LATE NEW ZEALAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 960, 5 August 1903, Page 2

LATE NEW ZEALAND.

Per Press [Associationj Wanganui, last night. Tho Conciliation Board sat to-day to hear the butchers’ dispute. Lieut.-Colonsl Sommervillo has been appointed officer in charge of the Votorans’ Home. Christchurch, last night. At tho Supremo Court to day Richmond Hata Momo, who had a heavy list of previous miscellaneous offences against him, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for indecently assaulting a girl two and a-half years old at Kaiapoi. Frank Mason, who through his agent Smale had received about £75 from local storekeepers for parcels of imitation beeswax, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Richard Milner Buchanan, charged with wilfully setting fire to a house, the property of his wife, was found not guilty. At the Magistrate’s Court to-day Robert and William Pitcaithly, quarry owners, were charged by the Halswell Road Board with having broken one of its bye-laws by driving a traction engine over regulation weight on a roarl in the district while taking metal from a quarry, and Mr Harper raised the point that the bye-law was in valid inasmuch as it allowed a discretion to a clerk, who could or could not give permission to use the roads just as he thought fit. The Chief Justice had held in Wellington that there could be no discretion given even to a govering body. Mr Haselden reserved judgment. Invercargill, last night.

At the Police Court, Guiseppe Valli, threshing-mill owner and settler at Nightcaps, was, after a hearing extending over several days, committed for trial on a charge of wilfully setting fire to a stack of oato belonging to a settler named O’Dowd. .Bail was refused, and accused’s counsel said ho would make an- application to a judge on that behalf. Auckland, last night.

Whilst assisting in loading tho steamer Zealandia, a wharf laborer named J. Fox received severe injuries. Ho was down the hold, when a large string of sugar, weighing about a ton, struck his head. So great was the force of the blow that it doubled the man up, and he then fell across the tunnel on his back, the sling bearing him down. When extricated, he complained of his back being hurt, and on examination at the hospital it was found the spine was seriously hurt.