DOMINION NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 91, 18 August 1915, Page 2

DOMINION NEWS.

NEW ZEALAND MEAT GIFT.

Pirn Punas Associate.

Wellington, August 17

lire secretary for the -New Zealand fund ior the Relief of the Poor of Groat .Britain and Ireland and Belgium has been inlornied that the meat .sent home for the poor has been distributed. It consisted ot 191 b eareases of mutton, 1 carcase ol lamb, IS hindquarters ot heel, lb forequarters of beef (per s.s. Mimiro) and 57SJ carcases of mutton (per s.s. \Vaimak;. The High Commissioner inlorms Mr Slmlicrass that the instructions as to the distribution were duly given effect to, a* desired. The IUU carcases allotted by the Wairaxapa Committee to the Belgian Refugees’ Food f und were handed over to the secretary (Miss Holmes), and the remainder of the shipment was divided between the National Food Fund and the Belgian Refugee Food Fund ior distribution. “1 have made personal

enquiry as to these channels of distribution, and am satisfied they are thoroughly genuine, and that the dis-. tribution of the kind gilts will be judiciously and carefully carried out,” writes Mr Mackenzie, concluding with, “Many thanks to your committee ior their kindness.”

EMBARGO ON OATS.

Wellington, August 17

‘ It is very doubtful if the supplies of eats in New Zealand at the present time are sulheient for our own requirements,” said the Prime Minister this evening. “The Government is in this position—that at one end oi the dominion there are people clamoring to have the duty removed, in order that importations may take place, while at the other end of the country people arc asking that the embargo should be lilted, so that oats may be exported. The information at the disposal of the Government indicates that there is a shortage, and that the embargo on exports should be maintained.”

“It is not as easy to collect precise information regarding stocks of oats as it is to ascertain how much wheat there is in the dominion. Many people put their oaten sheaves into stack, and then decide in the spring either to thrash or make it into chaff. They are guided by prices, but, as far as we can judge, there is barely sufficient either of oaten chaff or of oats to provide for local requirements, even when allowance has been made for tho reduced consumption caused by high prices. We shall know the position better a little later in the season, when 1 intend to ask the liegistrarGeneral to collect information again regarding stocks of both wheat and

oats. If we have more oats than we require for local consumption, the embargo on export will be lifted, to a certain extent; if the supplies are still short the embargo will be maiutgriued.”

“A CONTEMPTIBLE COWARD.”

Wellington, August 17

“i'ou are one oi the meanest sort oi' characters, and one of the most contemptible of cowards who has ever come before me,” declared Mr I). G. A. Cooper, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court to a young man named Charles William Groves, charged with false pretences. The man pleaded guilty, ills wife was also charged with him. The facts of the case were that Groves gave his wife (the couple were on their honeymoon) a cheque for £3 to purchase some goods from the store of Henry Lenhart, and the cheque was afterwards found to be valueless.

Chief Detective Boddam applied for permission to withdraw the case against Mrs Groves, who had been found to bo an innocent party and was more sinned against than siuuiqg. The accused had been sentenced to fourteen days’ imprisonment, in 1912, on two charges of false pretences at Palmerston North, and served a mouth for a similar offence in October last. In each case valueless cheques were used, and the cheque that w'as the subject of the present case was between 20 and 30 years old. and could not be traced. His Worship, in addressing Groves, said it was useless saying anything to him, or to give advise. Ho would bo sent to gaol for nine months. ‘‘Mrs Groves,” concluded his Worship, “leaves the Court without any stain of wrong-doing on her part.”