Page 6 Advertisements Column 5

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 83, 6 October 1915, Page 6

Shearing has now commenced at early stationfi on the East Coast. As yet, the shortage of hands is not causing a great deal of inconvenience, but it is thought that sheds which commence operations when the busy season is on will have difficulty in securing all the men they require. Poverty Bay Native shearers, as mentioned previously, refused to start work at the old rate of £1 per hundred. The Shearers' Union is stated to be doing all in its power to avert trouble, but it is thought that the season will not pass without individual demands for a higher rate. Some of the men argue that employers who have sold their wool at excellent prices should not now object to a small increase in the shearing rate to meet the advance in the cost of living. Five first-offending inebriates appeared before Mr. W- G. Riddell, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court to-day. Two had to be remanded for a week for medical treatment, and the others, including a soldier, received the usual lenient treatment. As the Tesulfc «of a street fight, John M'Laughlan ..and William Wilkinson were jointly charged with creating a breach of the peace. . M'Laughlan, who had plainly suffered the worst of the encounter, was convicted and discharged, and Wilkinson was fined the amount of the doctor's fee, £1 Is, in default ordered to spend three days in gaol. John Shepherd -was fined £5, with the alternative of three weeks' hard labour, for committing, while drunk, a grossly indecent act in Parliamentary grounds. James Smith was fined 20s lor drunkenness. The enigma as to when a man is drunk once again presented itself for solution at the Magistrate's Court to-day. A young man named Sydney Harold Fox was charged with being drunk while in charge of a motor-car on 20th September last. The case was the outcome of a collision which occurred on Jervois-quay on the date mentioned. Fox strenuously denied the charge of insobriety, and was defended by Mr. P. W. Jackson. Three police officers stated that Fox was drunk when arrested, but other witnesses called for the defence asserted otherwise. His Worship (Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M.) commented upon the conflicting nature of the evidence, and said that under the circumstances he would give Fox the benefit of the doubt. It was impossible for the Court to decide the matter. He would have liked to hear expert evidence from a medical man. One-third of the head office staff of the Labour Department has heard the call for Empire defenders, , and practically all the eligible men of the staff are now either at the front, in» training, or waiting to be called on. An honour board has been 'prepared to record their devotion to duty. That, their self-sacri-fice is remembered now by their fellowworkers is to be proved at Christmas, when eacb man will receive a gift parcel, which should be most welcome. Much thought has been given to the composition of the parcel, which will cater for varying needs by the inclusion of the following articles : soap, socks, court plaster, a bottle of chlorodyne, writing outfit, reading matter, pocketknife, toothbrush, pipe, tobacco in khaki weatherproof pouch, playing cards, cigarettes, cigarette papers, chewing gum, chocolate, and preserved ginger. Frederick George Smith, alias George John Burberry, or vice versa, was charged before Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., to-day, with the theft of a cheque for £3 from Oscar Beavis, a bookseller in Courbenay-place. The offence was an indictable one, and the evidence of a circumstantial character. Mr. Beavis left a cheque in his office while he went away to lunch, and a young lady remained in charge of the shop. In the meantime, accused came and asked permission to use the telephone. This was granted, and he went through into the office. Later, the cheque was found to be missing. When arrested by Detective Carney, accused denied all knowledge of the missing document. He pleaded not guilty, but had nothing to say to the Court to-day, and he was accordingly committed to the Supreme Court for trial. He asked for bail, but Chief Detective Boddam said Smith, (or Burberry) was an habitual criminal v now on probation, "you must make your application to me later," said Mr. Riddell, "and I will want to know all particulars about you." Writing of the early days of the landing on Gallipoli, Private Gibb Johnston, son of Dr. Johnston, of Carterton, refers to the death of several Wellington men. " Of Jack Grace's death I can give no coherent account," he writes, "a a the mounted men were operating on cur left, and were holding the advanced outposts. All I know is that the WeDingt,'m mounted men were cut off and surrounded, and sixty of them held hundreds of Turks at bay until relief came. Out of the sixty men thirty of them were killed, among them being Norman Cameron, Tas Smith, Jack Grace, and another old college chum, Jack Scales (son of Mr. G. H. Scales). They all died at their posts, but it js easily the saddest catastrophe that has so far happened to the New Zealanders, and I might say that in an attack on a Turkish trench the next night we remembered our fallen comrades. In war every man is a brother, and I can tell you that it is not going into battle that upsets the nerves of men, but it is- when your mates fall round you and when the roll is called at the end of the fight that even the strongest men break down a little. When we made our advance at Cape Helles on 9th May, eighty-sis of the Ruahine Company answered the roll-call two days later out of 250 men who comprised the company." As the result, apparently, of a sudden outbreak of temper, John Lightfoot, tablet porter at Plimmerton railway station, appeared before Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., to-day, on remand, charged with assaulting his wife so as to cause her actual bodily harm. Chief-Detective Boddam, who prosecuted, stated that the injuries received by Mrs. Lightfoot had turned out •to be less serious than had been expected, consequently the major charge was withdrawn, and a charge of aggravated assault substituted. The occurrence took place at Pfimmerton early on the morning of the 29th September Accused was on duty, and had occasion to go to his house. Here* he had a verbal altercation with his wife, and he was so annoyed that he hit the latter several times with a piece of wood. Lightfoot pleaded guilty. On his behalf, Mr. H.F. O'Leary asked for lenient treatment. Accused and his wife had not lived happily together, but the wife had admitted that she was the cause of the trouble on the 28th. She was sorry now — very sorry — that her husband had been arrested. Accused had lost his position with the Railway Department. Prior to last month he had borne an excellent character. His Worship -took these facts into consideration, and convicted Lightfoot and ordered him to pay £4 4s medical expenses, in default twenty-one days in gaol. Lightfoot was also convicted of wilfully damaging five water tanks, valued at 15s. He was fined 20s, and;, in addition, ordered to make good the damage. Quoting from a letter from the Cook Islands in the House yesterday, Mr. A. Glover, interpreting from the native tongue, said that the people there expressed their determination to send men and money to assist in the war until the close of the trouble. Already they had sent £700 14s 8d from the islands. The Karori Defence Rifle Club will not shoot at Trentham next Saturday pvmg jo the E**gde of the troops...