DOMINION NEWS.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1455, 7 November 1911, Page 5

DOMINION NEWS.

Sj/ Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Yesterday. The C-liief Justice to-day dismissed the appeal of the Fresh Food and Ice Company against its conviction for selling milk adulterated with water. Sir R. Stout said the statute threw the responsibility for the sale of food on the vendor therefore in the absence of mens rea it was not open to the defendant company, unless it proved affirmatively that it had taken all reasonable steps so that the sale would not constitute an offence, or obtain a written warranty as to the article to be sold.

Dunodin, Yesterday. At a meeting held on Saturday of the Otago branch .'of the Amalgamated Society of Railway, Servants, it was resolved "that this meeting enter an emphatic protest against the Minister of' Railways breach of faith in not raising the wages of the lower-paid men to 9s ger day, as foreshadowed by him when dealing with the Budget. The amount granted, 2|d per day to married men only, is an insult and a disgrace to the Dominion." Christchurch, Yesterday. Peter Pender, formerly Inspector of Police, died at Redcliffs yesterday, aged 84. He was in his. youth in the Irish mounted police, and saw service in the Crimea, subsequently assisting in organ, ising the police in Turkey, He came to Victoria in 1856 antl to 'New Zealand in 1862, and was promoted to inspector in 1884., Ho retired in 1902. Peter Pender was. one of the most highly esteemed police officers in the Dominion. His high character and the absence of anything of the police prosecution instinct won for him the entire confidence of t.he Bench and. the public. He was inflexible, but just. He played a difficult part with credit at the aftermath of the Christchurch riots in the late seventies. He figured in many important trials, and when he retired he was presented with innumerable tokens j of the public regard and esteem.