LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 85, 14 April 1915, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At Christchurch to-day, Bertram Bunn, charged with attempting to procure abortion, was committed for trial at the Supreme Court. Bail was renewed. in a sum of £OOO. A plea of not guilty was entered.

Four dead cows were removed this morning from the railway yard, the animals having died in the trucks while on a journey from Feilding. They were in very poor condition and it is thought they were overcrowded in the trucks. Opinion holds that as food becomes scarcer in the winter, there will be a pretty high rate of mortality among the bepsts unless they are handled quickly by the freezing works. A. Wellington Press Association telegram to-day says; Sir J. Findlay, for the petitioners in the Bay os Islands election case, submitted that the Wairarapa case was wrongly decided, and that the time of the petition was not governed by the endorsement of the writ, but by the public declaration of the result of the poll. He contended that everything pointed to a public declaration being necessary (presuming the. Wairarapa ease to be lightly decided) as the legislation had altered it since.

At the Alliance Convention at Wellington to-day, Mr Poole, M.P., gave an address on the American plan of campaign. He said that in the United States prohibition workers kept before them one aim, and refused to deride the energies of an overwhelming majority, ’flic churches were on the side of reform. In the discussion which followed (states the Press Association) it was-stated that a substantial majority of tiie members of the new Parliament were in favor of a reduction of the majority required to carry prohibition, and it was expected that early in the coming session a hill dealing with the question would he introduced.

At Wellington tin’s morning the Court dealt with tiie question whether the petition in the Taumarumii case was filed in time. The affidavit set out that the writ was made and returnable within 28 days from .November 21. The date of endorsement on the writ stating that Mr Jennings was elected was December 17. The official recount was completed on 'December 1.8, and published next day. The petition was presented on January loth. Mr Finlay, for Mr W. T. Jennings, said if the date on which the petition must he lodged ran from the date of the endorsement, then it was not in time, hut if from any later date, it was in time. Ho relied on the Wairarapa’ ease, decided in 1897. If the Court held the decision in time case was not good law, then he had nothing further lo say.