NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLV, Issue 10430, 7 November 1919, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

The annual sports meeting in connection with Wellington College will be held on the college grounds to-day, commencing at 10.30 a.m. This funo tion is most popular, especially with the ladies, and given a fine day there should bo a record gathering. All old boys and their friends arc invited to attend. Further evidence was heard in the Supremo Court yesterday in respect to tho charge against Patrick Murphy, a fireman, of indecently assaulting (. lad of 15 years of age in the Thistle Inn Hotel on September loth. Air P. S. K. Macassey prosecuted and Mr 11. F. O’Leary represented the prisoner. The jury retired at 3.15 p ru. and. returned two hours later with a verdict of not guilty. Prisoner was discharged. A Press Association message from Sydney states that a meeting of the Veterinary Association discussed tho question of getting .into closer touch with New Zealand. It was stated that it was recently observed that tho New Zealand Agricultural Department, when requiring vetorinaria.ns, showed a tendency to advertise in England rather than in Australia. It was decided to communicate with tho New Zealand Department, asking for equal opportunities for Australian graduates. Sufficient coal had been shifted from the lower No. 3 hold of tho steamer City of Winchester to the ’tween deck yesterday '.to ascertain what structural damage had been received by the vessel, and it was found that the fire had not caused any damage in that hold. Tho shifting of tho coal to the ’tween deck was being completed last evening. It is understood that a special rate of pay will bo given tho watorsiders who aro to bo engaged in shifting meat from tho insulatea No. 2 boldi in which C. 0.2 gas was forced. A definition of the low of assault was given by Air Justice T-erdman in tho Supremo Court at Christchurch. His Honour said that in the old days it was usual to talk about assault and battery. The assault meant the lifting of the hand, and tho battery meant the actual striking of the blow. Therefore, if a man simply lifted his hand, that could bo hold to constitute assault. If a man had a revolver in his possession and pointed it at another that was an assault. The Act referred to assault as tile act of intentionally applying force to the person of another, directly or indirectly, or attempting or threatening by any act or gesture to apply such force to the person of another. Questioned as to his means, a welldressed Maori, defendant in a civil case called on in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, said he had tried dairy farming but could not make it pay. Ho had thirty or forty acres of land; most of it had been leased. He received about £2O net- month for milk, but as he was married and had four children ho could not keep the farm and family going on that. He was receiving money from the Public Trustee, but that went to pay for a house he was trying to purchase. He had paid either 80s or 60s for the annual rent per acre for some land and either 8s or 16s—he wasn’t sure which—for other land. The cows .also were leased. Ho had given Up farming and was now working on weekly wages.

Charged with the theft of a motorcar valued at £4lO, a man named Frederick Marine Summers was yesterday brought betoro tho magistrate, Mr E. Page. Chief Detective Boddam said accused had only been arrested the previous night, and tho police had not been able to go thoroughly into the case. A remand to the 12th inst. was therefore applied for. Accused asked for bail, stating he was employed on home service, and had two children depending on him. Chief Detective Boddam: “I am not so sure about bail, Your Worship. If it is granted I must ask that it bo substantial. It is alleged that the accused stole the motor-car, and damaged it to the extent of over £IOO. I understand that he intends to plead guilty. As to his abode—when he has his hat on, that’s his house.” The magistrate granted the remand and refused bail.

In tho Supremo Court yesterday Sir Kobert Stout,, tho Chief Justice, delivered judgment in the case of the Official Assignee v. Mrs Walker, wife of John W.- Walker, a bankrupt storekeeper who had been in business at Ormonclvillo. Tho Assignee sought to set aside a settlement of property made by tho bankrupt on his wife prior to tho bankruptcy, on tho ground that such settlement could not hold good unless the settler, at the time of making tho settlement, was able to pay all his debts, without the aid of the property in question. His Honour, after reviewing the facts at length, said he could not say that tho bankrupt had proved to him that hehad money in hand or coming to him sufficient to pay his creditors at the time he made tho settlement of property on his wife. If he had been successful in his stock speculation and farming, no doubt ho would have been able to pay bis creditors, but he was not successful, and His Honour did not think tho Act meant a future ability to pay, but a present ability to pay, and tho making away of that 400 acres of land made his ability less than it was before ho made the gift. Mrs Walker had not proved to his satisfaction that Mr Walker was able to pay all his debts without tho aid of the property settled on her. Ho did not suggest that Mr Walker deliberately meant to injure or defraud his creditors. Ho, no doubt, thought ho would bo able to pay thorn, and that tlip speculation in which he was about to engage as a sheep-farmer would bo successful. But His Honour said ho did not road tho section of tho Act in such a way as to say that tin's jjift was valid, because he was of opinion that tho gift of 400 acres did not leave him able to pay his creditors. Tho debts wore mostly all duo. Ho therefore held that the settlement, as against the Assignee. was void. -Messrs 0. Beere and C. W. Neilsen appeared for tho Assignee, and Mr M. Myers for Mrs Walker.

Detective Tricklebank arrested afireman off the liner Rerauera on a charge of theft of a blanket.

Constable Scott, of the Taranaki street police station, arrested a man yesterday on a charge of theft of an overcoat valued at £5 15s from Hope Bros., Cuba street.

In the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch yesteorday, the charge against Henry Eugene .Street, laundry manager, of wilfully breaking a contract under the War Regulations was concluded. judgment being reserved. —Press Association.

About 310 p.m. yesterday a tramcar, No. 25, bound fjor Newtown, heavily collided wit], a State Coat Department cart in Manners street. The impact shattered glasswork on the car, considerably damaged the side, and practically demolished the left wheel of the coal cart. The street surface was strewn with fragments of glass, firewood and coml. No one received any injury.

There was a general clearing out at Parliament House yesterday, Some members of the House of Representatives and members of the Legislative Council bad loft earlier in the week, but yesterday and the previous day saw the lobbies alive with persons hurrying to and fro with baggage, and by last evening the buildings were almost deserted.

An audience of soldiers who listened to a town-planning lecture at Trentham. military hospital on Wednesday evening allowed keen interest in the subject. Most of the men bad seen townplanning in actual practice while on service abroad, and were therefore able to realise the vast improvement that would be effected if the principles of modern city building were applied in New Zealand- Tito lecturer, Mr A. Leigh Hunt, president of the Greater Wellington Town-Planning Association, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks..

Arrangements have "been completed for Jimmy dabby, the "well-known American boxer, to contest three matches in Now Zealand, and he will shortly arrive from Sydney to fulfil the engagements entered into. His first contest will be at Hastings, where, ho will meet Jack Heency, and ho will then go to Auckland, and meet the Now Zealand heavy-weight champion, Albert Pooley, undoi the auspices oi the Northern Boxing Association. This contest will take place toward the end of November, the exact date not yet being definitely fixed- His third fight will be at Wellington, but details have yet to bo arranged.

The fees charged by medical men were being discussed in the Magistrate's Court yesterday during the hearing of a ease, and it was alleged that the incomes of some doctors were princely. It was suggested that tho plaintiff in tho case was receiving as much as JtoOOO per year. The medico laughed and said: “It is not so. A large proportion of our accounts are not collected.” “AVhy f” queried the solicitor. “Because they are not pressed for,’’ said the witness. “What proportion of unpaid accounts to accounts rendered would there be?’’ was tho next question. “Well," said the witness contemplatively, “if a medical man. gets in fifty per cent, he will, I think, ho satisfied.”

As indicating the fury of the gate m some parts of Otago at the close of last week, a Dunedin paper has been supplied with the following extract Dom a Becks correspondent:—On Friday it blew a living gale here. It was terrible, but at Matakanui they got it much worse. There was .a funeral on. It left the house at 2 o’clock, and reached the cemetery at Omakau at 6, after a terrible experience. The fury of tho gale was so terrific that at one stage 12 men had to hang on to tho hearse to keep it from being blown over. At another stage it held them up for an hour and a quarter. The sides of the hearse were smashed in and two of the wheel broken. The coffin had to be put into a cart to finish the journey. There are gigs and traps on the roadside now, wrecked by the gale.

Some fine feats of typewriting were performed at Melbourne a few days ago by Mr H. S. Blaiadell, who lias twice won the world’s championship contests, and is on a visit to Austratlia for tho purpose of explaining tho methods used by the champion operators in attaining speed and accuracy. Using an ordinary typewrite!—not a special machine, as many are apt to imagine—Mr Blais-dcll gave a number of one-minute demonstrations, first typing 109 words of new matter, then 121 words whilst conversing freely with those about him, and then 133 words of “contest’’'copy. In these tests (says the “Argus”) Air Blaiedell read from tho matter before him, but in the blindfolded exhibition the matter was dictated, and ho recorded 121 words in tho minute; whilst in typing a memorised sentence ho attained a speed of 202 words a minute. As a final effort, and to show tho speed that can be attained on tho machine, ho made 309 impressions du 30 seconds,or an average of a little over 12 impressions a second.

“We have a lot to learn from tho Americans,” v remarked Mr H. P. Mourant, general secretary of the Bank Officers’ Guild, in the course of an address to Christchurch banq officers this week. Ho instanced the case of tho Commonwealth Bank with its accumulated reserves of seventy millions, and contrasted it with another bank — a joint stock bank—which in its 102 years of existence has not got anywhere near that figure. The reason was that Mr Denison Miller, of the Commonwealth Bank, had gone to America, picked up new ideas, and given effect to them. “And ho is going to shako the tar out of tho other banks,” added Mr Mourant. Referring to Mr Bucklctou, general manager of tho Bank of New Zealand, who had also visited America and absorbed American banking ideas, Mr Mourant said that he would not bo surprised if Mr Buckleton did not set a pretty hot pace for the other banks doing business in the Dominion. One of the objects of the Bank Officers’ Guild, Mr Mom-ant said, was to help tho other banks to keep up with the paco Mr Buckleton was going to sot.