DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 May 1930, Page 5

DOMINION ITEMS.

TOWN PLANNING

[By Telegraph, Per Press Association.!

IPALMERSTON N., May 29

A conference of local bodies is being held to-day to consider boundaries of the regional planning area, having Palmerston North as the focal point. A large number of delegates met the Committee set up (by the Town Planning Act to tour the Dominion, hear evidence and determine constitution of regional planning areas.

Addressing the conference Mr Mawson, Director of Town Planning, said the regional schemes were not going to involve a heavy expenditure in surveys. They had only to provide lor the cost of preparation, and was definitely limited to a small levy on the contributing local bodies.

FOUND SHOT

WHANGAREI, May 29. The body of Roderick McLean, aged 40, a well-known fanner of Ngawha, near Kaikohe, who had been missing from home since Monday, was found in the bush yesterday lying on its back with the chest bared and a bullet through the heart, with a pea rifle suspended above the body, with the trigger attached to a vine.

CHARGE OF MENACING.

AUCKLAND, May 29,

George MeWiiiams, 41, a labourer and seaman, whose real name' is said to be Gordon McKenna, was committed for trial on charges' ,of menacing another, Hugh Gilmer, and obtaining £6O. According to the evidence the alleged offence is two years old. .McWilliams when with Gilmer in a house demanded £6O. Gilmer said he only had £4O, and promised to pay £2O later and this he did.

HOSPITAL DEADLOCK

TAIHAPE, May 29

A public meeting convened by the Chamber of Commerce and largely attended, was held last evening to consider the deadlock at Taihape public hospital. A vote of' confidence was passed in the three doctors, MacDiarmid, Hay and Sinclair, who had resigned.

A deputation of three citizens was appointed to wait on the Wanganui Hospital Board on Friday, with a view to restoring the doctors to full authority.

SOUP KITCHEN OPENER.

DUNEDIN, May 29

For the first time in a long period a soup kitchen, organised by the Salvation Army, was opened to-day to feed unemployed and their’ dependents. Up to one o’clock one hundred persons were served.

BURGLARY CHARGES

CHRISTCHURCH, May 29

In connection with a recent series of burglaries at (petrol stations on the outskirts of Chrischurch, three men were arrested this morning and will appear at Court to-morrow. They will be charged, at is understood, with crimes at Rakaia, Rangiora, Sock burn, Chaneys and Riccarton.

SERIOUS CRIME

GISBORNE, May 29.

Pleading guilty to three charges of indecent assault on adult males, Norman MacLeod Martin, 33, formerly headmaster of a country school, was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.

JOURNALIST’S DEATH,

LEVIN, May 29

The death occurred this morning of William Charles Nation, aged 91, a well-known journalist, and. many years President of the New Zealand Spiritualistic Association. Deceased came to New Zealand hi 1857 when his father founded the “Nelson Colonist,” and subsequently in journalism in Wairarapa and Manawatu. Nation was the originator of Arbour Day celebrations in the Dominion, and was deeply interested in physic phenomena, and almost up to his deatli edited and set up and printed a monthly journal in the interests of spiritualism,