THE PROVINCES.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 183, 9 January 1875, Page 2

THE PROVINCES.

WELLINGTON. ' We extract the following items from our Wellington exchanges:— > The Hon .Mr Sewell and Mrs Sewell intend leaving Wellington for England in the course of; the present month. It is stated that they do not propose to return to New Zealand. • ..„ ... ■-- h ■:■• ■ The Wanganui Herald understands that Mr Booth, Laud Purchase Commissioner, has .been very successful in acquiring some blocks of land from the natives at Otaki.. / ..- A serious accident .occurred on board the Soukar. Amongst her cargo are two locomotives for the Government railways. These weigh seven tons each, and the contract for their discharge into.'the hulk. Omega was taken by Mr Gfannaway, the Government supplying all the gear necessary. The, first locomotive had just been hoisted clear of the hatchway, when the falls gave way, and the ponderous mass fell on the steam Winch, smashing it to atoms. It was little short of a miracle that no One: was hurt. The locomotive how lies across the winch and hatchway, and will rather puzzle the ingenuity of thore concerned to get- fid of it. The damage done to the winch and otherwise is estimated at several hundred pounds. The defective rope was supposed to be Manilla, but examination now shows that there was a very large admixture of flax. A very distressing accident occurred at Master ton on Monday last (says the Standard). A son of Mr B. Chamberlain, aged three and a half years, was ailing, and his father went to Mr Skeet's establishment for medicine, which was given in the form of two p'Owders." Subsequentlythe mother administered one of them, and symptoms of the child being poisoned were at once'manifest. The father Went to Mr Skeet immediately, and enquired what the medicine wag. Mr Skeet perceived that there 'must have been something wrong about the medicine, and looked at the bottle from which he L'*J taken the material for the medipine, and found that he had, by mistake, used strychnia instead of worm powder. The .two bottles . were similar in appearance and apparent contents, and had been somehow misplaced. Mr Skeet at once despatched the father home with an antidote, but the. child, died before it could be administered; 'An inquest was held by the District Coroner yesterday, when the above facts, were elicited; The verdict of the jury was—" That the child died from strychnia, given to it' by its mother in a powder prepared by W. H. Skeet, chemist, in a mistake for worm powder," and a rider was added, stating that in the opinion of the jury deadly poisons should only be kept in bottles having some distinctive and unmisfakeable character.

Mr John Martin, of Wellington, says the Otaki correspondent of the Wanganni Herald, has twice lately paid us a visit, and has now returned to hit home a sadder and a wiser man. Never, I should think, will he be induced lashly to speculate in Wellington upon lands situated at a distance, the exact boundaries or title* of which he had- not previously investigated. It is a loose way of doing business, and will cause sad retrospective reflections. His experience in dealings with natives must be somewhat crude, or he never would have left satisfied that a day's torero would have settled a negotiation. He "rose" upon the price offered by the Government purchasers, and the vendors closed, and he shouted and was jubilant. But the natives had more prices than the one, and before his return with the utu, the Government commissioner! had.

cooked his goose for him, and the late owners were merrily spending the advance which they had received 1)4 the amount ac cepted. ' ■ Brown, of Sandon, is the luckiest of criminals. Many a man gets three or four years' imprisonment for stealing his neighbor's cow, or abstracting the produce ot a potato field, but Browu, of Sandon, is let off with two years after three months' active exertions in the . distribution of valueless cheques amongst the confiding populace of-the inland districts. A small volume of these worthless pieces of paper (which was exhibited in Court) spoke eloquently of. the exploits-; ojt Brown and the singular gullibility of his victims. The case waPj indeed,, a monstrous one, as his Honor characterised it. Upon a capital of ,',158 -3d. --Brown., had traded for six mouths, scattering cheques right and left,,.until, his, liabilities, under this head reached*TßT6o. The Case brought out one -fact very should be; a caution ■s a class* which is by no means limited in the colony, namely, that a man who issues cheques knowing at the time that there is not sufficient money at the bank to meet ! them,' is" ghilty" of a misdemeanor. There are people who think they keep within the pale of the law"'by allowing Ja small balance, no.matter how little, to. remain at tbe.bank, and that they"aYe absolved from ■criminal prosecution, no matter, how many S&equea "they-" fssne' agafifst that ' small v. balance. Mr Justice Johnston has given 'ligutenment on that matter.