ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14141, 11 June 1920, Page 3

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, who was court-Jiiartialled for desertion and failure to report for military service after being called up in 191 S, was sentenced to live, years' imprisonment with hard labour and loss of citizenship, at Governor's Island, New York Harbour. Jig is the son of the late millionaire brewer of Philadelphia, and his disappearance after having been drafted was attributed to German sympathies. A secret cost price code of Joseph Nichthauser, a Brooklyn haberdasher, deciphered by the agents of the United States Department of .Justice and reading “God help us," has fed to his arrest on a charge of profiteering. The nine letters of the code repre seated numerals, a cipher being indicated by an “x.” The detectives allege that Niehtauser made a net profit of 50 per cent on his invested capital last vear —a violation of the war-time non-profiteering law. Three bottles of whisky, a bottle of mixed cocktails, a quart of gin, and a folding dvinking-eup were ©found on Robert Randloph, a negro, arrested in New York for contravention of the Prohibition laws. Persons who desired a drink (says the St. Louis Star) approached this “walking bar, • who would ceremoniously unbutton his coat and draw the drink from his left breast pocket with the words: “Brother, it comes from my heart! ’ ’ The inconvenience and loss suffered by wheat-growers owing to the shortage of railway trucks was referred to by Mr A. Horsey, president of the Ashburton Agricultural and Pastoral Association at the Association's meeting on Saturday. Mr Horsey said that one farmer carted his wheqt to the railway station on receipt of advice that trucks were available to his order. On arrival the- trucks were not to hand, and the farmer had to engage a traction engine to transport the grain to the nearest store.

A lease for 10,000 years must surely be the “record" for Dunedin, if not for Australasia. It is known that more than one lease for a similar period of time exists in Britain, but it very generally assumed that the political accident which gave New Zealand the 999 years’ lease established a record in tenures in the Dominion. That is not so, however, for in the hands of the Dunedin Lands and Deeds Registry Of-, lice there is a perfectly valid title to a lease for a piece of land for 10,000 years. The lease concerns the right-of-way which separates the Bank of New Zealand premises in Lower High street Dunedin, from the offices of the National Fire ami Marino Insurance Company.

“I’m not responsible for any of my actions,' ’ cheerfully observed a Ijoy of IS when charged’ at Grimsby with theft. He was an inmate of the workhouse, and the master told the Bench that the lad was morally defective. He had the wander lust and absconded about twice a week, while he also robbed the nurses and other people. He was sent to a home for mental defectives, but shammed epileptic fits so cleverly that he deceived the doctors and was returned as an “ unsuitable case" for that institution. “He is a clever mimic and much brighter than he pretends to be," said the master. The Bench bound the boy over so that he might be sent'to an industrial school should he offend again.

A very stormy meeting of flic Queenstown branely of the- Returned Soldiers’ Association took place on Saturday night. The casus belli was, mainly, that a certain resident, alleged fo be of German nationality, attended a public meeting of citizens on May 14th; convened for the purpose of taking Steps to establish a fallen soldiers’ memorial in the Queenstown district; also that he was allowed to take part in the discussion, Iffiving been the seconder of a motion deciding the form the memorial should take, and that he was elected on the committee set up to carry out the proposal. Aftej; much indignation had been expressed by members of the Rotui nod Soldiers’ Association it was resolved to ask the Citizens’ Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Committee to Request the person referred to to resign from the committee.