Arrested man admits crime

Gisborne, January 30: The police are engaged today in a systematic search of the countryside for evidence relating to the crime. In addition to the local police a number of outside detectives have been engaged, and reinforcements are coming from Auckland and Wellington. The police to-night left for Matawai, 42 miles from Gisborne, and Inspector Hutton and Detective McLeod arrested a man named Robert Herbert Scott, 33 years of age, on a farm between Matawai and Motu. In a statement to the police the accused admitted the outrage and murder. The police and the prisoner returned to Gisborne at 1.50am.

 

The latest advice with regard to artificial limbs for ex-soldiers received by the secretary (Mr A.C. Laing) of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association is to the effect that as the outcome of Sir Donald McGavin’s visit to England a supply of the most up-to-date artificial limbs will shortly be available for the dominion’s 900 disabled ex-soldiers. Mr M.T. Ryan, who is the chief fitter attached to one of the leading artificial limb factories in England (and who incidentally was the first New Zealander serving in the British army to be wounded in the war), sailed by the Corinthic on December 23 for the purpose of taking measurements of all limbless men in New Zealand, and of instructing those employed in the Government Workshops in the repair of artificial limbs. There was some suggestion that the Government should install a plant for the manufacture of the limbs in New Zealand, but after consideration it was found that it was more economical to have the limbs made in England with expert labour, and where, too, expensive machinery is available. The arrangement is that the limbs will be supplied to the New Zealand Government at the same price as paid by the British Ministry of Pensions.

 

To the younger generation of Dunedin people mention of the sport of curling is the cause more of wonderment than of anything else. But once, curling was a well-established sport in Dunedin, and among its enthusiasts were Mr Thomas Brydone, "father of the freezing industry," and the Hon Thomas Fergus. Away back in 1884 Mr D. Baxter, a Princes street merchant, presented a cup for the sport, and contests were held on a specially-prepared pond in Woodhaugh. The first winner was J. McNeill, and after that J. Anderson. After a comparatively short existence, the club’s activities in Dunedin diminished, and the contests for the cup were commenced among Central Otago clubs in 1900.

 

The entrance to the Otira tunnel will within a week or two be the setting for a long-awaited ceremony, in which the Hon J.G. Coates will fill a dual role. As Minister in charge of the Public Works Department, he will hand over the control of the tunnel to the Railway Department, of which he is the Minister in charge. He will give with one hand that which he will accept with the other. Although the tunnel was opened in August, the Department of Public Works, which had charge of the construction work, has up to now maintained the tunnel and imposed special rates on passengers and traffic using the same. The desire is general that the Railway Department should take over, as it is promised that rates then will be lower. — ODT, 31.1.1924