LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Thames Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17929, 3 July 1930, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stop Press news appears on page 8

;Nb trace of fireblight, one of the disastrous of diseases to apples and ipears, was found in the Kaikoura district, where alarm was felt some time ago.

During the course of the hearing of a maintenance application in the Oamaru ' Police Court recently, in which the complainant's position 'was that she had divorced her husband on the ground of desertion, counsel for jthe husband's father (who was the ' defendant in the maintenance proceedings) referred to complainant's spending of money on the divorce petition as an unnecessary waste of money on what was really a "pure luxury."

A sedan car was totally destroyed by fire at Maramarua yesterday afternoon, the occupants escaping with difficulty. Apparently the' fire was due to a short circuit in the ignition.

• Some remarkable hauls of flounder and dabs have been brought into Shortland Wharf during the week. Several boats have only made two trips and have each time returned fully loaded, and some of the freezing sheds are full. The ' seine boats are also doing very well and are bringing in big freights of schnapper.

A spectator in the public portion of the Magistrate's Court at Thames this morning was fortunate in not being noticed, as he was smoking a cigarette right through the hearing of the oases.

Notification was received last evening that Barratt' was not available for the visit to Thames of the Waikato hockey team on Saturday, and that D. Jones would take his place iat fullback, and L. Vincent would replace Jones in the half line. No notification has yet been received by the local representative of the Labour Department as to placing men from Thames on jobs on the relief works between Coromandel and ColviUe.

A man named Jack Denton Primstone French, who had been arrested at Hamilton on a "charge of theft of a wireless set valued at £SO from Mr T. M. O'Carroll, of Kopuarahi, and had been remanded to Thames on bail came before the court this morning, and was remanded on the application of the police to appear ?at Thames on July 22, bail in self of £IOO, and one surety of the same amount being granted by Judge McCormick and Mr. J. H. Hodge, J.P., who were on the Bench.

Discussing the increased use of phosphates in Australia in recent years, a leading fertiliser manager In the Commonwealth is reported to have said that the necessity for the British Phosphate Commission to go farther afield from the chief sources of supply—Nauru and Ocean Island —was not due to lack of supplies there. There was an abundance of phosphatic rock at these islands, but owing to loading operations, the quantity required could not always be handled. Supples, consequently, were oftejn drawn from Makaten, Morocco, and other places. Loading operations, the official stated, were gradually being improved at Nauru and Ocean Island, and 2000 tons a day could now be handled.

"When a case concerning a claim tor damage* came before the court this morning, counsel for one of tiie parties said that he had come down from Auckland to appear in the case, but now found that, owing to justices being on the Bench, the case could not be heard. He suggested that either he and the opposing counsel reduce the amount of the claim and counter-claim to bring it within the power of the justices to deal with or endeavour to come to some arrangement. Judge IvicCormick, who presided, stated that he was only a casual justice fox the day, and had, as a matter of fact, other work to do that day, and would be unable to hear the case, but suggested thaicounsel meet and endeavour to arrange a settlement, tf other justices were not available. In any case lie would need the courtroom that da> as he had a sitting of the Native Land Court on.