DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 September 1934, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

[per press association.] DAIRY HYGIENE. • ' WELLINGTON, September 12. A grant of £lOO to assist in dairy hygiene research was made to-day by the Electric Power Boards and Supply Associations’ Conference. With a few dissentients, the delegates expressed the view that it was the Associations | duty to aid in dairy hygiene. Any improvement, in whatever way, w 0 ! 1 ? 1 contribute to a rehabiliation of tne industry. DUNEDIN FACTORY FIRE. DUNEDIN, September 12. An outbreak of fire at Ellis s mattress mill at Kaikorai" Valley Road this morning, resulted in damage to the firm’s iron and brick buildings 1 . The contents, principally kapoc, were also badly damaged by fire and water. When the brigade arrived the fire was burning fiercely, but it was quick y subdued. , An employee, Roy Newman, aged 15 years, was caught in the blaze, and he suffered serious burns to the head and arms. He was admitted to the Dunedin Hospital, and placed on the seriously ill list. AGENT’S FRAUD. CHRISTCHURCH, September 13. Representing that he was the accredited agent of the Radio Club, Alfred Egbert Campbell called at a number of suburban houses, and collected £l4. The Magistrate (Mr Mosley) sentenced Campbell to six months’ hard labour this morning, on two charges, one of failing to account for £3, and the other of collecting £ll by fraudulent representations. The police said that accused came from Wellington, and at first had permission to collect subscriptions for the club 1 , on commission. He had failed to account for the money, then nad receipt books printed, and continued operating in suburbs. He had a number of previous convictions. INCOME RETURN. CHRISTCHURCH, September 12. '‘This is not a case for the minimum penalty,” said Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M., in fining Frederick William Watt £5 and costs in the Magistrate’s Court this morning. Watt was charged with failing to make a return of income. For the informant, the Commissioner of Taxes, Mr Brown said that Watt was a well-known public accountant in Ashburton. He had been persistently late in sending in his returns and last October had been warned that lie would be prosecuted if returns were not sent in hy the proper time. There was no question of evasion of payment.

“A man in his profession should make it his duty to send in his return at the proper time,” said the Magistrate in imposing the fine. FRUIT PRICES. WELLINGTON, September 13. The Fruitgrowers’ Conference decided to-day, to arrange a conference between representatives of the Fruit Brokers’ Federation and Fruitgrowers’ Federation, and a committee of growers, with a view to devising ways and means of preventing the sale of apples and pears on the local market at ruinous prices. The desirability of some form of compulsory Dominion standardisation of fruit for the local market was agreed upon almost unanimously by the Fruit Growers’ Federation conference, and it was decided to wait on the Minister of Agriculture and ask for legislation to meet the views of the growers. A suggestion was made that there should be three standard grades of apples, pears and citrus fruits, and that all inferior fruit, provided it was fit for human consumption, should be appropriately marked.

CHRISTCHURCH TRAMWAYMEN . CHRISTCHURCH, September 12. A successful claim for money which they lost in wages during their period of disrating was made against the Christchurch Tramway Board in the Magistrate’s Court to-day by employees who were disrated by the Board, and subsequently reinstated at the direction of the Appeal Board. Twenty claims were set down for hearing, but only two, representing the two categories into which claims fell, were heard. In both cases judgment was given for the plaintiffs with costs. All the plaintiffs were either volunteer workers or loyalists, who did not cease work .when the strike occurred in May, 1932. They were disrated soon after the new Board, in which there is a majority, of Labour members, took office last year. The Magistrate held that the judgment of the Appeal Board was that the men must be put back to former status from the day that they were disrated, and not from the day of reinstatement. He gave judgment accordingly for the plaintiffs. The amounts sued for were £2/3/4 and £4/17/Bcl.