LOCAL AND GENERAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 77, 13 March 1911, Page 5

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Work was recommenced at Napier this morning with the stone crusher. It will provide a large amount of material for repairing the Napier roads.

Swimmers are reminded that the Napier Catholic Club’s Swimming Sports take place to-morrow evening. The entries are numerous, I and a good evening’s sport should i be the result. ; About two hundred people attended the funeral of Mr. and Mrs. J Harry Wright’s little daughter on; Saturday, at Havelock North. In-{ eluded in this numoer were all the j employees of Messrs. Phillips.: Wright and Co., Hastings. I The racing fraternity of Hawke’s Bay will be interested to learn that' Mr. G. P. Donnelly’s “Gold Seal” will start for the Grand National, to be run at Liverpool on 24th inst I The New Zealander will carry 9.11. The top weight is 12.2 and the low- ; est is 9st. i The ladder on which a man was J standing while fixing a gas mantle outside of Reardon and Wright’s shop, Napier, on Saturday evening., slipped and crashed through one <»f' the plate glass windows. The man fortunately escaped without injury. The amount of the Customs duties collected in Napier for last week are £1199’18 4. surtax £26 17.-. beer duty £49 11.3, and other sums £2l' 3 11. making a total of £1296'15/1., The previous week’s figures are as, follows: —Customs duties £2414, 15 3, surtax £52 5/3, beer duty £361 5 '3. other sums £27/12/7; total £2530/18/4. 1

Owing to several fresh cases of scarlet fever, the Paki Paki school is still closed. On Easter Monday, at Te Pohue, a sports gathering will be held, and a large attendance is anticipated. The organisers of the picnic and sports to be held at Farndon Park on Wednesday next in honour yf the Feast of St. Patrick wish it to be distinctly understood that rhe gathering is not to be exclusively Roman Catholic, nor is it to be exclusively Irish. Visitors will r e cordially welcomed. Preparations ere well in hand, and an enjoyable curing is being looked forward to. It is now practically certain (says the Auckland “Herald”) that Government House will be ready for occupation by the end of the month. The installation of the electric light, which has delayed the work, will be proceeded with in a few days, after which the work will be pushed on rapidly. The Governor is at present at Rotorua, and will come to Auckland as soon as Government House is ready for his reception. The final item in Barton Bros, programme last Saturday evening was the buck-jumping horse, and considerable excitement was caused. Two local riders presente i themselves as competitors for the £1 prize, which was offered to anyone who could ride the buckjumper for one minute. The first man was thrown, but the second (Mr. 800 Nesbett, of Petone) after some difficulty in mounting, secured a firm seat and rode round the ring, amid the cheers of a large audience. The £1 was presented to him, and Mr. Barton stated that it was the first time any man had ridden the horse in New Zealand. Next week the

circus will return to Napier, and a performance will be given, and the funds obtained be given to the HO3- ( pital. “Have you anything to say why the sentence of the Court should not be passed upon you ?” asked the registrar of Joseph Sweeney when he appeared at the Dunedin Supreme Court on Tuesday morning for sentence upon three charges of housebreaking. “Yes. I have,” answered Sweeney. “I would like to be sent to the Invercargill Gaol to learn to read and write.” The particulars as laid before the Judge by Mr. Fraser, K.C., Crown Solicitor, were that in February last Sweeney broke into three places in the Blacks district —the residences of Andrew Morton (Lauder), John Robert Clare (Omakau), and Thomas Graham (Omakau) —and stole therefrom tobacco, clothing, money, etc. ; and tnat Sweeney had been previously sentenced for theft at Manaia , Wanganui, Christchurch, and Dunedin, his last sentence being two years’ imprisonment. He was a native of Australia, aged twenty-seven years, and had been out of gaol only a month when he committed these house-breakings at Blacks. He was a dull type of offender. Mr. Justice Williams said : This seems to me to be just the sort of case for reformative treatment. Prisoner’s previous career shows that he wants a disciplinary course. All I can determine is the limit to which he can be detained. His Honor then sentenced Sweeney to imprisonment at Invercargill for a period not exceeding five years.— “Dunedin Star.”