DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 November 1927, Page 8

DOMINION ITEMS

/Per Press Association.)

LABOURER POISONED. DUNEDIN, November 25. William James Smith', labourer, 58, was found dead at Luggate last night, the circumstances suggesting that death was due to poison. COOK ACCUSED. PALMERSTON NORTH, Nov. 25. Charged at the Police Court, with indecently assaulting a boy, aged 7, Charles Wilmot Palmer, employed as a cook at a Feilding hotel, pleaded not guilty, and was committed for trial. DUNEDIN SHOW. DUNEDIN, November 24. The Otago A. and P. Society’s Summer < Show was concluded to-day, in pouring rain. The gate receipts were £73, in place of the usual £6OO. The working horses and light horse classes only were judged; The champion hackney Was Miss Isohel Rutherford’s Perfection, and the champion harness horse was Miss Violet, Mr M. H. Nichols’ entry. In the cab and pony section,, the champion pony and champion saddle horse was Mr T. R. Rhodes’s Veridudie. WATERSIDER SHOT. NEW PLYMOUTH,. November 25. The dead body of Thomas Quayle was found under a tree, about half a mile from his home, at Westown, last night, with an extensive gunshot wound, in the left breast, and a gun lying behind him. Deceased, who was a wharf labourer, aged 38, married, no children, had been out shooting and was apparently returning home carrying a sack of wood, when passing under a tree on the track the gun caught in a branch and exploded causing instant death.

CUSTOMS DUTIES.

WELLINGTON, November 24. The Customs duties collected at the ports of New Zealand during the quarter ended September 30, totalled £2,107,116, compared with £2,172,204 for the corresponding quarter of 1926. Of these totals, spirits contributed and £325,846 respectively, general tariff £1,332,311 and £1,358,G 52, British preferential tariff £665,111 and £692,392. During the same quarter of 1927, excise duties amounted to £170,436, compared with £162,142 for the corresponding quarter of last year'} beer duty amounted to £136,739? and £137,948, in the quarters ending September 30, 1927 and 1926, respectively.

BATHING POOL FATALITY. ROTORUA, November 25;

The inquest on Maud Noble was held to-day. The verdict was that she died as the result of severe scalds received by accidentally slipping into a hot pool on the Kuirau Reserve, on November 13. The jury added a ridetr to the effect that steps should be taken by. responsible authorities to protect this reserve, whieh was exceedingly dangerous. Coroner Richards commented severely on the neglected and dangerous State of the reserve, which was a death trap. The fatality occurred during a midnight bathing party to a well-known pool in the reserve. TEA—NOT LIQUOR? HASTINGS, November 23. There was a sensational ending in a Cdurt case to-day, when Mr Mowlem S.M., presided. Three charges were preferred against Donald Hugh M’Leod licensee of the Hastings Hotel: (1) Opening premises for the sale of liquor after hours; (2) selling liquor to Athotl 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. Defendants pleaded not guilty. After evidence had been given by the police as to finding two bottles of beer on Griffiths, the latter, ih evidence, stated that the bottles contained tea, not beer. The case was thdn adjourned for an analysis to be made of the contents of the bottles. AUCKLAND TRAMWAYS. AUCKLAND, November 25. The City Council decided last night to revert (probably in mid-December) to the old schedule of section, and to introduce the former scale of cash fares, obtaining before the present system was initiated in October for six months’ trial. Concession cards

will provide for discount of 25 per cent, this rate being less liberal than pre-October scale. The most striking effect of the new schedule 4s the abandonment of penny sections and alteration of shortened sections near the city to the original length. In the report to the Council the Chairman of the Tramways Committee' stated that the average weekly revenue for October showed a reduction of £959, which the undertaking could not sustain, particularly in view of the continued losses on buses which on the fortnightly period ended November 12, worked out at £76,800 annually (excluding capital charges and depreciation).