DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 March 1941, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

[per press association.]

KILLED BY TRAIN. PALMERSTON N., March 17. William Jones, aged 71, died from injuries suffered when he was struck by an express train at the crossing in the Square this afternoon. Jones, who was walking, waited for one train to pass, but apparently did not see another approaching on a parallel set of rails.

FERTILISER SUPPLIES. AUCKLAND, March 18. As from yesterday, Auckland fertiliser manufacturers reduced deliveries by 5 per cent. An officer of the Fertiliser Managers’ Association said ’the demand for fertilisers was so much in excess of the manufacturing capacity that the industry found it necessary to ration supplies in order to spread deliveries over as many farmers as possible. There is no change in the price.

OUT-PATIENTS’ SERVICE. PALMERSTON N., March 17

After a discussion in. committee, the Palmerston North Hospital Board decided to-day to enter an emphatic protest against the manner m which the agreement was made between the Minister for Health and the Hospital Boards’ Association for out-patient treatment under the Social Security Act, and requesting the association to call a conference so that the proposals could be openly discussed by members of the association at a properly constituted meeting.

CANADIAN PACIFIST. WELLINGTON, March 18

A Canadian named David Donald Evans, employed in the Social Security Department, appealed against military service, as a pacifist. He said that he came to New Zealand, expecting better social conditions than in Canada, where he was unable to get employment for any length of time. He thought New Zealanders were too intelligent to go to war, but found that he was mistaken. He said that he owed no allegiance to anyone or anything, except intelligence. He was prepared to do emergency precautions work, when he considered it intelligent to do so. Decision was reserved.

NOVEL SUICIDE. NAPIER, March 17.

An. episode in which a young child was induced by a woman to pull the trigger of a gun which the woman had placed on a table pointing towards her own head was the subject of an inquest held by the Coroner (Mr. J. Miller). ■ The child, a girl, told the Coroner how, at the instigation of the deceased woman, Muriel Lillian Waldon, she had pulled the trigger on a number of occasions when it had only “clicked.” On another occasion, when the child thought it was unloaded, she had pulled it, as asked by deceased, and it had fired. The Coroner remarked that the woman was of unsound mind, and had killed herself by placing a rifle on the table, and, while standing in front of it, inducing the girl to pull the trigger, the girl herself being entirely innocent, as she was under the belief that the rifle was not loaded.

SHIPPING LOSSES INQUIRY. WELLINGTON, March 17

The Commission appointed to enquire into the circumstances surrounding the loss of certain ships by enemy action, and possible leakages of information from New Zealand, has been sitting continuously for the past six weeks. The personnel of the Commission is Mr. Justice Callan (Chairman), Mr. T. F. Anderson, Captain F. A. Macindoe, Mr. William Perry, M.L.C., and Captain E. Rotherham, R.N.' The Commission has not found it necessary to sit elsewhere than ?<t Wellington and Auckland. Nearly 100 witnesses have been examined, and a great volume of evidence has been taken. The witnesses have included not only survivors from captured ships, but also persons who appeared able to indicate the sources of possible leakage, and useful precautions against it. A great number of useful suggestions have been received in writing from members of the public in various parts of the Dominion. Naturally, it has often happened that the same suggestion has been received from several correspondents. It is expected that the Commission will have completed its task by the end of the present week. Any person having information which may be of use to the Commission is requested to make it available before then. The Commission is sitting daily, at Wellington.