DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1931, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

[PEB PUSS ASSOCIATION.] YOUTH’S SUICIDE. AUCKLAND, November 9. Leslie McGaughey, 15, was found shot in a house in Kingsland, on Saturday afternoon, with a shot-gun nearby. He left a note saying that he had been anxious about his mother’s health. A verdict of suicide while of unsound mind was returned. MOTOR CYCLIST" INJURED. AUCKLAND, November 8. A fracture of the skull was received by a motor cyclist, Henry Fletcher, aged 28, married, of Parnell, when the machine on which he was pillion-Tid-ing, crashed at Onehunga early this afternoon. Fletcher was thrown on to the pavement, and was rendered unconscious. His condition was critical late this afternoon. BOOT FACTORY FIRE CHRISTCHURCH, November 7. Damage amounting from £6OO to £7OO was caused by a fire in the boot factory of M. O’Brien and Co., this afternoon. The brigade was called by the automatic alarm, but when it arrived, the flames had a good hold. A finishing bench and shafting, also burnishing and finishing machines, were badly charred, and 100 pairs of boots were scorched. The building is ot brick, and is insured for £2OOO, while the stock and plant are insured for £14,000, in the Alliance Office. BOYS DROWNED DUNEDIN, November 9. Two boys, Robert (9) and Duncan (11) Balloch, the sons of George Balloch, were drowned in a branch of the Molyneau River, yesterday. Accompanied by an elder brother and another young man, they were crossing from the spit to the mainland in a flat-bottomed punt, when the boat overturned in the current. A miner, Andrew Carson, plunged to the rescue, successfully assisting the older boy ashore, while Miller, the other man reached safety, but the younger boys disappeared. Their bodies have not been recovered. MAORI’S DESPAIR. THAMES, November 9. A determined attempt at suicide was made by a Maori, John Ransfield, 19, of Kerepeehi. Ransfield suddenly jumped from his bed, tore off every stitch of clothing, announced his intention of dying, and made for the river. When restrained, and arrested, he endeavoured to strangle himself. He begged for a knife to end his life. It is understood that lately he has been brooding. He was brought before the Court and remanded. POWER BOARD’S POLES. AUCKLAND, November 9. Judgment in the first case of the kind in New Zealand was given today, by Justice Herdman, who held that the Waitemata County Council had no legal right to require the Waitemata Electric Power Board to contribute towards the cost of removing power poles from one position on a County road to another. “The Power Board had the absolute right to erect poles as it did, and if they stood in the way of the Council’s Road improvement operations, it was the Council’s business to get rid of them at its own expense,” said the Judge.