DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1940, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

[per press association.] INDECENT DOCUMENT WELLINGTON, September 20. Allan Albert Hartneady, staff manager, pleaded guilty to sending an indecent document through the post, and was fined £lO. A letter was sent to a youth.. HILLSIDE EMPLOYEES DUNEDIN, September" 19. A mass meeting of 1000 Hillside workshop employees, carried the following resolution: — “That the Government’s decision in regard to the wages increase be accepted; and further, we request the Government to appoint workers’ representatives on the Price Tribunal.” GAMING CHARGES HAMILTON, September 19. A police raid on the first day of the Avondale races had a sequel to-day in the Magistrate’s Court, when four men faced charges of operating common gaming houses. Christopher Howe Nicholson, aged 43, a bookmaker, and Byron Baumberg, aged 43, a bookmaker, were each fined £25. William Harrop, aged 42, a salesman, was fined £25. The case against A. E. Graham, a hairdresser, of Frankton, was adjourned. TUNNEL WORKER KILLED. WAIROA, September 20. The lower hydro-electric development scheme at Piripaua, Waikare- i rnoana, has been the scene of another fatality, the victim being Charles Storey, married. He was in charge of concreting operations in the tunnel. It appears that he stepped in front of a locomotive which was engaged in drawing trucks of concrete from the tunnel mouth to the face, where the concreting operations were in progress. Storey died on the way to the hospital. MAORI DROWNED. WAIMATE, September 19. A well-known Maori of Morven, Walter Tumaru, aged 50, was drowned in the Willowbridge stream at Mr W. Fletcher’s property to-day. The body was found by Mr John Abraham about 5 o’clock.

Tumaru was apparently crossing the stream by walking across a fallen willow log, a recognised crossing place, when he slipped, his left leg catching a branch and holding him under the water. In the position in which the body was found he had no hope of pulling his head and shoulders out of the water. Tumaru was married, with a large family. SPIDER IDENTIFIED WELLINGTON, September 19. A strange parcel was received in 'a Wellington newspaper office this week. It was a tin containing a coalblack spider, big as a half-crown, alive and annoyed, but definitely pleased to see somebody ,on whom he might vent his irritation at his tumbled journey through the post. Under separate cover there was a letter from Greytown, explaining that the finder of the spider had a number in his garden and was anxious to learn about its diet and habits. He said also that an insect from the same burrow was enclosed, but this was no longer so; the spider had lunched in transit. The spider was identified by the Dominion Museum entomologist, Mr. J. T. Salmon, as Pdrrothele Antipodia, one of New Zealand’s spiders, and capable of giving a. noxious bite when roused. This spider is common in parts of New Zealand, - including Wellington. It builds a somewhat shapeless mesh web, centring round a tunnel of silk, often lining a natural hole or cranny, extending under log or stone, or lining a burrow in the ground. It fives omnivorously on whatever insects trample on the outskirts of its web, rushing out with great alacrity and seizing them.