BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Evening Star, Issue 3860, 8 July 1875, Page 3

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

t Invercargill, July 8. Some excitement has been caused here by the sudden death, from pneumonia, of W. Henderson, the driver o? the mail coach between Invercargill and Balclutha. It seems that on Tuesday night, white delirious, the deceased escaped from the hospital, and ran some distance aimosfc in a state of nudity. He was picked up on the Riverton road by Mr Rollinshaw, a commercial traveller, and brought back in a buggy. The inquest will be held this afternoon

.. ~ w „ . . Auckland, July 7. At the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency’s local meeting, held to-day, the Chairman spoke satisfactorily of the Company’s largely increased business and prospects. The Hon. James Williams was re-elected Director and Mr Browning Colonial Auditor. ’ James Conley, a waterman, his wife, and a young girl, were remanded to-day,on a charge of arson, with intent to defiaad t be New Zea-

land Insurance Company. The fire was discovered m their house last night, having commenced in a box of old clothes and rags saturated with kerosene. Another fire was lit on the top of the drawers, and other combustibles prepared for lighting in the back room. The fire was extinguished after burning the linings of the house. All the accused were absent when the fire was discovered but a little girl, who made contradictory statements as to the origin of the fire. The building was insured for L2OO. . Christchurch, July 8, In the Supremo Court this morning, Charles James, late treasurer of an Oddfellows’ Lodge here, who was charged with larceny as a bailee of the lodge funds, was acquitted. Judge Williams said the indictment could not be sustained, as no instructions had been given to the prisoner to pay the particular amount mentioned in the indictment into the Bank. He said the Crown Prosecutor was not to blame for the acquittal of the prisoner, as iu the present state of the law the treasurer of a Friendly Society could rob such society without rendering himself liable to imprisonment. {From our own Correspondents.)

Christchurch, July 7. The Court was occupied all day with the trial of F. Pavitt, for embezzlement of moneys the property of the Church property trustees. He was found guilty on two counts of the indictment. A point of law was reserved for the judgment of the Court of Appeal. Mr Joynt, the prisoner's counsel, applied to have his client admitted to bail; but the Judge peremptorily refused the application. The prisoner, it is understood, will plead guilty to the other indictments, the same point being reserved. July 8. Pavitt was brought up this morning. Mr Joynt, his counsel, requested the Judge not to postpone sentence, and withdrew the objections which were to go to the Court of Appeal. The prisoner then pleaded guilty to a fresh indictment, and was sentenced to five years on each charge, mating ten in alb Wellington, July 8. It has transpired that the relations between Sir Julius Vogel and Dr Featherston are not such as the interests of the Colony require. Dr Featherston treats Sir Julius’s instructions cavalierly, and lacks official reticence. Some curious memoranda will be laid before Parliament.

Queenstown, July 8. Mr Green, Secretary of Works, accompanied by the Provincial Engineer, made a flying visit of inspection to this district. The visit met with approval. No formal deputation waited on them, nor were any promises attempted to be extorted.

A most extraordinary discovery has been made of a number of recent robberies, Smythe, a carpenter, is the perpetrator. Buttel’s property and some of Powell’s missing things, for which one person served a sentence (they having been supposed to have been stolen by her), wore found. These petty larcenies were beiug continued systematically, Auckland, July 7. In the Supreme Court to-day Thomas Edwards was charged with having shot at, with intent to do bodily harm to, John Tobey at the Thames. The prisoner pleaded not guilty, but stated that he snot the prisoner below the knee in his own defence. He intended to wound him slightly, because he had injured him. The prisoner then withdrew the plea of not guilty, and pleaded guilty. He said his wife had run away to Auckland from him. He then made a prisoner of Tobey, and went to look after his wife. When he found her she promised to come back and live with him, provided he released Tobey. He did so, but two or three days afterwards she again bolted, and he found her with one of Tobey’s men. He got her home again. He had now a business at Ohinemuri; he was a packer, and made it up with his wife to start afresh, and open a boarding house. Tobey one day passed, and said he would be one with him. His wife then sent him for some blankets ; he was absent for five ihinutes, and when he returned she was gone, without her hat. He searched for her in every direction, and after travelling five miles from Kati Kati met Tobey •with his wife and youngest child; he abused his wife, and also entreated her to return home for her five children’s sake. She did so, but said, “If John Tobey comes here I will encourage him, and if you don’t like it, you must.” He (Edwards) went and bought a pistol, not knowing what Tobey would do. He went afterwards to his whare and called on him to come out. Edwards went on to say; “I said to Tobey that he was not man enough to come out. He took up a tomahawk, and I held the pistol towards him, aud said, ‘ I am noc going to kill you, Jack, but only to wound you.’ I fired a shot at him in the log.” John Tobey, the prosecutor, was then called. He s wore that he never induced the woman to go with him ; she always followed him, and he kept her with him. The Judge, addressing the pjisoner, said, “You appear to have suffered a grievous wrong at the hands of the prosecutor —the greatest wrong one man can do another—and I am not surprised at a man taking the law into his own hapds under such circumstances ; but the law gives you no excuse. Had you committed the act in the heat of the moment, when you found your wife with the prosecutor, you would have had the law on your own side. I am bound to vindicate the law, and therefore sentence you to one month’s imprisonment.” A singular accident is reported. Robert Cameron, owner of the brig Sea Spray, was in in the hold, when a largo lump of stone ballast, thrown from above, knocked him down. The men continued pitching in tho ballast till the man was half-buried before the accident was discovered, Cameron is recovering.