NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3330, 9 January 1918, Page 24

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A young man, George Onslow Hughes, was fined £25 for betting in Queen street, Auckland. The estimated value of the land given by Mr George Hunter, M.P., for the use of soldiers is not less than £30,000. A man who had been living with a woman for 18 years has been fined £5 at Auckland for registering as a single man. The State Parliament of New South Wales will assemble on January 29, when a Bill fixing 70 years as the retiring age of a judge will be introduced. Advice has been received that George Lcggett, a well-known Mount Somers farmer, 38 years of age, married, with two children, shot himself on the ,4'th in his woolshed. Advice has been received from Bristol that several shipments of phoney recently shipped by the New Zealand Co-operative Honev Producers' Association have been sold at £144) per ton. On a charge of betting in a billiard saloon, Thomas Melrose, described as a wharf labourer carrying on bookmaking as a side line, was fined £2O at Auckland. For bookmaking while employed - ' in an hotel bar, Leslie Stebbing was fined £3O. The fourth Government valuation of wool at Wnngarrai for this season was concluded on the 4th. Somo 9000-Jbales were dealt "with. On the whole the wool was we'l grown and fairly clear of seed, and was in better condition than last year. In " the court at Ohristchurch Percival John Edwards and Walter Henry Robert M'Gcorge, pleaded guilty to wilfully setting fire to two dwellings in Sydenham, the property of Thomas Russell and Mary Lynch respectively, and were committed for sentence.

The sharpest earthquake experienced for many years occurred at Inveroavgill at 3.15 on tho 2nd. Tho direction was from north to south, and its duration was five sreonds. Buildings were shaken and clocks stopped, but no damage is reported. Tho annual conference of the Women Teachers' Association affirmed that classes

should bo limited to 40 pupils; that kindergartens should form part of the national - scheme of education ; that a dominion scheme of sick pay should be introduced and better provision should be made for the teaching of children of retarded mental The Hon. A. M. Rivers states that the vulue of orders placed by the Munitions Supplies Department during tho calendar

year of 1917 was jBl, 150,000, distributed as follows:—Wellington (including Nelson and Blenheim), £549,000; Otago and Southland, £265.000 ; ' Auckland, £170,000; Canterbury, £166,000. Advice has been received by Mr Myers that permission has been granted by the Imperial authorities for the shipment to New Zealand of the hoofs and studs required in wool dumping. Twenty-five thousand bales of the new season's wool have already been delivered into the Auckland stores, the weather having been exceptionally favourable for shearing. At Auckland on the 4th inst. fines were imposed for illegal bookmaking on Frederick J. Kernott £3O and Joseph George Rees £3O on each of three charges. John* Weston, with previous conviotions (three charges), was fined £200; George Henry Newton (three charges), £6O; Edward George Lowe, £3O j John Martin, £3O; William Chas. Stephens £3O ; Dioko Fredolovick, £6O. The total fines amounted to £690.

A seaplane from tho Auckland Flying Sohool, which has been making passenger flights at Napier since Boxing Day, was darnaged in toe harbour on the Ist during a high wind. The reversing gear of the pilot launch carried away while she was attempting to tow the seaplane to a more sheltered anchorage. The seaplane was blown alongside the wharf, and damag-e was done to the wings and. other parts. Later it was hauled on to the beach. The damage is' estimated at over £SOO. Subscriptions taken up locally to cover the cost of the repair* already amount to over £250.