NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

Otago Witness, Issue 2913, 12 January 1910, Page 53

NEW ZEALAND NEWS ITEMS

AUCKLAND. Important changes are about to be introduced at the Waikato Sanatorium, eight miles from Cambridge. The staff is to be considerably curtailed, and Miss Rochfort, matron for many years, has resigned. The Karere tree-planting camp for consumptives is to be closed. For selling liquor to the Natives of Kawa : in the King Country, in February last, John Oliver was fined in the maximum penalty of j-JSO ; or three months' prisonmenl. HAWKE'S BAY.

Albert Farmery, a youth who, on Christmas Eve, amused himself by throwing a scale weight at a Chinaman, hit: ting him in the face, received a salutary lesson on the 4th, being bound over for 12 months to keep the peace, and fined £5 and costs.

The annual demonstration organised by the friendly societies of Napier and Hastings and surrounding districts in aid of the funds of the Napier Hospital took place at Napier on the 9th in fine though dull weather, and was largely attended. Street collections for the same object were also made on the _ Bth, and a satisfactory total is expected when all the returns are in.

James. M'Govern pleaded "Guilty" on the 10th to eight charges of false pretences in selling tickets for an alleged art union. The prisoner, it appears, obtained a permit to boid an art union, and had sold nearly a thousand tickets. A sentence of three months was imposed on each of three charges, the sentences to be cumulative. WELLINGTON. A return of the shipping activity o£ the port of Wellington during the 12 months ended December 31 shows a movement inwards of ste.-yners whose aggregate tonnage was 2,774,207 tons, and they carried crews numbering 113,417 men. Sailing vessels inwards dtiring the year gave a total tonnage of 14,321 tons, with crews numbering 515. Outwards, the figures were:—Steam, 2,805,831 tons and 112,726 men; sail, 17,117 tons and 555 men. These totals represent the whole shipping activity for the year—coastal, intercolonial, and foreign. WEST COAST. The Westport Harbour Board's new 1000-ton dredge Eileen Ward sailed from Scotland on the 3rd for New Zealand. NELSON. The City Council has prepared a statement from its minute records showing that the Health Department inspected the sewage works nearly the whole time they were in progress, and paid over £3OO for such inspection. It was decided to engage the services of Mr R. Hay, C.E., to investigate and report on the department's report and the resident drainage engineer's reply.. CANTERBURY. John Woebling and Nicholas Woods were this morning fined 40s and costs for being found on the licensed premises of the British Hotel, Lyttelton, after 10 p.m. James Graham, who on December 21 took an irritant poison when he saw_ a constable approaching him to serve hint with a warrant in connection with soma arrears on a maintenance order, pfeaded! guilty to a charge of having attempted to commit suicide, and was ordered to come up for sentence, provided he remains ini the Salvation Army Home for a month. A smart capture was effected _on £ba 6th inst. by Detective Miller, stationed at Lyttelton. About 5 o'clock word was received in Christchurch that a mam wanted on a charge of having forged and uttered a cheque for £IOO on the Eank of New Zealand at Oamaru was believed to be attempting to leave by the Sydney steamer. The information was forwarded to Lyttelton, with the result that Detective Miller found and arrested the wanted mars* It is feared that this season's hop harvest will be very poor, the vines being backwaxd and thin, and the yield consequently small. SOUTHLAND. The vital statistic*} for Invercargili district are as follows, the figures for 1908 hi ■■.. in parentheses:—-For the month of December i* Births, 62 (57); deaths, 17