DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1931, Page 5

DOMINION ITEMS.

POST OFFICE BURGLED. [By Telegraph, Per Press Association.) RAETTHI. .March 24. During the week-end the Post Office at Karioe, about ten miles from Ohakune, was broken into. The safe, with between twenty or thirty sterling was rolled out across to the rear of the railway station. It is believed it has been put on a motor truck and carried away. X APT Ell COM M LSSK)NER. NAPIER, March 24. "J am afraid that Legislative compulsion is necessary to complete the job.’’ said ithe Commissioner, Mr J. 8. Barton, S.M., in stressing at last night's meeting of Napier City Council, the importance of all citizens who were refugees, returning to Napier immediately. It is a crying shame that people are staying away as they are doing, Mr Barton added. I do not say that everyone is doing thi* sort of thing, hut there are some cases of n man getting his wages and keeping his wife and family away, living on relief funds. He will receive no Preferential payment. Every Napier citizen living in Wellington or other placed, who eats up a pound of food eats up g, sum that might go toward the restoration of this city. DEATH FROM CONCUSSION'. WHANGaREI, March 24. Graham Finch, the eleven year old son of R, 8. Pinch, surveyor, died at the hospital this morning aa a result of concussion of the brain caused by a fall from a bicycle, which skidded in loose metal. A tragic coincidence is that a few years ago Finch’s little daughter was killed by a motor on her birthday six yearn ago. INQUEST VERDICT. WELLINGTON, March 24. An accident at the New Post Office being erected at Courtenay Place on February 19 by which a rigger named John William Compton received injuriew resulting in his death was the subject of an inquest by Coroner Salek.

The deceased was being carried to the top of the building on a concrete hoist, when one of the steel wires broke, the platform tipped, and Compton was thrown out, falling from a considerable height to.the ground. Evidence given included that of Sailer, senior inspector of scaffolding, employed by the Labour Department, who said there was no sign of the rope being stranded at all. It was practically a clean break. He found nothing in either rope or platform to suggest the cause of the rope breaking. He had never known anything like it before.

The Coroner returned a formal verdict of death from injuries, .the result of a fall. It is impossible to fifty what was the cause of the breaking of the rope. He said It was just one of those accidents' which occurs and for which it is impossible to give a reason. COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE. GISBORNE, March 24. Charged with eight burglaries at Damunirke, Gisborne and Teararoa and with escaping from custody at Wellington, Arthur Victor Jones alias John Scholfield, 23, pleaded guilty and was committed for sentence at Auckland. FOUND DEAD. DUNEDIN. March 24. K a rlv this morning, the body of Percy White, 48, an engine driver, was found lying on a railway track under an open bridge on the main south line. He had put his engine away at 3.50, and left after cleaning it, about an hour later, for his home at Mornington. It is surmised that he slipped on the bridge, falling to the line 20 feet below. BREAKING AND ENTERING. CHRISTCHURCH, March 24. Robert William Deeming, a labourer aged 29, and Ivan Ashley Smith, a painter, aged 26. and Harold Herbert Smith of Kaikourn. n mechanic, wer<y charged at the Magistrate s Court, that on or about March 10 they broke and entered by night the dwelling of Henry Harris of Whitmore St. and committed theft. The police stated that an old man named Harris had been struck down and seriously injured bv the accused when they entered his shop. A rer volver, two batons, rubber gloves and two electric torches were produced ns exhibits. Harris evidenced that he had been grabbed by the throat and gagged with a towel and struck on the head. The case is proceeding. A PROMOTION. AIR A. D. McGAVOCK. WELLINGTON, March 24. Mr A. D. McGavock. assistant Director of Forestry, has been appointed Director vice Phillip Turner, who relinquishes the position at the end of this month. Mr McGavock has been associated with .the Department since 1921. Mr Random. Commissioner of State Forests, said it is not intended to fill the position of assistant director.