DOMINION NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1919, Page 8

DOMINION NEWS.

PREFERENCE TO SOLDIERS. fly Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, May 30. Amesidiug regulation?, under the Public Service Act, have bean issued authorising preference to returned soldiers. The regulations ttate that appointments will be made according to order of ruerit in the l'st of applicants who have passed the entrance examination, provided that if any person is available and otherwise eligible who has passed the civil service senior examination "or matriculation examination, although in any of these cases he may not have passed the entrance examination, ne should take precedence over candidates who have passed the entrance examination only, and provided, further, that the Commissioner may, if lie thinks fit, give preference to a member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force honorably discharged who has passed the entrance examination or its equivalent. Applicant? for position', must state in what capacity and departments they arc will©g- to accept appointments., THEFT OF BICYCLES.. Palmerston North, Mvr 3*>. Two lads, Ernest, Edward Earnshaw and Edward Welch, were committed to the Supreme Court, Wellington, for theft off bicycles.

A PECULIAR CASE 1 . Napier, May 30. When .Tack Peat, who was arrested in Wellington charged with theft, appeared iu the Magistrate's Court on Tuesday he acted peculiarly. A medical certificate put in luid thst accused was pretending insanity, and liad done so while waiting in gaol. .He pleaded guilty, and was committed for sentence and removed to gaol His condition became worse, and he was taken to the hospital, where he was set down as a suspected case of cerebro' spinal meningitis,'. To-day his > condition was very low. Peat is a single nan, who was employed by the Hawke's Bay Club. He had only been in Napier a few months, and it is believed he has no relations in the Dominion. He was preparing to leave the country when • arrested in Wellington on a charge of stealing a revolver from the Hawke's Bay Club. It is understood he is well connected at Home. He served in the vac. 3CA£QRi, AND ACTING PREMIER. • Wellington. May 30. "Mr; Luke. Mayor of Wellington, has attained a legal opinion relative to the position of the Prime Minister and the Mayor in respect of a meeting of citizens, arising out of the dispute with Sir .James Allen in connection with the welcome in Wellington to General Russell.

The opinion states, inter alia: "By 7ong-e?tablir,hed custom, the Mayor is the chief citizen, and in all social matters in which the citizens are concerned as a community it is the Mayor who is tbe head. The Prime Minister doe 3 not represent the Dominion unless specially appointed by the King to do so, and to the Governor-General alone should the Mayor give way in hi«j own city. If the Prime Minister promote a function in the city the only place he can act as host is in his own home (official or private). If the Governor wished to call a meeting of citizens of a particular city he would ask the Mayor to call the meeting {uA the Mayor would take the chair."