RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT PORT CHALMERS.

Evening Star, Issue 3975, 20 November 1875, Page 2

RESIDENT M AGISTRATE'S COURT PORT CHALMERS.

Saturday, November 20. (Before T. A. Mansford, Esq., R M.) T) RDNKE ' Ness — James Massey and James Brown were each fined ss. and P-te l - Wieland 10>, wiDi the oustonurv alternatives Disobeying Lawful Commands. John I an articled seaman belonging to the shin Canterbury, was charged with this offence. Captain Anderson deposed that on November 11 prisoner refused, when ordered, to scrub the lee bulwarks, alleging as his reason for refusing that it was his watch bel >w. His conduct on the voyage had been so in-übordinate that he had been

ordered to clean the bulwarks as punishment. In de enc * accused stated that on the afternoon in question, during his watch below, one of the apprentices came to the forecastle and told him the captain wanted him. He immediately went then on deck when he was ordered to go and furl the fore-gallant sail, then the main royal and miz m. and when he came down on deck he was ordered to go up the fore rigging again and take down a rope called the “ Iribh pendant.” which ho did When he returned to the deck the captain asked him if he could not go up a little faster, and on replying

in the negative the captain told him to take a bucket of sand and scrub the lee bnlwaiks, which he refused to do, as it was his wat ih below. The defence not being denied by the captain or the chief officer, who had given corroborative evidence, His Worship said he considered the piisoner had been har hly tieated fdward Ryan, another seaman ’udnnging to the ssrae vessel, was then charged with wilful disobedience of awtul commands from the 2nd to the 4th inst. This case his Wordiip considered fully proved, and sentenced the prisonei to six weeks’ bard labor, and to fo.fei twenty di s'p y.

The New Y' rk ‘Herald’ says the sea serpunt has again made its a pearance on the American coast, and this time m asures >ue hundred and twenty feet. Ev deuce is i> uno on the blood stained pike with which he was stabbed bya sailer.

singular CASE op drowning. 'mono: the passengers who arrived on Mon ■’ay evening hy the Tuaoeka coach was a m;n looked through to Queenstown in the nann- of Thorn •», which, however, is thought to be an alias, Vfter having tea at Kidd’s ho r el, h> •rocended >o the river, accompanied bv leliow-pas-enger named Campbell and a mao •tamed (’oiling, who volunteered to point on: the usu il bathing-place. Arrived at the rivet Co lins warned Thomas repeatedly as to tin dangers of the river, and indicated that fo> safety he should swim up the stream close k, the bank. Heedless of this advice, deceased plunged from a rock out into the s ream,

where the current caught him, and swept him down the river. He was driven close to the opposite bank, where bis companions think he could hj ive got to land had he been sufficiently collected, or desirous to make the attempt. Instead of so doing, however, he attempted to battle his way up-stream again, and was caught in an eddy which carried him down about a hundred yards, where the water breaks into a series of rapids, hopleas for the strongest swimmer. Here the man threw up his In-nds gave one despairing cry, and disappeared from view. Thomas’ actions are described as having been peculiar through out his journey up, which leads to a oelief that he was not altogether in his right mind. From papers found in his clothes it is thought the drowned mm wa« a (ferman, whose father re sides in South tnst ,- alia. He had only arrived in this Colony on th 4vh of the mo-th. The b"dv has not been recovered.—‘Cromwell Argus.’