INTERPROVINCIAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8697, 16 December 1899, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL

[Pbr Press Association.] WELLINGTON, Yestksday. Mr J, C. Martin, the Public Trustee, has returned from a trip Home. In the Divorce Court a decree nui was grauted in Kraus v. Kraus, wife's petition „ for desertion and adultery. One of the officers wounded in the fighting around Ladysmith was Captain and Adjutant Herbert Fyffe, of the Second Battalion of Gloucestershire Regiment, a brother of Dr Kingston Fyfte, of Wellington. Dr Fyffe to-day received a reassuring cablegram as to liia brother's condition. It has been arranged that the next meeting of the New Zealand Rifle Association will take place early in February on the Wanganui. range, and the programme is practically the same as last year. The Martini rifle will be used at the meeting for the last time in tho colony. I The Shipping and Seamen's Act reI quires owners of vessels, before discharging any seamen incapacitated by illness or accident, to deposit a sura up to £50 for his maintenance, medical expenses, etc. Under this Act Messrs Briscoe, McNeil. . and Company, agents of the s.s, Tolosa, upon which three men were stabbed by tlie boatswain, against Whom a Bill was thrown out by the Grand Jury, were sued to recover expenses in the hospital. The point upon which >the case turned was whother the injuries were received through tho men's own misconduct, and came under the heading of illness, and the Chief Justice decided they did not, with ten guineas costs for defendants, Mr Quick, Chairman of the Conciliation Board, speaking with reference to the question of preference of Unionists, said there was one point overlooked by theme who argued most strongly against the preference. The Act itself was passed in in order to prevent friction between labor nnd capital, and to prevent strikes. , Unions, it should be remembered, existed before that time. The Court, of Arbitration, when it first sat under the presidenoy* of Judge Williams, took into consideration that a Union being strong enough to rule the labor market and by striking to bring about a catastrophe in one and perhaps many branches of labor, inasmuch as the Act "took away power to strike, the Union , should be given some compensation. That compensation took the form of this socalled preference. That was an argument which was never taken into consideration at all. The Act was passed- to p'roteot ■ employers as well as men and the general public. Mr Quick hoped that ere long all employers would form an Association, and then Committees from both sides would deal with many of these disputes in camera . without that publicity being given which was sometimes not desirable. . This Day.The revision of votes recorded at the election of two employers' representative on the Board of Conciliation has resulted. ■< in the displacement of Mr Earnshaw in , favor of Mr Flockton, the sitting member. Captaiu Burton, of the ship Pleiades, who had his certificate suspended, has issued a summons for its; return on. the ... ground of informality in non-receipt of a copy of the statement of the . case, ■ end ;• has obtained judgment, in his favor. > ? A supplement to the Gazette -contains additional regulations under the Old Age ■'.' ' Pensions Act. They relate to income and property atatejtnents, and Maori claimants. " CHHIST6hUECH,'This DAT. • Speaking at a social, to Mr Buddo last night the Hon. J. MoKenzie said all the ■ original Government but himself and Mr Seddon had gone, but in a few days. they would be rejoined by their old colleague Mr Ward. In the course of a short address at Cheviot the Premier said he was astounded to find the district looking so flourishing, and it demonstrated what could be dona ■■ ■' by close settlement. TIMARU, This DAT. John Tait, winchman of the steamer Pukaki, was struck on the head with a - . piece of falling gear, 'and died in the boanital. ... , T, DUNEDINj Yestkbday. 7* Judge Williams gave judgment in the Supreme Court in the case of the Bank of New Zealand v. Logan ' and McKerrow, claim for £583 6s 8d for calls on 175 shares. The defence was a denial that the ■' defendants were shareholders on the date when the call was made. The case turned ,on the construction of section -4 of the ■ Bank of New Zealand Share Guarantee Aot, 1894. Hia Honor held that if the construction contended for by the Bank was correot, as he thought it was, defen- ' dants had never become shareholders.' If „- , the construction contended for by. the defendants was adopted, they had ceased - to be shareholders when the call waa made. On either alternative defendants wero entitled to judgment. • „ To-day.— Thomas Dawson, a member of the North Dunedio Rifles, was charged, at the Police Court with stabbing .Ernest Leah with a bayonet. . .... During the voyage of the barque Oban Bay from New York a seaman' named . ' Brosewater bad au altercation with' a seaman named Murphy, and stabbed him five orjjix times in the head. Brosewater . was confined in' irons till' the vessel's .. arrival here. Murphy's wounds are pot serious.