LAST NIGHT'S NEW ZEALAND NEWS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 1

LAST NIGHT'S NEW ZEALAND NEWS

(Per Pi.3i Association.) f ,• AUCKLAND, last night. .)_. _ The hearing of the charge against the Electrical Tramway Company of breach . of award m connection with the lust strike . was resumed this aftennoon. For the de- . fence, Mr. Hansen, managing director of i the Company, stated that piior to the . j trouble m November last he liad never i ! received any notification from the men . ; that they did not consider it their duty ) to teach learners. The President said .the t court was satisfied that it was/ partly the i duty of n_otorineo«ahd conductors to teach i learners. Cfonrhis .Francis' Alexander, f traffic manager fotthe'Dunedin tramways, s said.-tjiat if Whad received such a letter . as that rectfiWd by Mr. 'Hansen he would i have got the men into his oflice, and if i they had refused to go on teaching learn- . ers be would "h^e diemissed them. This 1 'close.d ;tj}e- evidence. Mr. Cotter, m adI»^ffieeSing the court for the defence urged $ "that there had been cause for dismissal, j The gravity of tlie case lay m the fact . that th. men acted m a body and not in--1 dividually. Had tlje men of a vessel at sea done a; similar' thing it would have been . regard^as'mutiny.. Unless the employi ers'lfad the right : -M- •dismissal m such a V -case theyv'wbuld be powerless. The Hon. . J. A. Tole will address the Court tomorrow morning. The case against the : men will be taken on Monday. The disi pute was adjourned till Tuesday next after several witnesses on behalf of tlie union had been examined. NEW PLYMOUTH, last night. On account of the floods on the Manawatu Company's lino, and the breakdown of a south train near Kai-Iwi, the mail train from Wellington did not reach here till five minutes' fast 10 to-night— two hours and a quarter late. Great interest has been aroused m the bye-election,, for the Taranaki seat, all three •candidates addressing crowded houses. So far as the Land Bill is concerned, the only issue before. the electors is that of reasonable endowments versus no endowments; All the candidates are optional tenure advocates, except that the Government and Independent Liberal candidates favor reasonable areas of Crown land being set aside for the endowments mentioned m the Bill, the balance of Crown land to bo sold on the optional system, while the Opposition candidate (Mr Okey) is opposed to endowment.. It is reported that a hall has been engaged for Mr Massey on, the eve of tlie election, and he may be assisted by Messrs Herries- and Bedford. In that event it is almost certain that a Minister will enter the field. PALMERSTON N., last night. At 10.30 o'clock a fire m Pascal street destroyed an eight- roomed house occupied by Mr T. Ryan and owned by Mr Collinson. Nothing was saved. The . furniture was insured for £350 m the Commercial Union. The insurance on the house was not ascertainable.