DOMINION EVENTS.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 25 March 1924, Page 6

DOMINION EVENTS.

Pei Pres* Association —Copyright. WELLINGTON, March 24. Last year the Minister of Public Works decided, as an experiment, to call tenders for three sections of the East Coast railway, totalling 18 miles 18 chains. It was stipulated that the work should be completed within three years from March 1924. Tenders have now closed and competition has been keen. The Minister is satisfied with the way the matter has developed. It is understood that big English and Australian firms, as well as New Zealand contractors have submitted prices. The Minister states that the Government would not consider the letting of a contract unless the best tender received was entirely satisfactory, both as to price and guarantee of performance of the contract. , AUCKLAND, March 24. A furniture factory owned by C. W. Mason, and an office connected with Mrs S. Crozier’s coal and firewood business, were destroyed by fire at Devenport on Sunday night. A fire at Northcote destroyed a store and the four roomed residence of Mr and Mrs Heaton, who with their children escaped with a small quantity of clothing. There were two previous out- | breaks in the same premises on Janj nary 12 and 13, with slight damage. The circumstances lead to the conclusion that at least last night’s fire was due to the operations of burglars. GISBORNE, March 24.

During a heavy thunderstorm on Saturday evening a team of eight horses, driven by a waggoner, Thomas Nicholls, near Tiniroto, took fright and plunged over a twenty feet bank at a bridge approach. The body of Nicholls was discovered next afternoon in a hole in the bed of the creek, where the carcases of three of the horses were also found. GISBORNE, March 24.

At the inquest on Peter Jex Blake, the Coroner found that death resulted from a fracture of the skull caused by a motor car going over a bank, but there was no evidence to show how the car came to leave the road.

John Leslie Lionel Spence, manager of the Waipaoa Station, said the deceased had been employed drafting cattle all Friday flora 5 a.m. and they spent the evening at a dance at Gisborne, leaving on the return at 3 a.m. on Saturday. Witness drove part of the distance, when he changed places’ with the deceased. On the journey witness went to sleep and the first thing he knew was when the car hit a tree going down the bank. He was partially stunned, but came to and found his companion in a dying condition. Witness thought deceased must have dosed at the wheel, as he had done, having been up 24 hours without sleep or rest. AUCKLAND, March 24.

A motor accident at Archill, which resulted in the death of Seymour Elmsley Gordon, occurred at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Gordon, who was a machanic, employed by the Seabrook, Fowlds Coy., was driving round a corner when the ear capsized, pinning the' occupants underneath. Gordon was unconscious when extricated, and died in the hospital two hours later. Miss Fountain, a daughter of Mr Dudley Fountain, aged 20, is suffering from general injuries. Neville Hopkins, the third occupant, su/cred abrasions, which were dressed at the hospital, after which he returned home. CHRISTCHURCH, March 24. Henry Richard Savage, labourer, 24 years, married, shot himself in the chest at Sqfton on Saturday evening. Savage was before the Court on February 25, when a separation order was granted his wife (.who has two young children), on the grounds ot consistent cruelty, and failing to maintain. , Savage continued to molest his wife at her father’s residence, and she took proceedings against him, and he was to have appeared at Court to-day. i On Saturday he borrowed a shot-gun from a neighbour, and shot himself in the front room of his father’s house, and expired a few minutes after he was found.