TELEGRAPHIC.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1071, 18 July 1912, Page 4

TELEGRAPHIC.

WELLINGTON, July 15

At the Magistrate’s Court to-day James bcott, Harry Martmdale ami .Matthew. Livingstone were charged with breaches of the section of the Gaming Act relating to betting in licensed houses. Sir John Findlay said the case was the 'first under this particular section brought belore the Court for interpretation. For each offence Scott was liable to a minimum lino of £2U. He suggested that one information bo witnarawn, and he would cuter a plea of guilty on tho first charge. The police adopted the course suggested, and a hue of £2O was imposed. ffecision was reserved in the case ol Martindalo charged with paying a bet made by Soott. Other cases are proceeding.

WELLINGTON, July 10

A case iu which the question 01 a class of offence in which probation may be granted came before Mr Justice Cooper at the Supreme Court to-day. A young man, aged id, named Joseph {Stanley, who had pleaded guilty at \Vanganui to a charge of arson in setting hre to a haystack,' was placed in me dock for sentence. Mr justice cooper said he had consulted the oca. r Judges, who agreed with him in me opinion he had expressed at Wanganui taat it was not a. ease for prooation. The prisoner was somewhat weuK in intellect, but he knew the difference between right and wrong. Where a prisoner had deliberately set fire to property belonging to another poison, and did so out of a motive of revenge it. was not in tne interests ol tne°pnbiic that that person Simula bo allowed his liberty witnout some period ol aisciplmary treatment. I'risoner was commuted to the Invercargill prison tor disciplinary treatment and reiormative purposes lor a period not exceeding three vears.

CH.HIBTCHUECH, July Id

The ram ceased to-day m two greater part or Canterbury. The hood at f luxion is the biggest expreionced lor many years. This morning the hooding caused oy the combined torces ot the Eyre and cast rivers at their lowest reach were, il anything, worse than yesterday. The mam road and lino and the side roads at flax ton were not sate tor trathc. All the country is a perfect sea, and, although the outlah into the Waimakaru i river was iairly good, and that rivm, at the Jvaiapoi bridge, went down three feet at low tide, it will be some days oelore the lioeds get eh some hundreds el acres ef arable land. The Eyre and (Just rivers drain about 800 or UOU square miles from a level ot 788 it at Oxtord to the tower altitude ot l*t above sea level at fluxion. In connection with the levels tbe height ol the ixyro river everllow towards Ohoka is 8u higher than at Wilson’s siding, on which the heavy current impinged, and Irom Ncove’s eoruer to the outiaU ol the Eaikaiimi creek, in which auotliei escape Irom the Eyre river takes place, the decline is irom iutt or itilt to / 1 L. These two streams have covered some hundreds ot acres more than the last December Hoods, or those ol the pret ious July. In tact the inundations equalled tlie delug© ot the jubilee year Hood on July 6, 1887, and stood a lair comparison with the Easter inundation ot 18iT, as well as that ot September, 1890. Un tin; last-mentioned occasion the railway trullic at Maxton was ‘suspended loi practically a fortnight. Last evening’s train passengers tor Ohoka and Dennett’s were conveyed by a three-horse drag from Jvaiapoi to »»d----sou’s siding. At Waverley there was

over three feet of water on the road, which entered the. floor of the vehicle. The strong force of the currents and floating loss and timber made the journcy in the day (lighted up by two lamps on the drag) a somewhat adventurous one.

CHRISTCHURCH, July 15. The floods continue in North Canterbury, and water still lies so deeply about Flax-ton, Southbrook and* Kaiapoi that no fair estimate of the damage can be arrived at.

DUNEDIN, July 15. The Arbitration Court met this morning to hear the dispute between the New Zealand Federated Bootmakers’ Union and the Now Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation. Mr Pryor, employers’ representative, wished to have inserted the following addition to the apprentices’ clause: “Notwithstanding anything herein contained, the present custom regarding the employment of boys at. heel-building shall continue.”

Mr McKinley, on behalf of a largo number of employers in the Dominion, said he wished to enter a protest against tlio proposed addition.

The Court decided to make tlio award as agreed on. Under the new award, so far as male workers are concerned, the preference clause remains as at present, li is provided that the award shall apply to hot wax thread machinists, in addition to those already covered by it. in connection with permits for work at home, applications shall be referred to the representatives of the Boot, Manufacturers’ Association and representatives of the Union, and in the event of their not agreeing, the decision of the Inspector of Awards shall be final. In the old award the wages for first grade men was 12zd per hour: in the new award the minimum rate of wages is fixed at 14d per hour. Tim Court’s usual nnder-rate workers’ clause is inserted in (dace of the more restricted clause which appeared in the old award, by which, in accordance with tlie requirements of the Act, apprentices get a slight increase in wages, and boys other than apprentices are now allowed to work at cementing channels and bottoms. So far as female workers are concerned, the nuder-rate workers’ clause is the same as the above. Apprentices have been done away with, and assistants are provided for. The employer has now the right, to dismiss Ids assistants at any time on giving six hours’ notice, and to deduct wages for time lost through illness, or default of the worker, or through the factory being closed down for cleaning nr for the repairing of machinery. No alteration is made in the wages of journeymen.