LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 19722, 24 November 1927, Page 14

LOCAL AND GENERAL

George Wallace, aged 29, :i shearer, and Edward Lawsoiv aged 2-1, an advertiser, were committed for trial at Wellington ou a. charge of robbing Paul Aurisch in tho railway refreshment room at Paekakariki on Baturday, when a train was returning from the Levin races. Aurisch alleges that ho had £l3 in his hip pocket, and that the money was taken. . A case of unusual interest, and with which are connected important features, was commenced in tho Supremo Court, Hamilton, before Mr .Justice Herdman, when Harold Melville Taylor, who was formerly arrested on a charge of the theft of a mailbag, appeared on two charges of receiving cheques lost in postal packets contained in the missing bag. Taylor was not charged by tho Crown with the theft of tho mailbag, as on consideration of the evidence adduced it had been decided that it was insufficient to warrant a case being submitted to the jury. Tho case is unfinished.

Horace Alfred Twcedale, who was arrested cn tho Maheno at Auckland when leaving for Sydney on August 5, was charged at New Plymouth with the theft of a motor tyre and with breaking and entering tho railway floods shed at New Plymouth, and stealing eight cases of whisky, also with the theft alone of tho whisky and with receiving tho whisky knowing it to have been stolen. He was found guilty of receiving at the Supremo Court, and was acquitted on the other four charges. He was granted two years’ probation, and was ordered to pay not less than £26 a year for two years towards the costs of the prosecution. The accused was alleged to have disposed of the whisky to sly grog sellers in the King Country. The Maroro Shipping Company has decided to abandon to the underwriters the Maroro, which was stranded at Blackhead. The refloating of the vessel in her present damaged condition ’ regarded as hopeless. A telegram was received yesterday _by the secretary of the Shipwreck Roller Society from tho Mayor of Napier (Mr J. Vigor Brown) stating that two of the Maroro’s apprentices were stranded in Napier, and they desired to got back to their homes in Newcastle (Australia). Mr Brown asked if the Shipwreck Relief Society could render any assistance. The society decided to vote £lO to each of the apprentices to assist them to return to their homes.

The Minister of Agriculture (Mr 0. J. Hawken) states that at tho Imperial Agricultural Research Conference which opened in London on October 4 it was resolved that a similar conference _ be held every five years. On the invitation of the Australian Government it was decided to hold the nest conference in Australia, and the Now Zealand Government, through the High Commissioner, had issued a cordial invitation to tho delegates _ to include _ the dominion in their visit. The High Commissioner had been authorised to state that the Government would he glad to co-operate with Australia in endeavoring to make the conference in every way valuable and successful. The Government was now advised that the invitation had been received with great pleasure, and that Lord Bedisloo was sure that as many delegates as possible would be glad to include Now Zealand in the itinerary.

There was an unexpected ending in a court case at Hastings, over which Mr A. W. Mowlem, S.M., presided. Three charges were preferred against Donald Hugh M'Leod, licensee of the Hastings Hotel—(l) opening his premises for the sale of liquor after hours, (2) selling liquor to Athol Griffiths, and (3) selling liquor to an intoxicated person. Arising out of the above charges Athol Griffiths was charged with being on licensed premises after hours. The four charges were dealt with together. The defendants pleaded not guilty. After evidence had been given-by the police as to the finding of two bottles of beer on Griffiths, the latter in evidence stated that the bottles contained tea, not beer. The case was then adjourned for an analysis to be made of the contents of the bottles.