The Evening Post. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1865. PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. YESTERDAY.

Evening Post, Issue 153, 4 August 1865, Page 2

The Evening Post. FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1865. PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. YESTERDAY.

The Speaker took the chair at five o'clock. The Clerk read the minutes of the previous sitting. Mr. WALLACE presented a petition from Henry Morrow, of this city, praying that he might be enabled to obtain a license for a house erected by him in Willis street. Mr. LUDLAM presented a petition from Richard Bycroft, praying that he might be permitted to purohase 240 acres of 10s. land at Featherston. The PROVINCIAL SECRETARY laid on the table the following returns :— The Provincial Surveyor's report on the hospital. The return of works contracted for in the Wairarapa, The return of moneys expended in the same district during the current year. The return of surveys in that district for the same year. And the return of surveyors employed in tha district.

Mr. BORLASE (for Mr. Hickson) moved that the Hutt Park and Racecourse Bill be committed next day. Agreed to. Mr. BORLASE begged that the consideration of the motions standing in his name, with reference to small farm settlements and grants of land to volunteers, should be postponed until after a decision on his land resolutions had been arrived at. Agreed to. The PROVINCIAL SECRETARY moved that the petition of Francis Robinson, ot Mnnawatu, should be taken into consideration this day. Carried. The PROVINCIAL SECRETARY moved that the petition of Thomas Hugh Cook should be considered this day. Carried. The adjourned debate on Mr. Wallace's resolutions, that in the opinion of this Council there should be a Chief Surveyor whose duties should not only include the supervision of the office duties, but also the duties of surveyor* in the field, was again re-adjourned until Monday. The Hiphwaya Amendment Bill was ordered to be lead a second time on Tuesday. The Wairarapa Hacecourse Bill was ordered to be committed this day. The petition of certain landholders resident in the Warehama and Castle Point District, was ordered to be made an order of the day for this evening. The adjourned debate on Mr. Borlase's land resolutions, was also made an order of the day for this evening. A bill to amend clause 5 of the Harbour Reserves Act, Session VIII., No. 3, and a bill to repeal clause 27 of the Market Act, 1864, so fnr as concerns the city of Wellington, was ordered to be committed this evening. The Manawatu Racecourse Bill was read a third time and passed The House adjourned at half -past eleven till five this evening.

In the House oi! Representatives this evening, Mr. Fitzgerald is to ask '< whether the Government has received any information that one of the Native Chiefs taken prisoner at the Wereroa Pah was personally assanlted and kicked, and put in irons by BrigadierGeneral Waddy, and whether the Government are acquainted with the cirenmstances of such transaction." The Hon. Mr. Weld is this evening to move for leave to bring in a Bill to make further provision for the representation of the people v of New Zealand in the General Assembly. The Wairarapa Mercury, a new weekly paper, " advocating the local interests of the Wairarapa, free from class predilections and' party bias," will shortly be pubdshed at Greytown, under the management of Mr. R. Wakelin. The New Zealand Herald says that arrangements are being made for securing the pres.nce, at the presentation to General Cameron, of the various public bodies, and their taking part in the procession. A rpport was made by the treasurejfcwhich showed that the amount of subscriptions hitherto received is fully adequate to the estimate previously formed ; and some arrangements were formed for completing this part of the proceeding. It is now almost certain that the Lieutenant General will leave for Sydney by the outgoing mail, whose day of departure is to be Tuesday next, in which case the afternoon of Monday will most probably be the time of the presentation. The interesting ceremony is take place in the Albert Barracks. At the Auckland Police Court, on the 24th instant, a well-dressed, respectable looking person, named Alfred Edwards, apparently about twenty nine or thirty years of age, was brought before the presiding magistrate, charged with embezzlement. It would appear that for some time prior to the month of I February, 1863, the prisoner was ledger keeper in a branch of the Bank of New South Wales, at Geelong, Victoria, and was i held in high esteem by the manager and every one with whom he came in contact. In the month above mentioned, however, he absconded from the place, and it was shortly afterwards discovered that he had robbed his employers to the extent of £350. Before information was given to the authorities, he succeeded in securing a berth on board the steamship Great Britain, which immediately afterwards left Melbourne for Liverpool. In the meantime a warrant for his arrest was taken out, and a detective belonging to the j Melbourne Force followed Edwards in the

! first available ship. The Great Britain reached England before the vessel which conveyed the detective officer, and Edwards proceeded to London, where he continued to live on the strength of his Victorian defalcations ; but after the detective's arrival, finding out by some unexplained means or other that the warrant issued at Guelong for his apprehension had been presented to the Home Secretary, Sir George Grey, for endorsation, he tdok his passage in a ship bound fur America, and again eluded his pursuer. The detective followed, but failed to catch his man in the States. B ing hunted about from place to place, Edwards resolved on returning to London, On his return, he took passage by the ship Ulcoat9, which wns about to sail for Auckland, and for another time he imagined himself to be safe from arrest. On coming back to London from America, the detective officer made inquiries at the shipping offices, and learnt that a person signing himself " Alfred Edwards," had departed for Auckland by the Ulcoats. Thinking him to be the same person he was in pursuit of, the detective communicated the facts to the police department in Victoria, and despatched thereto the warrant, with Edwards' carte de visite attached. The warrant was transmitted to Mr. Commissioner Naughton, who, from information received, despatched Constables Clarke and Hond to Matakana, where, as previously stated, the prisoner was arrested and brought to Auckland. ~On the passage to Auckland the prisoner is represented as being a gentlemanly, well conducted person. According to his own story to his fellow passengers, lie was connected with the military escort at Ballarat, and left Victoria to attend a lawsuit in England, in which he was the plaintiff ; but, having lost the action, left for America, and was now returning to Auckland to join his wife and family, who would leave Melb >urne as soon as they learnt that he had landed, binoe his arrival in this province he has gone under the assumed names of Lieutenants Edwards and Edward Fitzroy Etheridgo. He appeared to feel his disgraceful position very acutely when brought before his Worship, and shed tears while the warrant was being read over. He was remanded to Geelong. — New Zealander. Shortly after five o'clock this morning an alarm of fire was given by the ringing of the fire bell, when flames were seen issuing from a vessel in the harbour. The Volunteer Fire Brigade turned out with praiseworthy ala crity. Owing to the timely assistance rendered by the master of the barque European, who had o bserved the flames and sent a boat's crew on board the burning ship, through whose exertions and the energy of an officer of the s.s. Otago, the fire was extinguished. jClie vessel to which the accident occurred 'is the brigantine Cheetah ; the fire originated in the galley and extended to the rigging ; the damage sustained, however, is but trifling!]] Captain Halliday, Harbour Master, with Capt. Moss and several of the Fire Brigade, were on board, aiding and assisting in saving the vessel, the destruction of which was inevitable bad not prompt aid been available.