COUNTRY NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2109, 8 February 1870, Page 2

COUNTRY NEWS.

From the Tuapeka Times we learn that “ the man Doigh and his wife, who were arrested on the charge of attempting to poison some of Mr Cameron’s family at Schlotel’s Station, Tapanui, have been discharged, Mr Wood, R.M., considering that, however suspicious tho case might appear, he had not sufficient evidence before him to justify- a committal. He commented severely on Mr Cameron’s carelessness in allowing such a dangerous poison as that of arsenic to remain so openly exposed that it could be tampered with by any person about the station. ”

The Tuapeka Races promise to bo the greatest success ever known in the district. At least fifty horses are fully expected to run during the meeting. Harvesting operations are being prosecuted with great energy in the Mount Benger district. The crops are as heavy as they have been for some years. We (Tuapeka Times) are informed that Mr Gammio Maitland Grant’s station, Tapanui, managed by Mr Yaldwin, has changed hands for the sum of L 7,000, the purchaser being Mr Pointer, a gentleman who has a large interest in runs in the south-western portion of the province. The strike of the miners at Naseby still continues to hold as firmly and determinedly as ever, nor does there at present appear any prospect of a speedy and satisfactory arrangement between the miners and the water companies. The only alteration in aspect which the question has assumed since our last issue consists in the getting up of a monster petition to his Honor the Superintendent, praying him to exercise the power vested in him by sec. 3 of reg. xxi. of the late Goldfields Rules and Regulations relative to the abandonment of claims. To this petition no less than 300 signatures were, we have been given to understand, in an incredibly short space of time, appended. The names comprised not only the entire mining population, but the whole of the business men of tho town, with, wc believe, but three exceptions.