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. Sept 19. In a claim concerning the restoration of the old masterpiece “Feast of Belshazzar ,1” Judge Admins 4 Vive judgment for £25 and costs to William Sidney Smith against William Henry Hitches, a shop manager. The amount claimed was £157. The Court held that the remuneration, to which the artist was entitled j was gin the absence of any ’ the same whether the owner Jipcceeded in finding the buyer or whether he failed to sell. , „

FALSE PRETENCES. September 19. An astonishing !«-ssor.y.r of a trusting woman was told at the Police Court ,to-day,, when - - Adams, aged 28, admitted having obtained £337 ifrom Airs Ellen Pauline Smith by false pretences.,.,*' $ . y; ‘,T > , (y ■ ,1" ; The > latter 'said' ' Adams was a customer of her tea rooms early in 1928. He came to her shop sometimes thrice daily and'talked about business and on his proposal she lent'him £325 to invest, in a company 'which he said his Uncle Charlie was forming. , She had never be£n repaid one penny. She also lent Him £2 to pay an insurance. premium. It is since ascertained neither Uncle Charlie nor a policy existed. Hie mfin was committed for sentence.

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE

NELSON, September 16. The seyen occupants of a sedan car had a miraculous escape from very serious injury yesterday afternoon. The car contained Mrs Bi Miss P. Sowman (driver)',' and five children of the family. The party was returning to town from the Glen at about 4 o’clock, and when about half a mile from the Wakapuaka side of Oldham’s Creek, the car skidded in some loose gravel when passing another car going in the same direction. The car went off the roadway, a drop of about four feet, and somersaulted on to the boulder-strewn foreshore. 'Fortunately the vehicle came to rest on the front pillar of the hood, and it was due;to this, it is considered, that the occupants came out oif the occurrence with so few injuries. No one was thrown out of the car.

Assistance was immediately forthcoming, and Mrs Sowman and her family were rescued from their plight. Mrs Sowman sustained cuts on the face and arms; Miss P. Sowman received a cut on a leg; Jeff (aged six), who was found pinned under the car, also received a leg injury, while Rex (aged nine), sustained cuts on the face. The other children escaped injury. Some of the wounds had to be stitched. The body of the car was badly smashed, but the vehicle was brought into town under its own power.

MOTOR CARRIER, FINED £ls. PALMERSTON N., Sept. 16. “ Defendant was seen to be asleep in his motor-truck, and was leaning over the steering wheel,” stated SeniorSergeant Whitehouse in the Palmerston North Magistrate’s Court this morning, referring to H. R. Parr, aged 25, a carrier, of Tokomaru, who appeared on a charge of beingj found dnink while in charge of a motor-truck in King Street on Saturday. “His cap was lying on the ground, and he was under the influence of drink when aroused by two men,” continued the senior-ser-geant. “He then requested that a motor-car should be shifted out of the way of his truck, and when this was not done lie drove his vehicle into the back of the car and pushed it out df the way.” For the defendant, Mr Ongley asked that his license be uot cancelled as the

truck was his sole means of livelihood. The Magistrate (Mr J. L. Stout, S.M.) imposed a fine of £ls, and ordered defendant to pay 6s 6d, the cost of damage done to Government pioperty. Defendant’s license was not cancelled on condition that he immediately took out a prohibition oidei against himself. ■