DOMINION NEWS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 21 December 1923, Page 9

DOMINION NEWS.

By Telegraph—Press Association. ' Deoember 20. Hawera: At the Magistrate’s. Court George Appieyard, William Corcoran, and Timothy Patrick Harris were charged with aiding a barman in the commission of an offence by unlawfully supply--, ing liquor after hours. The Magistrate said the evidence was that the barman did not want to supply the liquor, but the defendants overcame his scruples and persuaded him to break the law. He convicted and fined each £3. Tauranga: An echo of an important application which was' before the Licensing Committee at Tauranga in 1920, for an accommodation license at Matamata, which the committee declined, was heard at the last meeting of the Licensing Committee, when one member reported that the Collector of Customs at Auckland had granted a license to the Paeroa Brewery Company to sell beer at a depot at Matamata in quantities of not less than two gallons. The position is that Section 46 of the Finance Act, 1917, gives the Collector of Customs this power without reference to the Licensing .Committee. On it becoming known that, such a license had been granted certain parties protested to the Minister, who instructed the Collector to cancel tlie license. He endeavoured to do so, but was faced with a Supreme Court action by the Brewery Company, and Mr Justice Stringer ruled that the Collector could grant a license but had no- power to revoke it. Judgment went, therefore, for plaintiff company, with costs, £lO 10s, and disbursements against the Collector.

The position, therefore, is that what the Licensing Committee, declined had been granted in part by the Collector of Customs, without power of supervision or revocation, and without the necessity of consulting the committee. The Licensing Committee passed a resolution that the granting of the license was a reflection on it, and that the Minister be asked to take steps to revoke the power given to Collectors to grant such licenses, whieh should rest only in the Committee, and that it be given power to. cancel the license in question, when it deemed fit.

Dunedin: The inquest has concluded on Thomas Clifford McCrorie, a cyclist who, when riding in a cycle race ,on Saturday, collided with a motor car, receiving a fracture of the skull.. The Coroner, in finding a> verdict of accidental death, said the corner was a dangerous one on account of the high hedge. Unfortunately the guard appointed to watch the corner the race arrived late. Deceased must have been travelling at 18 miles per hour, which was unsafe round such a corner. Cyclists who took part in a race had no right to the road, and took all liability if travelling at an unduly high speed. There was no suggestion that the motor oar was travelling fast, but the driver (Jane Spratt) was on the wrong side, and evidently cut the corner. Auckland: The ratepayers of Devonport sanctioned six loans aggregating £52,500 as follows: Electricity £21,000, waterworks £16,000, sewerage £6OOO, roads £5500, fire station £2500, destructor £ISOO. Archibald Henry Ensor was committed for trial to-day on a charge of bigamy. Accused, in a statement to the police, said that while serving in Egypt with the .Expeditionary Force, he was sent to England to hospital. Later he went to Hornchurch, where he met Margaret Hannah Davies, whom he married in April. 1917, at Rcnford, Essex. He lived with her three days, and was then recalled to camp. He did. not see his wife again, but wrote telling her to address letters to the troopship Tainui, at Plymouth; but though the ship was there for ten days no letters came. The day before he left the Codford camp lie received a letter from the mother of the witness to the marriage stating that his wife had been married before, and that her husband was living in Africa. On the voyage to New Zealand bo met Miss Summerlnll, a passenger by the same boat, and was married to her in July, 1917. There were three sons of the last union. Accused reserved his defence.