AUCKLAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3163, 18 August 1881, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

August 18

There is little doubt but that the vessel reported by the natives as wrecked on the coast a few miles south of Kaipara Heads, is the schooner Rona, which usually trades to Lyttleton. She left Auckland in ballast on August Ist, and was due at Kaipara quite a week ago. Further particulars received to-day state that" the Maoris say that the yards, blocks, and one of the anchors, are upon the beacb. The vessel is buried in the sand, all but the copper. The Rona commanded by Capt. Kenneth McKenzie, owner, who has had charge of the vessel since she was built, two and a-half years ago. He has a wife and four children residing at Omarau. The names of the crew are Robert Smith, Neil Carmicbael, Charles Johnson, and W. Eagle. The vessel was insured for £400, only about half her value. Mr D. H. McKenzie owns half the interest. The suicideof Arthur Craig at Church Hill was a very determined one. About half-past two o'clock on Monday morning the neighbors were alarmed by the screaming of deceased's young children, and an alarm of fire. On entering the house they found that Craig had tied his feet to a colonial sofa, on which he was lying ; he had set fire to a quantity of tow which he had collected upon himself. The neighbors tried to pull him from the couch, but he resisted strongly, holding the wooden bars at the head so that they broke away with him. He was then got from the burning couch and laid upon the floor, which is even charred where he lay. Craig died at nine o'clock on Monday, before Dr Edgelow arrived from Hamilton. Deceased was.a widower, having a married daughter living in Auckland ; another daughter, seventeen years old, is living in service at Bell's, Church Hill, and several younger children lived with him in his house.