DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 August 1940, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

[PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] GAMING CHARGES. PALMERSTON NORTH, Aug. 19. Five men, Bruce J ohn Clarke, Harry McDonald Essex, Dario Lanchato Giorgi, James Sheldon Hanly, and Ernest James Watsbn, were each fined £lOO on charges under the Gaming Act after visits paid by the police to premises on Saturday. Mrs Giorgi was fined £25. MINE IDLE. AUCKLAND, August 20. Owing to the monthly stop-work meeting at the Taupiri coal mine being prolonged, this morning, the men did not go to work at the conclusion of the business, the mine being left practically idle to-day. About 300 men were involved. According to the secretary of the Northern Miners Union (Mr T. Hall), work will be resumed to-morrow. STOLEN SHEEP. WELLINGTON, August 20. Concurrent sentences of 18 months’ reformative detention and six months’ hard labour were imposed by Mr Justice Smith, in the Supreme Court, on Charles James Robert Scott, 42, farm manager, on three charges of sheep-stealing. The stolen sheep were some that strayed on to the property from h neighbour, and some that were the property of prisoner’s employer. KAIMAI SEAMAN KILLED. WESTPORT, August 19. W. Rigg, single, aged 26, of Grafton Road, Auckland, an able seaman on the Kaimai, chartered by the Westport Coal Company, was killed this evening when he fell between the ship and the wharf when going aboard. The chief officer heard a splash as Rigg hit the water, and an hour later the body was recovered by the police. It is believed that Rigg was fatally injured when he fell from the wharf.

ALIENS’ COMMITTEE. WELLINGTON, August 20. In a statement regarding the work of the Aliens’ Committee, Mr Mason said that it was naturally attending first to the cases which could most easily be disposed of in Wellington, but certain cases outside had to be bandied, because of their urgency, and the provisional recommendations made were being put into effect; but, in such cases, an opportunity would be given later to the alien to appear in person. The tribunal would later visit other centres. THEFTS FROM CARS. WELLINGTON, August 19. Detention in a Borstal Institution for two years was the sentence imposed by Mr J. L. Stout, in the Magistrate’s Court to-day on Clifford Herbert Denham, aged 19, a lorry driver, who was previously convicted on eight charges of stealing goods from cars. A similar sentence was imposed on Clarence Sigurd Pearson, aged 20, a soldier, who had been convicted on three charges of stealing tools from cars. The Magistrate said that Denham had been convicted for eight different offences, having in his possession goods stolen from eight different cars which were found damaged, three of them being run into the sea. FIRE ALARM “JOKE” WELLINGTON, August'2o. A false fire alarm given by a young man, according to his own statement to the police, as a joke while he was under the influence of liquor, led to his being fined £5 by Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. He was Keith Murray, a machinist, and he did not appear. Sub-Inspector G. H. Lambert said that the matter was serious. At 11.24 p.m. on July 27 a call to MacDonald Crescent was received by the fire brigade by telephone. Machines were sent to the street and it was found that the alarm was false. Inquiries' led to the defendant being interviewed. He admitted the offence, and said he was drunk at the time and thought it a good joke. A constable read Murray’s statement to the police, in which he admitted ringing the fire brigade from the house of a friend just before leaving it. The friend knew nothing of the telephone call.