NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3792, 15 May 1928, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

A spade he had used for over 40 years was buried with Mi*. Charles Hobson, a Lincolnshire gravedigger.

At the Auckland Supreme Court the jury found a verdict of not guilty in the charge against James Henry McKeitch, a married man, aged 23, of having abducted a girl under 18 years from Moerewa, near Ivawakawa. The defence was that accused took the girl away at her own request and the jury, said his Honour, had to determine whether it was to save her from herself or from his own ends. One cannot go past motor salesmen and dealers for “boost” and popular advertising. One proprietor at a Wanganui service station has secured an original touch in a sign lie places next to his bowsers on Saturdays. It reads: “No service to-morrow; fill up to-day.” On Saturday, two men —one a clergyman —were heard debating humorously the advisableness of placing such a sign outside churches on Sundays. The idea was not without its practical benelts, as the -without its practical benefits, as the Candour was an outstanding characteristic of a petitioner who was giving evidence in the Divorce Court at Wellington recently. After a perusal of the marriage lines, Mr.. Justice Reed asked the petitioner what on earth had possessed him to marry the respondent. “She was a woman of s(i and you were 35,” said his Honour, “and in addition to that she was divorced two years previously.” Pondering over the question for a couple of seconds, the petitionei surprised everybody by answering: “Well, I don’t know, I must have been boozed.” A curious situation arose in the ,Auckland Supreme Court last week when a considerable proportion of the evidence in one case before Mr. Justice Blair was heard by a jury of eleven. The case was commenced on Tuesday, before a full jury of twelve, but on the Court resuming on Wednesday one juror was excused by his Honour in view of the serious illness of the man’s wife. The Judge said it was permissible to excuse, a sitting juror in cases where it was considers he was not fit to deliberate. It was considered the present case warranted such action. The depleted jury accordingly considered the remainder of the evidence an re turned a verdict.