NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9045, 17 May 1915, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

C. Edwards, an employee at the Working Men’s Club, -who was admitted to the hospital on Eriday, suffering from scalds, is reported to be progressing favourably. Common jurors summoned to attend the Supremo Court at 11 a.m. to-day are notified that they will not be required until Thursday nest, at 10.30 a.m. '

The Maheno, which arrived at Auckland at 8 o’clock yesterday morning from Sydney, brought an English mail via, Suez, and an Australian mail dated Sydney,- May 12th. The southern portions of the mails will arrive at Wellington at 2.40 this afternoon by the Main Trunk express. A number 'of the Auckland Harbour Board’s works are nearing completion, and the engineer has reported that unless further works are started there will be difficulty iu keeping all the present staff employed. The chairman of the board, Mr H. D. Heather, states that the hoard desires to retain all its employees, and, with this in view, he is bringing a proposal before tihe hoard in committee this week, which ought to ensure employment for the men for some time to come.

The Ballance Dairy Company so far this season has distributed over £56,000' to suppliers, the payment for the past month’s butter-fat being Is 2d per pound. Information; received locally (states a message from Pahiatua) from a reputable London firm states that at the time of writing the Imperial authorities were considering the advisability of including butter iu the rations for troops in place of margarine, owing to the latter not possessing the necessary keeping qualities. ; A Nelson paper reports a gold rush at the Howard river, where there are bow about 80 men engaged on different claims. 'The locality of the rush is a tributary of the Howard, known as Louie’s Greek, about three miles up the river. 1 Men 1 have been working 'the vicinity for about the last fifteen months with varying success, and within the past month or two a gradual rush has set in. It is reported that several of the men have obtained yood gold, including a three-ounce nugget, which had been found there by a lucky gold-seeker. ; The members of the Wanganui District Educational Institute recently nominated six candidates as delegates to the annual conference of the N.Z. Educational Institute at Wellington in July next. : As only three delegates were needed a vote of financial members was taken with, the following result.—-Mr D. W. Low, Palmerston A., 78; Mr Jas. Aitkon, Wanganui, 73; Mr T. Thomas, Eltham, 72; Mr J. J. O’Reilly, Westmere, 63; Mr J. K. Law, Aramoho, 42; Miss M. Moore, Feilding, 30. The firsv three on the list are therefore elected.

At All Saints’: Church, Kilbirnie, yesterday morning, a parade of the Kilbirnie and Halaitai sections of Senior Cadets, Boy Scouts/ arid National Reserve was held. There were good masters in each case, and the church was filled. The Rev. H. G. Blackburne preached a stirring sermon from the text “Be strong, and of courage,” exhorting his hearers- to remember that out of the present troublous times there may come better conditions of fraternity among the nations; and that it was the duty of alTto 'do their share, whether at tho front or at home to aid in the overthrow of the worldly powers of reaction and destruction as typified in Prussian militarism.

The first club night of the 1915 session was held by the Wellington Orphans’ Club on Saturday evening in the Masonic Hall. The Hon. A. L. Herdman presided, and there were with him on tho platform Colonel Collins, Captain Cardale; Dr Purdie, and the Mayor {Mr J. P, Luke). There was a large attendance of members. The orchestra was under the baton of Signor Moschini, and rendered several selections most acceptably. Vocal and elocutionary items were given, by Messrs Allen (Auckland)/ Houston, Eiby, J. Culford Bell, Hamilton Hodges, Moschini, Allwright, Exton, the Rev. H. Hunt, and the Orphan Quartette. The chairman delivered an interesting speech on tho position of tho war, which is reported elsewhere. “The Apo and the Man” was the title of an interesting lecture delivered by Mr H. E. Holland, under the auspices of the Wellington branch of the Social Demociatic Party, at Everybody’s Theatre last night. Mr P. Fraser was in tho chair. In the coarse of his remarks Mr Holland made some remarkable assertions appertaining to the anatomy of man. He stated that there were over 500 muscles in the body, and it was common knowledge to medical students that a 1 number of infants were born with tails. Speaking upon tho question of teeth, the lecturer said that it was quite possible for tho future generations to be toothless, taking into account the early decay of teeth in New Zealand, Touching upon the habits and vices of apes, the speaker said that the monkey showed, up in striking contrast to mankind. For instance, once an ape had become intoxicated with alcohol ho could not bo induced to take it again after having suffered tho pains and penalties of Ins indulgence—-which showed an intellectual triumph over his brother-man.

Soldiers’ week-end telegrams addressed to Great Britain arc from today to ko charged at tho rate ot eight pence per wcrd, the .same as ordinary week-end messages. There is no minimum charge for those messages.

“I ask for time to *»y,” requested a man in the Magistrate’s Court on Saturday who had just been fined 10s for drunkenness. “Time to pay,” exclaimed the clerk of tho couro, why, ho had £2B on him when arrested." Needless to say, the request was not granted.

Julius Holtz, a well-known resident of Karori. was found dead in bed at his homo in McKenzie terrace on Friday. Deceased, who was 73 years of age. had been ailing for some time, and death is believed to be due to heart failure. An inquest will/ be held this afternoon.

Shortly after 6 o’clock last evening Customs officer Jackson searched a foreign member of the crow of the steamer Invertay as he was coming ashore at the King's wharf, and discovered ten tins of opium in his possession. '’The man will bo charged at the Magistrate’s Court this morning with having attempted to smuggle opium. At, Auckland £IOOO worth of opium was discovered in the vessel’s bunkers.

An unpleasant experience befol Mrs Silks, an elderly lady residing in Sages road, on Saturday. While, doing some work in tho house early in the morning she slipped down some steps, and on moving, the pain was so severe that she had to lie in the one position until a visitor called in tho evening, there being no one tc hear her calls. She was attended to by Dr Sandstein, who had her removed to the hospital, where she was found to be suffering from a compound fracture of the left below the knee. At a late hour last night she was reported to he progressing favourably.

The quarterly meeting of the Public Service Superannuation Board was held last week. An application by a contributor to be allowed to count railway service could not be granted, such service being debarred by law. Retiring allowances were granted to eighteen' contributors by reason, of age or length of .service, aggregating £1595 8s per annum. Five contributors, retired as medically unfit for duty, were granted 1 annual allowances amounting to a total of £360 Is. Seven widows and ten children were granted the statutory allowances, totalling £2ob per annum.

It is desired that the working conditions of shed-hands should ho made uniform'over tile whole of Hew Zealand, and with this end in view an effort is to be made to; make the dispute, which comes before the Arbitration Court in July, a Dominion one instead of a district dispute. If this is done there will bo no necessity for the matter to come before the Conciliation Council in each' centre. A deputation to. the Now Zealand Shearers’ Union is to wait on. the Prime Minister (the Hon. W. F. Massey) Jo lay the case before him,: and it is hoped' that a Dominion award will be obtainable.

• The decision of the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) on the motion for a new trial in the Waikato land case, Ramsay MoDougall v. J. W. Chapman, was given in the Supreme Court on Saturday. The ground of the motion was that false evidence .had been given by the defendant and his witnesses. Mr T. M. Wilford, with Mr W. Perry, appeared in support of the motion, and Mr C. P. Skorrott, K.C., with Mr C. W. Tringharn, for the defendant. His Honour held that there had been false evidence for the defence. Tho evidence was on a collateral issue, but it affected the credibility of witnesses, and it must be hold that the jury was influenced. The motion for a new trial was granted, and tho question of costs was reserved for the court on the second trial.

Shortly after midday yesterday smoke issuing from the windows above Wallace and Gibson’s clothier shop, No.’Bo, Willis street, drew tho attention of pedestrians and the alarm was given. An entrance was forced into the rooms of Oliver and .Walker, tailors, and a large electric pressing iron, / which had evidently been left switched on all night, was red hot, and had burnt a hole through the bench and fallen on to the floor. The fire was soon suppressed by a chemical lire extinguisher. . Wallace and. Gibson’s stock in the room underneath was damaged to the extent of about £5 through the water .soaking through tho floor. The building, which is owned by Mr H. Wallace, is insured for £1250 in the Commercial Union Office, while the stock in tho shop is insured for £3OOO in the National Guardian and London, Liverpool and Globe offices. ■

Complaints had boon made for some little time past by tramway conductors that tickets apparently loft in their boxes had vanished. The leakage became so serious that a complaint was made to tho police, and Detective-Ser-geant Lewis took the matter in hand. As a result of his inquiries a young tramway conductor named Alfred Gilbert Wallace, twenty-eight years of age, was charged before Mr D. G. A. Cooper, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court on Saturday, that on divers ■ dates between April 10th and May 14th, he stole 1200 tram tickets of a value of £5, the property of the Wellington Corporation Tramways. Accused was represented by Mr A. 11. Hindmarsh, and pleaded guilty. Chief-Detective Boddain explained that the modus operand! of the accused was that either whilst coming home or going to work he would. remove tickets from other conductors’ boxes whilst .they were engaged in their duties of collecting fares. These he would later sell when he went on duty himself. Tho thefts wore particularly mean, because not only did they throw suspicion on every other conductor, but, more than that, the conductors had to make up the deficits out of their own pockets. Accused was a married man with two children, and had hitherto borne a good character. Mr Hindmarsh submitted that the case was a suitable one for probation. For his wife’s and children’s sake lie should not be sent to gaol, whore there was a prospect of him becoming a hardened criminal. The man had borne an excellent character hitherto, as would be testified to by Mr W. H. Morton, city engineer, who had told counsel that he had found no fault with the man. Mr Cooper : “Is that so, Mr Morton?” Mr Morton: “That, is so, sir.” His Worship, after remarking that the thefts were mean, said that on account of his wife and children ho would not send Wallace to gaol, but would admit him to probation for six months, on condition that the deficiencies were immediately made up. This, accused’s counsel said, would be donee '