DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1929, Page 6

DOMINION ITEMS.

THEFT CHARGES

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association,)

AUCKLAND, Dee. 19

Richard James Lanigan was committed for sentence on charges of stealing £286 10s between November, 1926, and 1929. He was a clerk in the Auckland Lands and Survey office, having joined the Department in 1920. He admitted failure to stamp four hundred documents. Forty of them required a £2 stamp and the balance about 10s each.

Magistrate Hunt said lie would see that the documents were handed hack to the Department for registration, while accused had made the disclosures himself in the first instance.

The Departmental accountant said it would not be true to contend that Lanigan had not hidden the documents.

Bail was allowed in two sureties of £2OO apiece.

A FATAL KICK

TAURANGA, Dec. 19

A youth, Clarence Arthur Neilson, aged 17, employed as a general farm hand by Harold Bear, of Papatnoa, jumped off a waggon on Tuesday afternoon to open a gate. As he passed the horses, one kicked him in the abdomen. He was admitted to 'Janranga hospital and operated on the same evening, hut died yesterday afternoon. At an inquest this morning, a verdict that death was due to haemorrhage and shock from internal injuries as a result of a kick, was returned.

FOUND HANGING. WELLINGTON, December 20,

A male patient at Porirua Mental Hospital was found hanging yesterday afternoon. The body was immediately cut down but the man was dead.

AWARD AGAINST PROPRIETOR WELLINGTON, Dee. 19.

Mr Justice McGregor to-day entered judgement, in the terms of the award of an Arbitrator, in the case of Frederick Henry Rennie, against Margaret Diamond of Napier, in respect of the Central Hotel, which he managed for a time. He claimed £745 for wages and for money paid out on behalf of the defendant, and other sums which lie had made himself responsible) for; and the defendant counterclaimed £SOO for alleged failure to keep proper’ books and for alleged negligence in employing a barman who was convicted of hookmaking. She also claimed accounts. His Honour, at the hearing, ordered the questions at issue, excluding the claim for £SOO damages, to be tried before an Arbitrator. The award gave the plaintiff £699 Bs, and the defendant £6O 6s 7d on lier claim for accounts.

His Honour dismissed the claim for damages, and ordered the defendant to pay the Arbitrator’s fee and plaintiff’s costs, also witness expenses and disbursements.

COMPENSATION FOR AIOTORISTS.

WELLINGTON, December 19

Arthur John Curtis, Arthur Soutn well Curtis and Una Curtis orally petitioned the Crown for compensation as the result of a collision between a car and an unlighted train moving across a siding on the Hutt road from the Gear Meat Coy’s premises. In his reserved judgement on the petition, Air Page, SAL, finds that there was negligence on the pai’t of the Railway Department, and lie awarded £73 16s damages. He said that he was satisfied that, as the car approached, there was no adequate light protecting the train.

CITY ENGINEER

EXPERT ADVICE TO BE SOUGHT

AUCKLAND, Dec. 20

After a discussion lasting till one o’clock this morning the City Council resolved by twelve to ten votes 1 hat expert advice be sought in the selection of the City Engineer, for which seventy-five applications were received from Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. This number had previously been reduced hy the Council to six and strong public protest had been made through the press against the final selection being made without expert advice.

Mr Mason, Director of Town Planning, and Mr Furkert, Engineer-in-Chief Public Works Department will *bo asked to make a confidential report on the six applicants.