INTERPROVINCIAL TELEGRAMS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 49, 5 January 1877, Page 3

INTERPROVINCIAL TELEGRAMS.

Auckland, January 2. At the Supreme Court to-day, Judge Gillies, in his charge to the Grand Jury, ■cominenetd upon the practice of Magistrates • committing for trial in certain cases. He condemned policemen bringing prosecutions in cases where the police interest did ' not render it necessary. He censured the practice of policemen improperly extracting admissions from prisoners, with the object of obtaining evidence for a prospcution. He commented upon one extraordinary case in which the prisoner had made admissions, had been made to sign them,

and at the Magisterial"inquiry had been placed in the witness box and sworn as to the accuracy of his own confession. His Honor said such evidence was entirely inadmissible.

Draper, on a charge of embezzling moneys of.the, Bible Book Depot, and on four charges of forging receipts, was found guilty. There Vvere 18 other cases to-day. Napier, January 2. About 5 p.m. on Sunday, the house of Mr. Wood, manager of the Bank of New Zealand, at Waipawa, was struck by lightning. The electric fluid entered the building, making an opening in the roof and side of the wall, entered the room whe.re"two children were at tea, struck, a little girl, Mr. Wood's daughter, on the foot, and a boy, Mr. Wood's stepson, on the chest, killing him instantly. The girl was only slightly injured. Mr. Wood was in the conservatory, and was knocked against the wall by the shock, but was not injured, though the paper on the wall was scorched. Wellington, January 2. _ Diptheria is very prevalent. Five children have died in one family alone. (from times own correspondent.) A SMART CAPTURE. A London detective was known to be in Dunedin lately, though what the object of his mission was had not transpired. On the arrival of the ship May Queen from London yesterday, one of the passengers, known as Win. Jackson, and who was accompanied by a lady said to be his wife, was arrested by the officer, Detective Dalton, of the V Division of the London police, on a charge of embezzling money, the property of the Colney Hatch Gas •Company. Jackson, whose real name is Wood, at first denied his identity, but on the detective producing his photograph, he admitted he was the person wanted.