DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 September 1928, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

(Per Press Association.)

HUTT RAILWAY REPAIRED. WELLINGTON, September 16. For the first time since the disorganisation of traffic on the Hutt railway line, as the result of washouts by storm, the double track was in use yesterday This was very welcome, m view of the Trots, and the fact that the airmen arrived at Trentham. WIDOW FATALLY BURNT AUCKLAND, Sept. 17. Mary Turner, widow, aged 50, died at the hospital yesterday from burns sustained at Ponsonby on Saturday when enveloped in flames by the firing of aluminium paint she was using for renovating the stove. It is surmised that live coals had been left in the grate. BODY IN CAVE. AUCKLAND, September 17. The body was i°nnd in the cave near Manukau Heads, on the beach y f i iiv of Arthur James Stonhold, 60, who had not been seen since walking from the Karekaie boardinghouse on Sunday week. A letter in a pocket declared his intention ot going into the- cave. . DISPENSARY’S OPENING.

WELLINGTON, September 15. In a reserved judgment, Mr. W. Page S.M., granted the application or the Friendly Societies’ Dispensary for exemption from Sunday closing hours. Mr Page remarked that they must see .that its operations Were confined to those mentioned in the hearing, viz., ■the sale to members and their families only of medical and surgical appliances •given on order from a doctor. FUR COAT STOLEN. WELLINGTON, September 17. A ship’s steward, Raymond Patrick Letton, alias McCullough, 24, got six months’ imprisonment from the Magistrate, to-day, for tfhe.ft of a fur coat, valued at £4B„the property of Mollie Duncan, from a bedroom at the Alhambra Hotel. On a charge of breaking a pane of Mass in a skylight, he was ordered to pay 10/-, in default seven days’ imprisonment. STOWAWAYS FINED WELLINGTON, Sept 15. A labourer, Frederick Bryant, aged 44, on Monday last, was sentenced, to six months’ imprisonment for failing to maintain five children the wan ant being suspended as usual. To-day with two others, Leonard Ivan Gillman and Jeremiah McGavin, he pleaded guilty to attempting to stow away on the Maheno. Each was fined £2, in default fourteen days.’ Bryant was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence in twelve months on a further charge of leaving New Zealand with intent to disobey a maintenance order.

COMPENSATION AWARD. CHRISTCHURCH, September 16. The Arbitration Court has made a change in the basis of computing the compensation claims on the grounds of partial dependency. Previously the Court took as its standard, an amount representing three times the deceased worker’s annual contribution. The change is to four times the contribution. This was made clear in the judgment of the Court delivered by Mr. Justice Frazer in a case in which Samuel William Kelly, a Council employee, and his wife, Mary Agnes Kelly, proceeded against the Waimairi County Council for compensation for the death of their son, who was killed while in the employ of the Council. The Court awarded £2OB compensation, together with costs and funeral expenses.

PRISONERS SENTENCED. AUCKLAND, September 17. Judge Reed heard an appeal by John William Hope against the six months’ sentence by Mr Hunt, S.M., for failing to comply with a summons on a maintenance order made in England. Hope disputed that he was the man named in the summons. He had been before three different magistrates, all of whom were satisfied he \vas the manAfter hearing new evidence, Judge Reed dismissed the appeal, saying he was satisfied Hope was the man. Huia Keith Allan and William Joseph Whyte, two labourers, , were each sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, on eighteen charges of theft from vessels. Judge Reed 'said it was a very serious offence. It was difficult to catch the perpetrators, and when caught they should be seveiely punished, as a deterrent to others.

RAILWAY POLICY. WELLINGTON, September 17. Mr Sterling, •at a smoke concert of the accountants’ branch of the Railway Service on Saturday, said a grea deal had been said around the epigrammatic phrase, “Making the Railways Pay.” In tihe common acceptance of the term, he could not do that. The country must have a transport service, and owners must be prepared to sink something in its development. They are sure of a realisation on the investment, but may not reap it until some years hence. He had the greatest faith in the country. He gave whole-hearted backing to the statement that the Railways wanted business, but business that paid. Discussing freights with a prominent local body man, he had refused to consider carrying goods below rates at which they could possibly be remunerative. “If you find it cheaper by road, then let the loss lie where it falls. Mhy should the Railways take it to save the roads?” , Mr Sterling paid a warm tribute to the work accomplished by railwaymen.

DAIRY BOARD’S CRITICS PAHIATUA, September 17. At the annual meeting of the local Co-op. Dairy Company to-day Mr J. G. Brechin returned to the attack on Mr lorns, chairman of the Dairy Board, and at the conclusion of his speech the following resolution was carried unanimously: —“This meeting of dairy farmers emphatically protests against the action of the Chaiiman o the Dairy Produce Control Board (Mr W. A. torns) using his casting vote against the interests of the dairy farmers of the Dominion as a whole against the National Dairy Association representing dairy farmers, in the matter of refusing to accept the offer of the Association to carry out the work of shipping dairy produce at Auckland and New Plymouth for £lOOO per annum, and the setting up of offices at those ports, and also in the South Island, to carry out the work at very much higher cost. That in the opinion of this meeting, the removal from the

Board of all the members who are not actual representatives of dairy farmers is in the best interests of the dairy industry, as the Board should comprise only men selected by those engaged in the industry, which it is called upon to represent.