GENERAL TELEGRAMS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 103, 21 October 1911, Page 2

GENERAL TELEGRAMS

CHARGE AGAINST CHINESE J SAILORS. \ By Telegraph—Press Association. I • Dunedin, Friday. / The eight Chinese arrested for refus-V ing to work on the German steamer Walkure were before the Police Court this morning, and pleaded not guilty. Mr. W. C. McGregor, in answer to a point raised by Mr. Scurr for the defence that the court had not jurisdiction, produced a gazette of 1809, .showing that the North German Confederation had in that year claimed benefits under our Shipping Act of 18G0. and that the proclamation had never been revoked. Mr. Scurr retorted that the North German Confederation went out of existence after the Franco-Prussian war, and there was no agreement as to German ships, nor evidence that this nation desired the benefits of our Act. The magistrate adjourned the case till to-morrow to decide the point. SLY-GROG SELLING. Ashburton, Friday. At the Magistrate's Court Mary McKenzie was lined £SO and costs on a | charge of keeping liquor for sale, and her husband, Alexander McKenzle, was fined £25 for selling liquor. . THE SECOND AUSTRALIAN CABLE. . Oamaru, Friday. The Oamaru Chamber of Commerce supports the suggestion of a proposed second cable from Australia to be laid I down from Melbourne to Bluff.

A FLOATING MAST SIGHTED. j Auckland, Friday. The master of the steamer Navua, which arrived from Westport. reports that in latitude 40deg. Bmin. south and longitude 171deg. 53min. east, Cape I Farewell bearing south 77deg. .east magneto and distant 43 miles, a vessel's wooden mast floating upright about sft. high was sighted. It was covered with marine growth. No signs of a hull attached could be seen. The weather was too bad to investigate. The officials of the Navua believe the mast must belong to the missing barque Mary Isabel. Auckland, Later. The marine growth on the mast reported by the Navua precludes it belonging to the Mary Isabel. It would take longer than 42 days to accumulate.