DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 May 1927, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

(Per Press Association.)

ANOTHER CAR MISHAP.

GISBORNE, May 13

Frank McCarten, 74, residing at Makaraka, was knocked down by a motor car in Road last night, sustaining serious injuries. He was removed to the hosptial.

FIRE AT ROTORUA.

ROTORUA, May 13.

Fire early this morning completely gutted a drapery store, occupied by Magnus Manson, Fenton Street. Other shops adjoining were saved by smart brigade work. This is the sixth fire in the block. The contents were insured for £BOO.

SLY GROGGER SENTENCED. WELLINGTON, May 13.

Charles Edward Rossiter Ruddick, with two previous convictions for similar offences, and a list of others, Was to-day sentenced to two months’ imprisonment, concurrent, in each of two charges of sly grogging. He is the proprietor of a small confectioner’s shop, which the police stated to be frequented by a rough class. Accused was on bail on a charge of breaking and entering.

TRAIN STRIKES JIGGER]

AUCKLAND, May 12.

While proceeding from Mercer toward Whangamarino, at 11.45 this morning, Mr Neilson, Inspector of the Permanent Way at Frankton, failed to notice the 9.45 train, which ran him down on his jigger. The velocipede was wrecked, and Neilson received bruises and was severely shaken.

LATER—

Nelson Was not on the jigger at the time, having dismounted some little time previously and left the machine on the rails.

ACCIDENTALLY SHOT. AUCKLAND, May 12.

Roy Smith, a young lad from Onehunga, who was admitted to the hospital suffering from a revolver bullet wound, was reported to-night to show signs of a slight improvement. Smith and another lad, about 16 years of age, were examining a revolver which happened to be loaded in one chamber only. Smith’s companion was demonstrating with the weapon, when it went off. The bullet entering Smith’s right breast.

MINIATURE WAR MEDALS. NAPIER, May 11

Miniature war medals are procurable by anyone from retailers in certain parts of the Dominion. A protest against the sale of these medals in such manner was made by the Returned Soldiers’ Association to-night, when it was decided to communicate with the Minister of Defence drawing his attention to the manner in which miniature war medals were being disposed of and expressing the opinion that they should be sold through the proper authorities. TAXI-DRIVER FINED. AUCKLAND, May 13. As the result of knocking down and fatally injuring Miss Emily Owen in Upper Queen Street, on the night of February 25, Thomas Lionel Price, taxi driver, was found guilty of driving negligently, thereby causing Miss Owens’s death. The jury added a strong recommendation to mercy. Justice Herdman considered that the accused was guilty of negligence in a minor degree. He was undoubtedly travelling too fast, considering the condition of the street and the murky atmosphere. The unfortunate lady was to some extent to blame for the catastrophe. He fined accused £25, with costs £23 17s, in default six months’ imprisonment.

WOMAN’S SERIES OF THEFTS CHRISTCHURCH, May 12.

Mary Bond, a middle aged widow who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to defrauding her employer, Mrs. A. E. Forsythe, of £56/18/8, given her to pay household accounts, and to obtaining goods of a value of £lB/17/7 by pretending she was Mrs. Forsythe, appeared for sentence at the Police Court to-day, before Mr. Mosley S.M. The Magistrate said the Probation Officer’s report was very much against her. He said probation was out of question. The Court could not but view as a grave offence a series of crimes over a considerable period. The circumstances were entirely unworthy, and taking advantage of an old woman there was a series of very /mean offences committed. Bond was convicted and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment on each charge, the sentences to be concurrent.

CYCLIST KILLED. WELLINGTON, May • 12. An inquest was held into the death of John Charles S'cott, 54, married, dentist, who sustained fatal injuries on the evening of May 3, by being knocked off a bicycle by a motor car on the Hutt Road, near the Lower Hutt Railway Station. - The evidence showed that both the deceased and the car, driven by A. D. Wylie, were on the edge of the bitumen and on their right side of the road. Wylie said that he was travelling2s to 30 miles an hour, and could not see the cyclist for the bright lights of a vehicle approaching from the other direction.

Counsel for Wylie said that cyclists were not supposed to ride on the bitumen if the macadam tracks were in good order, and in this case it had been.

In returning a verdict of accidental death, the Coroner said that if the police wanted to go further in the matter they wer,e at liberty to do so. There was no definite evidence as to speed, however, and in the circumstances it would be unfair for him to make any comment.

IMPOSTER CAUGHT. NEW PLYMOUTH, May 11.

He was Warrant-Officer Henry William Charles Beaument, he said, and was on leave from H.M.S. Renown. According to his credentials he was well connected at Home. He carried newspaper photographs of the Hon. Wentworth Beaument and the Hon. Ella Beaument, “his little sister,” off for a drive at Bretton Park, the home of Viscount Allendale, their father. He also carried a letter addressed to Viscountess Allendale, his mother. He had badges and a cutting from a newspaper announcing the arrival in Ha-wc-ra of “Record Quartermaster Staff Officer Beaument, of H.M.S. Renown,” and he wore a bright uniform in keeping. He stepped jauntily into the dock at the Police Cou'rt this morning, for ail his confidence and all his documentary evidence had failed to convince Detective-Sergeant Meiklejohn that he was genuine. Although he stayed at

the best hotels in Hawera and. New Plymouth, he had only Is 6d when arrested, and further, his finger-prints corresponded with those of William Henry McKay, who was well known to the police. Up to the morning of his appearance in Court he had maintained he was not McKay. Nevertheless, when charged with being an idle and disorderly persons, with insufficient means of support, he pleaded guilty.

Accused was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour.