DOMINION NEWS

Grey River Argus, 17 September 1937, Page 12

DOMINION NEWS

I Per Press Association]. WELLINGTON, September 16. At the inquest on Nancy Watson, a verdict was returned that she was accidentally killed by being crushed under the wheels of a moving train, which she was attempting to board, at Petone railway station. The Coroner remarked that attempting to board moving trains is a dangerous habit. The Minister of Justice (Mr. Mason), in a statement to-day at Wellington, said -the returns of work accomplished to date by all the adjustment commissions under the Mortgagors and Lessees Rehabilitation Act, 1936, showed good progress on the part of ..the Commissions. A less satisfactory feature was that the number of voluntary settlements to date was not so great as had been anticipated. No doubt the number of voluntary settlements would increase as the principles upon which | the commissions worked became beti ter known. He urged that all parties who had applications pending should not wait for their cases to be called on but should immediately get together. with a view to negotiating a settlement, which would then be confirmed by the Commission. A special general meeting of the Society of Civil Engineers last evening, at Wellington, was held to change the name to the N.Z. Institution of Engineers. The matter was submitted to the branches following the annual meeting at Christchurch, and the branches in every case favoured the change. A referendum was held and 80 per cent, of the valid votes were in favour. It is now hoped that engineers who held aloof from the institution because they could not claim, to be civil engineers, will now join up.

TAURANGA, September 15. The twenty-fourth annual conference of the Church of England Men’s Society, opened at Tauranga last night. A service was held at Holy Trinity Church, the preacher being the Bishop of Waikato (Rt. Rev. C. A. Cherrington). Later a business session was held and officers were elected as follows: President, the Bishop of Waiapu (Rt. Rev. H. W. Williams); vice-presidents, Archdeacon Russell (Oamaru), Mr. J. Snell (Wellington); secretary, Mr. C. Goddard; treasurer, Mr. R. Caldwell; auditor, Mr. J. Reaney (Wellington); Dominion council (elected members only), Archdeacon A. L. Hansell (Wellington), E. Rich (Masterton), F. Kempthorne (Wellington), Messrs H. Sergei (Hamilton), A. Robinson (Carterton), and R. Liggins (Wellington). AUCKLAND, September 16. Strong criticism of the proposal to eliminate the factor of negligence in third-party insurance claims as suggested recently by the Minister for Justice (Hon. H. G. R. Mason), was made at a meeting of the council of the Automobile Association (Auckland). It was decided to request the manager of the North Island Motor Union Insurance Company to raise a strenuous objection to the suggested legislation. INVERCARGILL. September 15. When a motorist was driving along the main road from Invercargill to Riverton, near Wright’s Bush, this morning, a missle knocked a large hole in tile windscreen, gashed the driver and his passenger with glass, passed between them, and went through the rear glass. No sound was heard by the motorist, and there was no other car on the road at the time. He stopped the car and got out, but could see no one in the vicinity. If the holes were made by a stone it must have been thrown with tremendous force. A bullet would in ordinary circumstances have made only a small hole. The occurrence has been reported to the police.