LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1943, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Prisoners Recaptured. The escapees from the Auckland prison, Daniel McMullen and Stanley Thomas Port, were recaptured by a police night patrol near the boatsheds on Tamaki Drive yesterday. They made no resistance. Airman Sent to Gaol.

“It was despicable to steal from a girl,” said Mr F. H. Levien, S.M., in sentencing, at Auckland yesterday, Kenneth Mervyn Meyer, aged 22, an aircraftman, to three months’ imprisonment for stealing some money belonging to a girl in the Air Force." Car Thief Sent to Gaol.

A sentence of four months’ gaol was imposed on Henry John Williams, of Napier, married, aged 21, by Mr J. Miller, S.M., on a charge of converting to his own use a motor car, the property of Mr T. W. Naisbitt. The police stated that defendant had been previously convicted in 1940 on a similar charge. Production of Coal.

“The Dominion coal production last year was 47,070 tons above that of the previous year,” said the Minister of Mines, Mr Webb, at Auckland yesterday. The Minister stated that the 50,000 tons lost in the Waikato strike had been made up. The West Coast figures were up by 35,000 tons, the Southland figures by 4,500 and the northern district figures by 7,300. Failure to Trace Thief.

Detectives have failed to trace any clue as to the whereabouts of the large painting of a nude, “Psyche.” valued at about £4OO, which was stolen from the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, six months ago. The canvas was stolen by an intruder believed to have forced a way into the gallery through a window on the roof, and to have left by a window in the front of the building, which was later found ajar.

Rubber Not Whisky. Canadian whisky distilleries have been advised that for the duration of the war they should devote their attention solely to the manufacture of alcohol for making synthetic rubber, states the “Outlook,” journal of the Presbyterian Church. This does not mean that whisky will be abolished in Canada, as the distilleries are reputed to have in their possession sufficient “ageing” liquor to provide all reasonable wants for a considerable time.

Orange Imports. “The Government is importing only enough oranges at present to fulfil the demands of hospitals, Plunket children and similar needs,” said the Minister of Marketing, Mr Barclay, at Dunedin yesterday. The price of oranges in Australia was 37s 6d a case, which meant they would have to be retailed in the Dominion from 8d to lOd each for the bigger oranges. “I do not think we are justified in importing oranges for the general civilian population at such a high price,” the Minister said. One third of the Australian crop had been taken by the Commonwealth Government for the manufacture of, juice for the army.

Boy’s Death Under Anaesthetic. At an inquest yesterday into the death in the Auckland Public Hospital of a 14-year-old boy, David Lawrence McCarthy, of Ponsonby, it was stated that the boy, who had badly fractured his right forearm through a fall from' a tree, was choked by a piece of potato which he vomited while still under an anaesthetic half an hour after an operation had been performed. The coroner (Mr F. K. Hunt) said that it was a case of misadventure such as might happen once in a thousand times. None of the doctors present had experienced such a case in long years of practice. A verdict was returned accordingly.