DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 August 1935, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

[PEB PBESS ASSOCIATION.] WIDOW’S CLAIM FAILS. WELLINGTON, August 2. The claim for £lOOO compensation for the death of her husband, a waterside worjter, made in the Arbitration Court, to-day, by Violet Rubina Johns, New Plymouth, against Scotland and Lovegrove, Ltd., Wellington, was disallowed by a majority decision. The man died about half-an-hour after demonstrating to another workman how to shift ’a crate weighing two hundredweight. The post-mortem showed that he had heart disease. The Court decided that plaintiff had not established that the lifting of the crate induced or hastened death. PLUNGE THROUGH WINDOW. WELLINGTON, August 2. A plunge through, a plate glass window was adopted by Charles Christall to escape a constable who was chasing him from Tory Street, where he had attempted to obtain money from a Chinese by means of a false pretence. He appeared to-day, on this charge, and also on a charge of committing mischief by wilfully breaking a window valued at £43/19/6, the property of Wright, Stevenson and Co. He was placed on two years’ probation, conditional on his, taking out a prohibition order. The Magistrate classed the window episode as an act of desperation, not of deliberation. CHANGING RIVER’S COURSE. PALMERSTON NORTH, August 1. Concern was expressed at a meeting of the Manawatu-Orou.a River Board when a letter was received from the firm of solicitors acting for the lessee of a large area of Crown land fronting the Manawatu river, stating that an attempt had been made by some unknown person to make a new course for the river through the neck of land round which the river runs near Hamilton’s line at Karere. Explosives had been used. The lessee expressed concern, as the change of the river’s course might seriously affect the land owners lower down apart from his own loss. The matter had been placed in the hands of the police. In the board discussion it was stated that a good deal of explosive had been used, and the opinion was expressed that the work had been carried out on a rough and windy night. The board decided to support the steps being taken to investigate the matter.