LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 19549, 6 May 1927, Page 11

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The fourteen-roomed res'denco of Mr, J. J. Burke, of Kaimoe, Patutahi (Gisborne), was destroyed by lire. Nothing was saved. The insurance was £1,750, in the New Zealand Office. Charles Roy Banton, aged twentythree, a tapci driver at Dargavillo, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment on a charge of an attempted offence on a girl aged fifteen years. Arising out of an assault at Mangcre on April 13, when John Boys, who was for-, merly employed as a cook on the steamer Manama, was attacked and a suit case containing four tins of illicit opium was stolen, Roy Morrison and Lawrence Vacey were found guilty of robbery with violence. Sentence was deferred until Monday. I Something like a sensation was caused in Wellington yesterday afternoon when the news became known that Jane Annie Johnston, a married woman, aged forty-six, had been arrested on the., charge of breaking and entering the j house of ex-Cr F. A. Manton, situated at No. 66 Harbor View road, North-] land, on the night of February 18, ami; stealing jewellery and valuables esti-l mated to be worth close on £I,OOO. Almost all the alleged stolen loot, _ it; is stated, was recovered by the police after a five-hours’ search of Mrs Johnston’s residence,, as. a result of which accused (who is at present awaiting her trial on a charge of being found, by night in Te Aro llouso_ with the intention to commit a crime therein) was taken into custody and charged with the offence named. j An outbreak of fire occurred yester- 1 day among 3,000 bags of copra in an upper cargo space on the Now Zealand , Shipping Company’s vessel Somerset,: which was completing loading at Wei- ’ lington for London. The fire was extinguished before any serious damage ] resulted. An examination-revealed that! two or three sacks of copra had been j charred. The copra was loaded at Auck-| land, and will be dried and sent on by another boat. The Arbitration Court at Auckland gave judgment for £3OO on a claim for i £I,OOO made on behalf of the widow] and. two children of Nickola Music, | who was killed at Arapuni; against the Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth Company, Ltd. A waterside worker, Thomas Wanklyn, was awarded £l3O compensation against the New Zealand Shipping Company for an injury received while Wanklyn was working on the steamer Baron Murray on June 18. This J was in addition to the sums previously! paid by the company. , i

The monthly meeting of tho St. Clair School Committee was held on Tuesday, Mr H. Halliday (chairman) presiding. The head master reported that the average roll for April was 622, and the average attendance 570, colds and influenza being the chief causes of reduced attendance. Miss Telfer finished work as Sixth Standard assistant on Friday, April 29, and Miss J. M'Leod has been appointed relieving teacher in her place. The Visiting Committee reported everything going along smoothly, but that the manuka posts required strengthening (head master to have this attended to). Improvements to the school grounds were going along steadily if somewhat slowly. The chairman reported that, with Messrs Ritchie and Macassey, he attended the farewell function tendered to Miss Telfer, and he was verv pleased to report tho friendly feeling and extreme regret that was expressed at losing the services of such a popular teacher. It was moved by Mr Ritchie, and seconded by Mr Jones, that the matter of school stationery be left in the hands of the school’s delegates to further discuss at the annual meeting of the Schools’ Committees’ Association.