DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 May 1941, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

[per press association.] BABY GIRL DROWNED. DUNEDIN, May 21

Patricia Dolan, aged three, daughter of Dunedin residents, .was drowned in the Molyneux River at Clydevale, yesterday. The child, who had been'visiting, was playing on the bank with an older child, and slipped into the river. The body was recovered near the 'scene.

PRISONERS SENTENCED. WANGANUI, May 21. At the Supreme Court, Harry Joseph Abbott Lomax, found guilty of bigamy in Taihape, was ordered to come up for sentence within _ two years, and to pay the costs of the prosecution. Pip Katene, labourer, Nukumaru, for theft from a dwelling, and four charges of forgery, was admitted to probation for three years. BREACH OF PROMISE. HAMILTON, May 20. A claim for £250 damages for breach of promise to marry was heard before Mr Justice Johnston and a jury of four in the Supreme Court at Hamilton, the plaintiff being Melba Pearl Pennell (Mr J. F. Strang) and the defendant William Benjamin Pascoe, Air Force technician (Mr F. D. Sargent). The jury found that the defendant had repudiated his promise to marry, and returned a verdict in faVour of plaintiff for £5O. Mr Sargent's motion for a noirsuit was disallowed, and judgment* was entered for plaintiff for the amount awarded. WORE UNIFORM UNLAWFULLY PALMERSTON N„ May 20. Two charges of unlawfully wearing military uniform were preferred against Murray Beresford Roberts, aged 21, single, " formerly a housemaster at Feilding Agricultural School, at the Feilding Magistrate's Court. Roberts pleaded guilty. The police stated that the records showed when the American Clipper visited New Zealand on one occasion Roberts represented himself /as a member of the crew. On another occasion ho led people to believe that he was a member of some secret service, find was investigating movements of a German. In January last he purchased a military uniform and led people to believe that he was an officer. His counsel said Roberts was of a nervous disposition. He never sought to impose on the military authorities and had only anticipated securing a commission.

The Magistrate, in fining Roberts £5 on each charge, said that this was the maximum provided in the act, which he thought in war time was inadequate, and not commensurate with Ihe seriousness of the offence.