DEATH OF UPPER PLAIN FARMER

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 126, 25 February 1928, Page 6

DEATH OF UPPER PLAIN FARMER

VERDICT OF SUICIDE. Dominion Spectai Service.. Masterton, February 24. An inquest was held to-dav before Mr. S. L, P Free, SM., concerning the death at Masterton yesterday of Robert McGregor, aged 38, farmer, of Upper Plain. Evidence was given by Albert Stanley Chamberlain, farm hand, employed by McGregor, to the effect that, upon his leaving deceased at the farm yesterday at 1.45 p.m., the latter complained of’not feeling well. Witness advised deceased to lie down, and upon returning an hour later witness found deceased’s body near the back door with a shotgun nearby. Deceased had been of mercurial temperament and had been fasting for five weeks. Duncan McGregor, ot Gladstone, farmer, stated that he was a cousin of deceased. McGregor had been staying with witness for a fortnight prior to his death, and daring that time had taken no food but only fruit juice. J A. Cowie deposed that McGregor appeared to have died through dis charging a gun into his brain through the roof of his mouth Deceased had not been nn-ntallv sound, there being evidences of this in 1009

The Coroner returned .n verdict that deceased committed suicide while men»?llv deranged

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE. ‘‘Laughing Time,” for presentation In the third week of Joe Brennan and Cyril Northcote’s revue season at His Majesty's Theatre, promises good entertainment. The new programme commences at t.he matinee this afternoon. No hard and fast plot binds “Laughing Time” together. It Is just a succession of items, novel and various, and unquestionably a “variety” amusement which the majority of theatre-goers favour. A musical revuette first-part finale, in six sections, leads one to expect somewhat unusual diversion. George Correll! will render new and popular items. He and Miss Ira Vanda will also be heard in a pretty song sccna, “A Flower From an Old Bouquet." Mr. Joe Brennan takes the lead in several attractively-headed sketches, chief of which are “The Boomerang,” "Honour Among Thieves,” “The Crystal Gazer," and “All tho World's a Stage.” In the latter, Mr. Brennan will be seen in one of his elever elocutionary parts. Cyril Northcote lends his “heavy-weight’ comedy to a number of the items, and “Dismal Desmond” this week adopts the role of an old lady, but still fails to find happiness. Miss Muriel Wilton, the talented young Wellington danseuse. will contribute “The Spirit of Jazz.” and specialty dances will also be presented by dainty Dell Barnes and Peggy Sharpe. "Carnival Time" is an appropriate finale to a brightly arranged programme.

QUEEN’S THEATRE. Fox Films, makers of those outstand Ing productions, “Wliat Price Glory” and “Seventh Heaven," have produced another picture which is as fully up to that high standard, In “East Side, West Side,’’ which opened to a crowded house at the Queen’s Theatre last night. Adapted from Felix Riesenberg’s powerful story of New York, it gives an authentic conception of that great city, its east side and its west side, that strange mixture of riches and poverty and of the many nationed population which is New York. Briefly, the story tells of John Breen, son of Gilbert Van Horn, one of NewYork's richest men. Brought up by his mother and her husband, he has known no life buf theirs, the monotonous carrying of trucks up and down the river. Th»n one foggy night the barge is sunk, and lie only survives. Plunged headlong into the colourful turmoil of the city, he begins a career as a tighter, which loads him through the slums of the Ghetto to the luxury of Park Avenue and back again to the slums. Through the film runs much splendid comedy and much tense action, one of the biggest scenes showing Ihp s'nki’ur of the monster Titanic. Tills scene Is the most realistic of its kind ever filmed, and seems almost too real to be a mere film. George O’Brien, as John Breen, again proves what a sterling aclor he is, and receives splendid support from a powerful east, headed by Virginia Valli. June Collyer. •T. Farrell McDonald, and Holmes Herbert. In support are a gazette, and exceptionally good Max. Moritz, and Pop comedy, while appropriate Incidental musie is supplied throughout.