DOMINION NEWS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 56, 25 February 1913, Page 6

DOMINION NEWS.

* EXCHANGE OF FLAGS, ,

A SCOTTISH STANDARD. WELLINGTON, Feb. 22. - Lady Liverpool: unfurled a Scottish standard sunt out by the children of j Roseneath school, near Glasgow, m re-1 turn for a New Zealand flag forwarded •Home by the local schulars some time ago. Three; or four, hundred people attended, including Hons. M. D. Bell and R. H. Rhodes, Major-Geueral Godlcy and the Mayor (Mr MacLaren). i Lord Liverpool read a message from the Duchess of Argyle on behalf of the children of t|je Scottish Roseneath, and gave a<n address on the meaning of flags as the symbol of loyalty and affection a# between the overset people and the Crown, and between the people in these far lands and those of the Home Coun-9 try.

ROUGH WEATHER. CHRISTOHURCH, Feb. 23. The weathar conditions have been extremely wintry since Thursday night, a sou'-wester blowing for the past three days, and there has been an unusually heavy rainfall. There was an almost continuous downpour of rain throughout Thursday night and all day Friday. On Friday night the wind freshened to a strong gale, but it moderated yesterday morning, although rain fell more or less continuously all day. The gale was general all along the coast, and steamers arriving at Lyttelton on Saturday reported having Irad a fairly rough time with thick weather and heavy ram at sea. The ferry steamer Maori was over an hour late in arriving at LytteL ton, the delay being due to strong head' winds and heavy seas. The steamer Tyrone, which left Wellington at noon, was over 20 hours on the passage to Lyttelton, and the tramp steamer Cape I'inisterre, which sailed from Wellington at "4.15 p.m., did not arrive until close on 2 p.m. The Huddart Parker steamer Victoria also had a long and dirty passage from Wellington to Lvttelton. The weather cleared yesterday afternoon, but to-day rain has been almost continuous and th& weather cold.

" COT TO BE PUT DOWN." AUCKLAND, Feb. 22. Before Mr Justice Edwards on Saturday Harry Ferguson Clark and Frederick Hyder were charged with stealing five dozen pairs of socks either from the hold of the Mokoia or from the wharf at Auckland on November 21. Hyder was an A.B. member of the Mokoia's crew, and was in charge of No. 3 hold with a special commission to prevent pillaging, and Clark was a casual laborer employed by the Union Company to work cargo in No. 3 hold. The Crown Prosecutor explained to at the goods stolen were part of a consignment to Arch. Clark and Sons, of Auckland, transhipped ex Rotorua at Wellington and brought on to Auckland oy Ihe Mokoia, In statements made separately to the police Hyder had said that Clark had broken into the case and that he himself had received the goods, while Clark-had said that he found the case open and took* the socks and gave m r/ie to the other man. Hyder's statement contained an assertion to the effect that beer had been brought on board by Clark and consumed by the prisoner and others, and further that a case of beer had been brought by,Clark and the contents of some of the-bottles poured it, to a can and afterwards consumed!

Constable Gourlay said that when lie went to arrest Clark the prisoner :,i.d that lie did not knofr why he was the only on© arrested for pillaging cargo on the occasion under notice, but he did not want to give his mates away. In a statement Clark had said that he was under the influence of liquor and that he had taken the goods. Neither of the prisoners gave evidence. Hyder said that full of Xapier and Gisborne cargo and that no Auckland cargo was taken in at Wellington at all.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty, Clark and Hyder were further charged with the theft of 13 pint bottles of beer from the cargo of the Mokoia, and of a book taken from a trunk, also in the vessel's cargo. The jury returned a verdict of guilty. In passing sentence his Honor referred to Clark's lengthy and discreditable record of convictions for theft, resisting the police, drunkenness, disorderly .-conduct and obscene language. "This sort of thing," he said, referring to the pillaging, "lias got to be put down." He further remarked that defalcations' of this kind were passed on by shipping companies to honest people, and in these hard times honest people could not afford to keen men like Clark idle. The prisoner was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labor on each charge, thfe sentences to be concurrent. Hyder, who had previously borne a good cahracter, was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment with hard labor. The judge said it was to be feared that there were dozens of cases of pilfering undetected for every one that was sheeted home.