IN THE DOMINION.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 300, 25 August 1908, Page 5

IN THE DOMINION.

o Joseph Dane was fined £lO and costs at Gisborne, in default two months’ imprisonment, for disposing of unauthorised lottery tickets

The barquentine Polly, recently stranded at Whangarei, was towed to Auckland. She had 7ft. of water in her hold when she arrived.

The Aotea, which has arrived at Dunedin, shipped 65 little grey owls before leaving London, and of these 60 came to hand in splendid condition. The birds have been imported by groups of farmers in Otago to destroy small birds.

John Webster, who was arrested at Dunedin on Thursday night on a charge of attempting to murder George Hubbard, is to be further charged with attempting to murder his wife. The incident which led to the latter charge occurred shortly before Webster is alleged to have discharged the revolver at Hubbard.

A fire occured in the engineshed of the Onehunga railway station on Sunday morning. The flames were bursting through the roof, but one engine had enough steam to permit of it. being driven out with a second engine in tow, both escaping with very slight damage, though the engine-shed was gutted.

A destructive fire occurred at Temuka at 2.15 on Sunday morning, when four shops were distroyed. Three belonged to Dr. Hayes, and the other to Mr T. Edwards. They were all wooden buildings, and the fire ran through them very quickly. The origin of fire is a mystery. During the past eighteen months thirteen business places have been destroyed by fire in Temuka.

At the inquest concerning the death of Clara Ford, whose dead body was found after a fire at her residence in Carlyle street, Napier, on Friday morning, the jury returned the following verdict: “ That deceased was accidentally burned to death on the morning of August 21, but there is no evidence to show how the fire originated.”

The Chief Commissioner of Lauds for Canterbury, who has just visited Mackenzie Country, could not see much of it, as it was all under frozen snow, except some of the north-west faces where warm rains from that quarter cleared patches. The sheep are all very weak, and the mortality will probably continue. The loss cannot yet be estimated. It took four and a half hours to ride fourteen miles from Burke’s Pass to Tekapo, and from there he went to the head of the lake in a motor launch. The snow is disappearing very slowly, and it is now all ice on the flats. Nor’-west rains are hoped for to clear it away.