TELEGRAMS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19045, 15 December 1923, Page 13

TELEGRAMS.

fPxB U KITED PaESI AsSOCIATIOH.) AUCKLAND, December 14; ■ In the Arbitration Court the widow of David Davies, a labourer employed by tbo tramway department of the City Counoil, waa awarded £4OO by consent of the council on account of the death of her husband, caused by a foil of tar barrels at the quarry. The case, said counsel, was one in which difficulty was experienced in establishing the relationship between the accident *"5 death. It is reported that a section of the Tank piri Company’s coal mine at Huntly haa been sealed in consequence of a tire smouldering there for some time. The men have been drafted to the company's mine at Rotowaro. No further trouble is anticipated in dealing with the fire. • ’ WELLINGTON, December 14. ; The question whether a fruiterer who, for a few weeks prior to Guy Fawke’s Day»:. - stocked and sold fireworks .was entitled to- • keep his shop open after the hoars laid down by the Shops and Offices Act waa 1 decided by Mr Page, S.M., to-day. One i Chinese shop had on Eve occasions been kept open after 6 o’clock. The magistrate said that he was unable to hold that during the period in which the fireyeprfcs were being sold the business of a fruiterer was being exclusively earned on, and the fact that) for many years it had been the custom for Chinese fruiterers to sell fireworks during the few weeks* referred to did not assist defendant. The definition of the word fruiterer did not cover the vending of fireworks, and- on that ground the case waa distinguishable from the case of a chemist who sold a camera during the extended hours provided. A conviction was and a fine of £2 and- costs imposed in the ’ first case, and cm the remaining four defendant was ordered to pay costs. : On the application of counsel the fine was increased to £5 Is, and security for appeal fixed at £2. There were £lO 10a costs. ' Another defendant was fined £2, and two others £3, with costa. CHRISTCHURCH, December 14. , Hugh Owen whs sentenced to 18 months* imprisonment for committing an indecent act, intended to annoy or insult, and to 12 months for theft from the person, the' sentences to be cumulative. It was stated.. that the indecent act was committed while' he was in hospital, for which be. was discharged. He nad previous convictions for vagrancy in Greymouth and Westport. Thomas Willian, a young man said to be not normal, and unable to resist the im*>; pulse to theft, was sentenced to three years* reformative detention for the theft of a friend’s fountain pen. The Crown Prosecutor said he had been a nuisance in the district since childhood. His normal occupation was theft. ASHBURTON, December 14. Ronald Dalton, a prefect in the Ashburton Technical School, journeying by trainfrom his village home at Hinds, picked up' on the carriage floor a fat wallet. Ho' went twice through the train inquiring ifanybody had lost it. A business man, feeling in his pockets, discovered that the wallet waa his. It contained about £IOO. Dalton stubbornly declined to accept a reward. but the owner declares that the boy will hear from him at Christmas.