LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1942, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Sergeant Sent to Gaol. Mr Justice Kennedy, in the Supreme Court, Dunedin, sentenced Rupert Hall Taylor, a staff sergeant who victimised a refugee woman, to nine months’ reformative detention for theft and false pretences. Air Services to be Restored. The restoration of air services to Dunedin and New Plymouth would be made soon, the Minister of Transport, Mr Semple, said in Christchurch yesterday, adding that he could not say just when communication would be restored. Woman Fatally Shot, The 21-year-old wife of Constable Main, Nelson, died in the Nelson Hospital on Sunday from a gunshot wound in the stomach. A young boy had been demonstrating loading of a shotgun, which was inadvertently put away loaded. When later picked up by Mrs Main the gun accidentally went off. 1 Still at Large. No trace has been reported of the prisoner, Richard Cecil Humphreys, aged 26, who escaped from custody by jumping from a ship in Auckland Harbour early in the morning of June 13. He was being brought back to New Zealand after being extradited from Hobart, where he was captured following an escape from custody and a voyage across the Tasman in a stolen yacht. After his jump overboard in the harbour, Humphreys was faced with a swim of 600 yards to reach the nearest point of the shore. E.P.S. Service. An amendment to the Emergency Reserve Corps Regulations gazetted last evening makes provision for aliens to serve voluntarily in the E.P.S. or any other branch of the Emergency Reserve Corps. Previously enrolment in the corps was restricted to British subjects, but it is stated officially that there are cases where friendly aliens residing in New Zealand desire to serve, and this amendment now authorises their enrolment. Provision is also made whereby any person who was previously a member of the Emergency Reserve Corps, but was discharged for any reason is not exempted from compliance with any compulsory enrolment order made subsequent to his discharge. Under this regulation, therefore, persons who were previously in the E.P.S. and were discharged, are required to re-enrol in accordance with the recent order providing for compulsory service.