LOCAL NEWS

Grey River Argus, 19 August 1949, Page 4

LOCAL NEWS

The road between Stafford and Dillmanscown was closed yesterday as a result of the Stafford Creek bridge being out of order. The bridge will be closed to traffic until further notice.

At a meeting at Dunedin last night Mr R. G. Brickell, a civil engineer employed by the Ministry of Works, was selceted as National Party candidate for North Dunedin at the general election.—-Press Assn.

At last evening’s meeting of the Greymouth Borough Council, the Mayor, Mr F. F. Boustridge and Crs. G. R. Harker and J. E.| Stokes were appointed to the Local Milk • Committee. Cr H. Hutchinson and Mr D. Pankhurst were nominated as the council’s representatives on the Board of Governors of the Greymouth Technical High School.

Airborne for not more than a few seconds at mid-day, a Dominie plane on the Dunedin Airways run, suddenly plummeted yesterday and hit the Invercargill airfield on an even keel. The plane skidded upon landing, and was brought to a standstill within a chain of a ditch bordering the field. There were five passengers for Christchurch and Wellington, but none was hurt. They hardly realised what had happened. The port motor cut out soon after the plane was airborne. The cause of the defect was not made known. —Press Assn.

The New Zealand national income has increased by two per cent, over the past year, and the purchasing power of the currency in which that income is expressed has increased also, said Rt. Hon. W. Nash last night. The figures (based for all years except part only of the latest year on currency at its former exchange value of £125 N.Z. equals £lOO sterling) are: 1938-39, 194 million; 1943-44, £327 million; 1946-47, £365 million; 1947-48, £4ll million; 1948-49 (provisional), £419 million.

The first meeting of the Dominion' Council of the National Party since its annual Dominion conference was opened in Wellington yesterday, several new delegates attending for the first time. In a welcome to the delegates, the president, Mr W. J. Sim, said the political situation appeared to be particularly favourable from the National Party’s point of view. He reported that the party’s organisation was in a high state of efficiency. The council will also meet today.—P.A.

Thomas Henr-- Reid, aged 22, a labourer, appeared before Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court at Christchurch yesterday for sentence on a charge of theft at Greymouth of a suitcase and £llO in money, the property of James Saunders, a sideshow proprietor. His - Honour said that Reid’s case was a difficult one. He had been convicted on three charges of theft when only a youth and was at present serving a sentence for the unlawful conversion of a motor-car. He was ordered to be detained for reformative purposes for a period of 18 months.

During July the Greymouth abattoirs handled: Cows 44 (54), bullocks 178 (17), sheep 542 (501), lambs 52 (24), pigs 24 (31), calves 10 (41. The figures shown in brackets were those for the corresponding month last year. The following were received from the Canterbury freezing works in addition to the quantity killed locally. Large cattle 41, pigs 26, sheep 452 and lambs 122.

Alwyn Walton, aged 29, a cook, appeared before Mr Justice Northcroit at the Supreme Court, Christchurch, yesterday, on a charge of disposing oi the dead body of a child with intent to conceal the fact that she hact given birth to the child. Counsel for accused, Mr B. J. Drake, said that it was a sad and extremely difficult case. “The event would never have happened had the prisoner been acquainted with the various social services available to women at such times. This case should bring to the notice or women in similar circum ■ stances that there are these social services and there should be an end to such cases,” concluded counsel. His Honour said that what counsel had said was justified, and he thougnt it proper to accede to counsel’s plea. Enougn had been done to vindicate the law. In view of the experiences through which the prisoner had passed, and her having been in custody for some time, he thought juswould be done if he ordered Walton to come un for sentence if ualieci upon within six months.

A customer in a Wellington restaurant recently round a cockroach in a oowi of soup that he had been served. A complaint was made, and a visit was maae ro the premises by an inspector. In the Magistrates Court yesterday the inspector related how he visited the premises of the Coffee Pot Restaurant on Lambton Quay on July 27, and found cockroaches on iiiv! - wims oi the kitchen and in food bins. Behind one bin he found several colonies of cockroaches, and tins of xood on shelves were so thickly covered with cockroaches that it was impossible to read the labels and to ascertain what food the tins contained. The inspector alleged that the restaurant proprietor. Jack Karageorge, grabped him by the arm and pushed him towards the door, and then flung the inspector’s hat and satchel on the floor, and told him to get out? “As I turned round, he had a small knife with a sharp point in his hand,” the inspector said. Karageorge, who faced two charges of hindering sanitary inspectors in the course of their work, said, in evidence, that cockroaches had come in .boxes of food that he purchased from a wholesaler. There were not more tnan “a couple of dozen cockroaches”. Karageorge alleged that the inspector had told lies about the affair. The •magistrate, Mr J. R. Herd. S,.M. saif there had been no corroboration of the inspector’s allegations of “knife pulling” but there had definitely been some hindrance on Karageorge’s part. A fine of £2 was. imposed on one of the charges. The other was dismissed. —P.A.