NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 29

NEWS IN BRIEF.

In the Masterton Court on the 17tn Arthur Maltby, restaurant-keeper, was lined £25 for keeping liquor for sale in a nolicense district. At a meeting in the Waipukurau Town Hall on the 14th it was decided to request the Minister of Education to establish a district high school in the town. The properties of the Gisborne oil companies have been purchased by Messrs John Clark and W. D. Lysnar, of Gisborne who intend carrying on prospecting for oil. Private advices from Opunake state that several deaths have occurred there _ from cerebro-spinal meningitis. There is no doubt as to the nature of the disease. Reports from Whakatane state that influenza has appeared in the Urewera Country. Over 100 cases are reported. There have been several deaths at Maungapohatu, including the "prophet" Rua. Wm. Love, a hotelkeeper at Ormondville, was fined £5 and 7s costs for exposing liquor for sale during prohibited hours. Four men found on the premises were each lined £2 and costs. At Lyttelton Nora Daley, a barmaid at the Empire Hotel, was fined £5 for permitting shouting. It was stated that she served the liquor under the impression that the anti-shouting law had terminated with the war.

Captain Maclndoe, secretary of the Merchant Service Guild, reports that the' Union Company has offered certain increases, which the guild considers' insufficient. A meeting of members on the 16th appointed a committee to go fully into the matter. Mr C. W. Batten, the president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, has been appointed repatriation officer for the Wellington district, which includes Taranaki, Hawke's Bay, and a part of Gisborne. When the steamer Waverley was approaching Patea from Wellington last Thursday, Captain Brigden sighted a mine about 16 miles south of the river entrance. The ship circled about the mine, and the crew indulged in rifle practice until the mine was- exploded. The manager of the Bridges Pihoi Station, Awakino, where a German mine exploded last week, reports that the low spring tide has disclosed a great hole blown in the reef by the mine; also he has found a piece of mine casing weighing slb in the land adjoining his house. At the Christchurch Court John Joseph Smith, a fireman, was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for the theft of a hat from the cargo of the steamer Kent. The police stated that a large quantity of cargo had been stolen. The articles missing from one case alone were valued at over Mr Francis H. Bur bush, late officer in charge of the Auckland branch of the Discharged Soldiers' Information Department, and Mr H. D. Tonnet, late lieutenant in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, have been appointed district repatriation officers for the Auckland and Otago districts respectively. The Gisborne Woolbrokers' Association has forwarded a protest to the Minister for Imperial Supplies against the shipment from Gisborne of 10G0 bales of scouring wool, which it is contended can be easily handled locally, whilst its shipment elsewhere represents a loss to the Imperial authorities of 10s per bale. In the Supreme Court, Norman Thompson, solicitor, of Hastings, was found guilty of having received £l7B 17s 4d on terms requiring him to account for the same to Gotfried Petrowski, and of fraudulently converting it or part of it to his own use, thereby committing theft. He will be sentenced to-morrow.

The effect of the "pidemic on tram, business in Wellington was rather startling. The four weeks ended December 8 shows a loss of £5559. For several days cars ceased running, and on other days the services were limited. The passengers carried in the period stated dropped from 2,606,246 to 1,541,246. The Manawatu Patriotic Society unanimously approved of the suggestion of the Minister of Defence that girls who are being displaced from various employments by returned soldiers should bo given the opportunity of being trained for work as nurses in soldiers' home and hospitals, thus liberating able-bodied men for productive industries. An enormous shark, measuring 28ft 6in in length, was captured in a net at Kapiti Island, its dimensions w<*rc as follow: 15ft circumference,- jaw 2ft ICin in width. The shark appears to be a new species, with eyes as Jarge as teacups. _ Fishermen have never seen a similar specimen. Professor Kirk has secured a portion of the body to try to identify the animal. A full settlement was reached by the Conciliation Council on 10th in the matter of the application for a new award between the Waihi branch of the South Auckland Engine-drivers' Union and the local mine owners. The* provisions of the old award were accepted, with certain alterations, including an increase all round of Is 3d per day. and an increase in overtime rates. The occupants of bridge's Station, at Pihio, one mile and a-half north of the Awakino Pviver, startled on. the 10th

about 10 o'clock by a sever© explosion, which shattered the windows. This morning fragments of a mine casing were found between the house and the beach. A mine had apparently struck a reef in front of the house, which is 150yds above high water.

A Thames youth, aged about 18, named Charles Sherman, pleaded guilty in the court on the 13th to a charge of forgery committed" at Auckland. The evidence showed that he had passed a forged cheque for £lO in payment of jewellery, which, later on, he pawned. Next day he attempted to pass a cheque for £l2 unsuccessfully. The signature was that of a well-known farmer, and did not oven attempt an imitation, and was rejected by the bank. On Monday the War Regulations governing the sal-) of milk in boroughs came into operation in Wellington. No other place in New Zealand is concerned. The regulations were gazetted in September last, but do not apply except in boroughs "declared" by the Minister of Internal Affairs. On and after Monday, it will be "unlawful for any person, whether as principal, agent, or otherwise (other than the corporation and its servants or agents, etc.): (a) to sell milk, (b) to deliver milk in pursuance of a contract of sale made, whether within tha borough or elsewhere; or (c), to have milk in his possession for sale, save under a license issued in that behalf by the council of tho borough, and in accordance with terms and conditions thereof." The City Council's now scheme will thus operate from Monday next, when the council will have a practical monopoly.