TELEGRAMS.

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2307, 10 March 1914, Page 2

TELEGRAMS.

PEB PBEfIS JJSSO. lITION. UNITED FIRE BRIGADES Akaroa, March 9.

The thirty-fifth meeting of tho United Fire Brigades' Association opene dto-day at Akaroa. Practically every Fire Brigade in the Dominion was represented. Superintendent G. Spriggens (Wanganui) presided. Timaru is to be the next place of meeting.

" THE DOMINION HOUSE." Wellington, March 9.

Sir Joseph Ward, interviewed, expressed himself strongly in favour of Earl Grey's scheme for the establishment of a Dominion Houso in London. He said a visitor, seeing the present scattered offices of the various overseas Dominions, could not.be so impressed by the greatness of the British Empire and its marvellous resources as lie would be if representatives and samples of products were housed in one central building. COACHING MISHAP. Wellington, March 9. While two coaches were conveying visitors from the Waitomo Caves to. the railway station, the first coach overturned. Captain Johnson (of the Wellington Pilot staff), Mr B. M. Wilson (of the Tourist Department), Mrs Wilson, Mrs Parsons (Mrs Wilson's mother), Dr. Gilmer and Mrs Gilmer, Mrs Johnson, and several others, were in the coach. The heavy coach was going down hill when the brake apparently failed to act, and the coach upset. Dr. Gilmer attended to the injured. Captain Johnson and Mrs McLeod (of Taßapau, H. 8.) were the two principal sufferers, but they are progressing favourably. Captain Johnson was crushed underneath the coach. Hamilton, March 10.

Mrs McLeod has • received a broken collarbone and severe injuries, Mr Yardley bad cuts on the head, and Mrs Yardley and Dr. Gilmer severe bruises. The patients in the hospital arc doing well. A STABBING AFFRAY. Gisborne, March 9. A serious altercation occurred in Aberdeen-road this evening, when, as the result of a neighbours' quarrel, it is alleged, Johansen .attacked Brickncll with a knife and slashed him somewhat badly about the face, besides inflicting a number of wounds about his body. Johansen was taken into custody. He had the top joint of one finger cut off, but how he received the injury it is impossible to say. A third person who sought to intervene is reported to have received slight injuriese. Johansen is well known in Gisborne. He has been in business as a builder during the last two years. MR. McNAB'S LIBRARY. Dunedin, March 9. A large number of citizens assembled this afternoon at the Public Library to take part in the formal presentation of the McNab Collection to the city of Dunedin, comprising about 3000 volumes. In explaining his reasons for choosing the Dunedin library as the repository of his collection, Mr McNab said that Dunedin was the home of his old University, and here alone would her future students be able to take advantage of a chair of Australasian and Polynesian history when it came to be established. THAT WHITE SLAVERY. Gisborne, March 9.

Mr Field, of Nelson, to-day replied to Superintendent Kiely's statement in regard to references to Auckland in her address before the W.C.T.U. Convention on white slavery. She said: "Of course, I cannot personally vouch for the Auckland cases, as I was only informed of them, but I have no reason to doubt the evidence of the person who made the charges." Auckland,-, March 9. A reporter, making enquiries among women and "'. other social workers, failed to discover any traces of white slave traffic. A SAILOR'S SUICIDE. Wellington, March 9.

"Dear Jack, I am getting out. You know what that means. I feel both mentally and physically unable to cope with a new scheme of life at 54. After all my previous worries and griefs, this strike affair has finished mc. . . . Good-bye, old man. You have been a good friend. It will be a long sleep now. Yours as ever, Alfred J. Stevens." Tho above is an extract from a note which Alfred James Stevens, sailor, aged 54 years, wrote to a friend on a letter-card just before taking poison at his house at Austin street on Friday last. The note was written in ink, in a hand and style that disclosed a high degree of education and steadiness, that showed not the slightest trace of mental perturbation. At the inquest to-day the evidence showed that deceased had been out of work fer some time, and had spoken of suicide. The Coroner returned a verdict of "Death from poison taken while of unsound mind." A PUBLIC MENACE.

Mr Justice Cooper, in inflicting a sentence of seven years' imprisonment on Thomas Henry Tucker, for an unnatural offence, said he had considered the question of ordering a severe flogging, but in the ease of a young man who was dangerous to the community he thought it better that he should be incarcerated for -a lengthy period.