BRIEF ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 291, 8 September 1928, Page 10

BRIEF ITEMS

FROM FAR AND NEAR Liquor Referendum.—A Press Association message from Sydney says the latest majority against prohibition is 527,959. School Teachers in Auckland District.—Returns furnished to the Auckland Education Board show that there were 2606 teachers 956 males and 1650 females) in its employ at the end of June. The number included 55 male and 132 female probationers. —Special Service. Assault on Small Child.—Joshua Thomas Carson, aged 25, was fined £5 with costs yesterday on a charge of assaulting a four-year-old girl at Greymouth (states a Press Association message). The police did not proceed with a charge of indecent assault. Theft From Hospital Board.—ln the Magistrate’s Court at Ashburton, Wilfred Gordon Corbett, charged with the theft of money totalling £49 Bs. Id. from his employers, the Ashburton Hospital Board, was placed on probation for eighteen months.—Press Assn. Old Convict Ship for Australia.—An Australian Press Association message from Brookville (Ontario) states that the British convict ship Success entered Canadian waters from New York on Wednesday preparatory to a voyage to Australia, where she will be converted into a floating museum. She is the oldest vessel afloat, having been built in 1790. Apple Orchard to bo Cut Down.—A prominent orchardist in the Lithgow district of New South Wales has decided to cut down seven thousand young apple trees just bearing, owing to the high cost of labour and low market returns. He declares that fruit-growing is a losing game. He will devote the land to a more profitable purpose.—Press Assn. Deaths in London Street Accidents.— A United Service message states that three people are killed daily in London street accidents, according to the latest statistics. The deaths in 1927 totalled 1001, and for the last three months 270. Watersiders Object to Award.—A Press Association message from Sydney states that the waterside workers’ new award, which has been roundly condemned by the nnons, operates from next Monday. Wharf workers declare they will not work under it. United States Presidency.—An Australian Press Association-United Service message from Kansas City states that' Mr. Frank Eldridge Wehb. of San Francisco. and Senator James A. Reed, of Kansas, have been selected FarmerLabour Party candidates for the President and Vice-President. False Declaration Made.—An Ashburton Press Association message states that Edward O’Connor pleaded guilty yesterday to having made a false declaration under the Old Age Pensions Act concerning deposits in the Savings Bank. He was fined £lO. and ordered to refund £216 6s. Bd. obtained in excess. False Information.—ln the Ashburton Magistrate’s Court, George James Porteous was fined £5 on each of two counts, of having supplied false information with intention to receive a larger economic pension that lie was entitled to. The declaration was in respect to earnings, a sum of £39 being overpaid.—Press Assn. Thefts from Boats.—Careers of crime covering nine months terminated in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, when Huia Keith Allen (22), labourer, and William Joseph Whfrte (36), labourer and seaman, pleaded guilty to eighteen charges of theft from launches and yachts on the Waitemata Harbour. Each was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment on summary charges, and committed for sentence on indictable* ones.—Press Assn. A Sharp Lesson.—Charged with using indecent language to Naval Reservists in Cathedral square, Christchurch. Victor Robert Blackburn (18) said that because of the men’s' leggings and uniform he thought they were American bluejackets. The accused .was fined £3, in default fourteen days’ hard labour. Time to pay was refused. Blackburn had called out, “Who won the war?”— Press Assn. Blast Furnace Explodes.—A blast furnace at the Port Kembla Steel Works at Port Kembla exploded, injuring twentythree workmen, three seriously. Hundreds of tons of bubbling molten metal shot from the gigantic furnace and flowed over the adjoining railway line, forminto sheets of iron, which were cut away afterwards by oxy-acetylene cutting machines. and then shifted by crane. It is considered miraculous that the workmen escaped so luckily.—Press Assn.