DOMINION ITEMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 November 1943, Page 2

DOMINION ITEMS

CHINESE AND OPIUM AUCKLAND, November 23. Opium stated to be of the value of £7OO in the “black market” was exhibited in the Polic Court, to-day, when two Chinese were charged with being found in possession of it on November 12. The accused were Chen Sung Yuan, 28, seaman, and Nee Ah Kari, 26, labourer, both of whom were lined £3O by the Magistrate (Mr. Morling). The fines were paid immediately. The opium was forfeited to the Collector of Customs.

WOOL STORES LABOUR. AUCKLAND, November 23. The employment position in wool stores is becoming progressively worse, said Mr. W. A. Leggett, representing the Manpower Officer, when an appeal by a law clerk against direction to a wool store was heard by the Industrial Manpower Committee, to-day. Fifty per cent, of the appeals lodged against directions to stores succeeded, said Mr. Leggett, whereas the Manpower Officer had hoped for 80 per cent, success in calling up workers. The difficulties of the employers had proved greater than expected. hence a difficult position had arisen.

DEFAULTERS IN BUSH. HAMILTON, November 22. The statement that a gang of military defaulters had been located in heavy bush country some miles from Mangapehi, in the King Country, was made by Senior-Sergeant A. G. McHugh, in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court, to-day, when John Charles Herlihy, aged 26, a labourer, of Te Kuiti, was charged with refusing to answer questions put to him by a 'constable. The charge was ' laid under Regulation 50 of the National Service Emergency Regulations. Senior-Sergeant McHugh said that Herlihy had been sentenced in January last year to two months’ imprisonment for failing to obey lawful commands of a military officer. He had failed to report for duty. When arrested in the bush last Friday, and ever since, he had refused to give his name. , j . j Herlihy admitted his identity in Court. Senior-Sergeant McHugh went on io say that the police had been aware for some time of the existence in the bush behind Pukemako of a camp of men eligible for military service. Efforts had been made to catch the men. In the latest raid one man, Herlihy, had been secured. He and the other occupants of the camp were allegedly hiding to evade military service. . Herliky was ordered to be detained in a defaulters’ camp for the duration of the war.

ARMY AMMUNITION CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 22. “It seems a good reason lor not ordering' suppression, if he is inno-r cent,” said the Magistrate, Mr, Levvey, when Mr. W. R. Lascelles, counsel for William Douglas Crombie, an Army officer, aged 48, applied for the interim suppression of the accused s name. Crombie was charged with the theft, on November 17, of 1261 rounds of .303 ammunition, valued at £l2 18/-, the property of the Army Department. . , ~ x , U Mr. Lascelles saia that he could see no reasonable grounds for believing Crombie to be guilty, and he had a clean record. A remand to November 29 was granted, bail in £5O with one surety

of £5O; being allowed. Bart Huia Dean, Warrant Officer, was remanded to November 29, on charges of the theft, at Sumner, on November 6, of 2000 rounds of Army ammunition, valued at £2O/6/8, and of the theft, at New Brighton, on August 31, 1942 of two tins of custard powder, valued at 7/8, the property of the Army Department. Bail in £5O, with one surety of £5O was allowed. A similar remand, on bail, was in the case of Naylor William Collins Hillary, a soldier, aged 43, who was charged with the theft, on October 20, of 1052 rounds of Army ammunition, valued at £lO/15/-.

PROBATION GRANTED WELLINGTON, November 23 “One wonders why young men like you, who are earning plenty of money, act as you did,” said Judge Smith to David Slasor, 21, and Trenthon Vivian Simmiss, 18, who pleaded guilty to the conversion of a car and a charge of breaking and entering. The depositions showed that they drove the car to' Carterton, broke into a picture theatre.,, and stole goods to the value of £5/12/-. The Judge salct there seemed to be a lot of young men in a similar posilion, earning so much money that they appeared to have lost all sense of values. Mr W. E. Leicester, for Simmiss, said the main trouble was lack of parental control. His father was a Major- overseas and the mother was doing Government work. Mr F. W. Ongley, for Slasor, said he had been lured away from farm work by high wages. He left home at the age of fifteen, had been shipwrecked and bombed, and was upsel as the result of his experiences. The Judge said that each had a previous conviction. He would give them one more chance. The probation period was fixed for two years on the usual conditions, and payment of £3/13/- each to the owner of the car and £5/12/- the value of the goods taken, and 18/2 each towards the costs of the prosecution, ' any earnings above £2/10/- a week to be banked by the Probation Officer, to be used as he thought fit for the furtherance of their welfare..