DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1930, Page 6

DOMINION ITEMS.

A MEAN THEFT

(By Telegraph—Per Press Associations

AUCKLAND, Dec. 23

Having proposed marriage to Olive Irwin, a hotel cook, a seaman named Jack Knowles obtained several sums of money from her and then cleared out on the evening before the weeding. To-day he was convicted on charges of stealing £lO3 and a suitcase valued at £4 aiul sent to gaol for six months on each charges the sentences to be cumulative. Counsel urged it was a civil matter not criminal. The woman could have sued for a breach of promise. Magistrate Hunt said it wais a very mean theft. DAMAGES AWARDED. CLAIM AGAINST PUBLISHING COMPANY. WELLINGTON, Dec. 22Judgment for £2OO, the full amount claimed, was given by Mr Justice Blair in bis reserved decision delivered in the Supreme Court to-day, in the cape in which Mrs Nellie Digby Smith proceeded for damages for alleged wrong ful dismissal against the. Radio Publishing Company. The caso was heard ori Decern her 8 and 9. CAPTAIN FINED. AUCKLAND, Dec. .23. Fines totalling £75 wore imposed by Magistrate Hunt on Captain D. H. Cambridge, master of the ferry ship “Duchess” which, recently came to Auckland from Wellington. For going to'; sea without a certificate of survey, he was fined £25, and for going to sea without a full crew, £SO. For taking a seaman to sea without entering an agreement he was convicted and discharged. Counsel for the Marine Department said the “Duchess” came to Auckland with a crew of three, whereas the regulations required fourteen. The Department regarded the case as plain defiance. “They did get here, he said/’’ “ibut if anything J had happened' the. Department , wojild have been in,, serious trouble. • Captain Cambridge: “It was perfectly safe at every stage. _ Actually w e had quite a good time coming up. We did four houite on duty and two hours below. We have io ' take what \s coming,tq us.” .’j ..... TAXI-CAB’S STRUGGLE. ■ WITH A RUBBER. WELLINGTON, December 23. A powerfully-built young man named Thomas James, supposed to he a resident of Nelson, asked Bryan F. _ S. Kennedy, a local taxi-driver, last night to drive him to Stoke’s Valley. Near the upper end of the valley j "he asked the driver to stop; As tlie car was pulling up, James struck Kennedy over the head'with a piece of lead pipe, weighing three and a-half pounds. Kennedy, though dazed, grappled; with his adversary, and managed to overpower him. . . . James ' was charged to-dav- at the Lower Hutt Court with assault, with intent to rob, and he was remanded. He appears at WellingtowriDn December 27th. > , '7'”",

‘moturoa OIL. WELL PROVED PAYABLE. NEW PLYMOUTH, December 23. Tlie first oil bores sunk at Moturea Oil Fields Ltd., has proved a producer of ten barrels daily, states the company’s manager, and it is thought when proper methods of production are adopted, the results will he much better. TheV company has decided to sink another.;.well, pointing out that the average-production of all the wells in the United States were eight barrels a day. .’ The manager stated that several wells of a capacity similar to the present one would be required to make the venture a payable one... the governor-general, WELLINGTON, December 22. xhis evening the Governor-General leaves for -Auckland to meet his sistei, Mrs Vaughan Hughes and her husband who are due to arrive at Auckland by the Rangitiki to-morrow night. Their Excellencies will spend Christmas in Wellington, and among their guests in addition to Captain and Airs Vaughan Hughes will he Lady Norah Jellicoe, and Sir Francis and Lady Colchester AVeniyss. On January 3rd, their Excellencies will leave for a six week’s tour of the South Island. PECULIAR, AUCKLAND, December 23. 'Strange circumstances surround the disappearance' and discovery of a large pleasure launch belonging to- Devonport. She had been prepared for a Christmas cruise, but early this morning she was discovered drifting up the harbour waterlogged. Both masts had been sawn off and lashed with halyards to keep them from floating away. No explanation is forthcoming. FRENZIED WOMAN. AUCKLAND, December 23. Armed with an adze , a frenzied woman left her liome at Devonpoit this morning, went to the house of two neighbours, and smashed windows, mirrors, glassware and other property, valued at £l5O. Eventually she was seized by a man and held (till the police took her away.

HIT BY MOTOR CAR. WELLINGTON, Dec. 24. Knocked off a motor cycle by a, motor car proceeding in an opposite direction Alfred Baillie, of Lower Hutt, was left lying on the Hutt road at 10.45 p.m. with a compound fracture of the right thigh. The motorist, after striking the cyclist made no attempt to stop and speeded off in the direction of the city.