DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 March 1928, Page 7

DOMINION ITEMS

(Per Press Association.)

TOBA C C O NIS T■BOOK M A K E R. HAMILTON, March 9. On a charge of bookmaking, Harry Asher, a tobacconist, was fined £25 and costs. WOMAN’S FATAL INJURY. , AUCKLAND, March 10. The death occurred at the Auckland Hospital last evening of Mrs Maria Demcke, of Napier, who received spinal injuries through the capsize of a lorry on' the Razorback between Pukekohe and Mercer on February 27. Her husband, who was driving, was uninjured. POULTRY ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON, March 8. The Poultrymen’s Conference decided to-day to hold the next conference in Christchurch. The Government is to be asked to make it compulsory for all poultry-keepers selling eggs to be licensed on the same lines as the vendors of fruit and milk. As an advertising medium the Government is to be asked to pay the expenses of a shipment of fowls to the world’s poultry Conference in England in 1930. THIEVES CONVICTED. HAMILTON, March 8.

At the Supreme Court, two young men, Ira George Land, and. Bernard Francis Murray, pleaded not guilty to charges of breaking and entering a garage at Tauranga, on January 27, and stealing seven suitcases, and the contents valued at £95, the property of Jacksons Ltd., Auckland. Accused were also charged with receiving stolen goods. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, a recommendation to leniency being extended in the case of Murray, on account of the 'evil influence exercised over him by Land.

Accused was remanded to Monday, to give them a chance of assisting the police in recovering the balance of the goods.

PRISONERS SENTENCED. WANGANUI, March 7. The following sentences were passed at the Supreme Court to-day: — Sydney Buckland, two years’ hard labour, on each of two charges of indecent assault on school girls, the sentences to be concurrent. Alfred Kennedy, for aiding and abetting in committing an indecent assault on a male, three years’ probation. Thomas Patrick Kelly, for indecent assault on males, three years’ hard labour on each charge, the sentences to be concurrent. Reginald Halliday Crutchley, for theft and false pretences. 12 months’ probation, and ordered to pay £2B 5s Gd, costs of prosecution. William James Brennan, for common assault, ,nine months hard labour. CHEMIST AND “SLY GROG.”

WELLINGTON, March 9

Allegations of “sly grog” selling were made against Hugh O’Reilly, chemist, of Eastbourne, in the Magistrate’s Court to-day. He pleaded not guilty. A resident of Eastbourne gave evidence that he paid visits to defendant’s shop on Sunday, February IS, and purchased three bottles of beer from him, paying with marked coins supplied by Constable Squire. After a second visit he, accompanied by the constable, went back to the shop, where O’Reilly denied having sold him any liquor. At the constable’s request witness signed a statement. O’Reilly tried to prevent him from signing, saying that if he did there would be a Supreme Court action. The marked coins were found in the till by the constable. The ease was adjourned. MOTORIST COMMITTED. HAWERA, March 9. An inquest .was held to-day concerning the death of Millicent Elizabeth Richter, farmer’s wife, aged 42, who was found unconscious near her home on a road early in the evening of February 24, and died the following night at the hospital. Coroner Barton found that death resulted from a fractured skull sustained through Richter being knocked down by a motor-car, driven by George Craig Smith, stock buyer, Hawera. It was alleged in evidence that Smith and a passenger, Ernest Alfred Nixon, weie both intoxicated. They stopped after knocking the woman down, but left almost immediately when questioned by a passing motorist. LATER.

George Craig Smith pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial, on a charge that while in a state of intoxication, he drove a motor car near Mokoia, on

February 14, causing the death of Millicent Elizabeth Richter. WITNESS’S DEATH. AUCKLAND, March 8. A charge of perjury against Ernest Gilbert, a blacksmith, collapsed in the Police Court, when it was announced that a witness, whose absence had resulted in an adjournment at the previous hearing on February 23, had died in the Auckland Hospital last Alomlav.

The case arose out of the acquittal of Gilbert in February, 1926, on a charge of negligently driving a motorcar at Onehunga.' A collision occurred with a cyclist on Mangere bridge, and when prosecuted Gilbert declared that he and another man were the only occupants of the car. The police had since alleged that there were two women, and at the opening of The case a fortnight ago a woman stated that she was a passenger. The case was adjourned by Air F. K. Hunt, S.M., when it was said that the other woman concerned was in hospital. At the resumption to-day, the police intimated that the witness had died on Monday. Air Goldstine, counsel for the accused, asked for the dismissal of the information on the ground that a prima facie case had not been made out. The Magistrate concurred.