NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3519, 23 August 1921, Page 25

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Advice has been received by Sir Francis Bell from Air Massey that iie will leave Liverpool on August 25 and Vancouver on ►September 10. Patrick John Butler, aged 21, a clerk employed in the State Coal office, was j arrested at Auckland on a charge of stealing j £2033 4s 4d. Butler was brought before j tho magistrate and remanded till August 26. It is stated that the money has been \ recovered. i At the Auckland Court Jack Ercy, proprietor of a restaurant, was fined £4O, and Charles Thomas Beamish, his assistant, £lO j for sly grog-selling. Evidence was given of a sale to detectives, long after hotel hours, beer being sold at 2s per bottle and whisky at 17s 6d. An elderly man named F. G. Young, formerly a resident of Hastings, was admitted to Nelson Hospital in a grave condition, suffering from a cerebral azure. Ho spent tho night in the Botanic Gardens In the open air, his illness being mistaken for I drunkenness by some passers-by. j The lion. I). 11. Guthrie performed the opening ceremony in connection with the cooperative dairy factory on Tiratu soldier j settlement, near Dannevirke. the first soldier settlement co-operative factory in the do- ; minion. The scheme was financed by the i Repatriation Board, which granted a loan of £SOOO a£ the rate of £’3oo per soldier. Replying to a very large deputation representing the .Auckland Hydro-electric League, the Hon. J. G. Coates stud the Arapuni scheme must be a commercial uudertakhig. < )nce started it. must be carried to completion. He would not start until he saw the financial position clear. -As to the probable date, lie could not say, pending (lie return of Mr Massey. A fire at Waipiro Bay destroyed the premises of Kirk (storekeeper) and Garronton (baker), the only businesses except die hotel, billiard room, and smithy which survived the lire of .July 29, when damage to the extent of £29,000 was caused. The insurances in the present case amount to £4OOO. About £I4OO worth of Kirk’s stock was salvaged by a bucket brigade. As a. result of the representations made by the New Zealand Farmers’ Union Executive, the department inis decided to amend the regulations so as to exempt farmers from the necessity of applying for licenses for the storage of benzine under certain 0011j diiions. No license will be required if ; proper storage is provided, and the amount of benzine or other- explosive limited in accordance with the acreage of the property concerned. The offer of the Canterbury Progress League to maintain the daily morning delivery of rural mails during the period of the railway cut has been declined by the Postal Department pending further consideration. The league, which had arranged to complete the service of inward and outward mails for all districts affected, was advised that the department is unable to accept the offer. The Acting Prime Minister, Sir Francis Bell, has made it clear that the Government cannot do more than it is doing to relieve unemployment in the dominion. In the. course of a telegram to a local body which applied for assistance Sir Francis said : “The Government is already employing as many men as funds permit, and has strained its finances to the utmost. Local authorities must meet the position by using local funds to find work for local unemployed.” A summary of the work done to date by the War Pensions Medical Appeal Board j ha.s been supplied by the Minister of Dei fence, Sir R. Heaton Rhode**. The appeals j dealt, with are 198, being 194 from soldiers | and four from dependents. These have been 1 disposed of as follows: —Appeals from I soldiers —dismissed. 147; increased. 10; pre--1 viously cancelled, now reinstated. 4; new i grant*. 3; pensions made permanent at i present rate. 2: reduced. 11; withdrawn, i 15; appeal did not lie. 1; referred to War j Pensions Board. 1. Appeals from dependents —dismissed, 3; granted (to widow) 1.