NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2131, 22 December 1880, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND.

WELLINGTON, December 22. Imperial Pensioners. A meeting of Imperial pensioners has bees held to consider the question of paying a stamp duty in giving receipts for the payment of regular instalments of money received by them. A committee was appointed to consider the question. NAPIEB, December 22. District Prize FiringThe Napier Artillery fired for the district prizes this morning, the highest scores being c —Boss, 74 ; Garry, 66; Drain, 64; Pulford, 56. Sixteen competed. Children on Railway LinesEight children were fined at the Resident Magistrate’s Court one shilling for trespassing on the railway line. An accident occurred there lately from this canse. DUNEDIN, December 22. VolunteeringIn the district prize firing for rifles Jones of Waikari made 71, Brooks of North Dunedin 69, Smaill of Clutha and Fairley of Waikari 68 each. Ministerial MovementsThe Colonial Secretary returns to Wellington on Monday, Mr Oliver remaining over the holidays. Obituary. Major Jones, late manager of the Bank of New Zealand at Nelson, is dead. INVERCARGILL, December 22. A Doctor in TroubleWith regard to Dr. J. A. Moffat, charged at the Supreme Court with manslaughter in connection with a case of child birth, the jury being unable to agree to a verdict, were locked up all night. This morning they returned a verdict of “ Guilty,” and the accused was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard labor. AUCKLAND, December 21. Driscoll v Norwich Insurance Company. The case of Michael Driscoll v Norwich Insurance Company came on in Chambers before Mr Justice Gillies. The action is being brought for the recovery of £l5O upon an insurance policy. Plaintiff was owner of an hotel at the Thames which was burnt down several months ago. and hod been insured with the Norwich Union in two amounts, viz., £SO and £l5O. The company at once disputed payment of the former sum, claiming that the premium had not been renewed. Plaintiff brought an action in the District Court and obtained a verdict. Then the company disputed the larger amount, and the result was the institution of the present proceedings, which are for settlement of issnes and fixing the trial. The defence alleges inter alia that the claim is a fraudulent one, that plaintiff burnt down his hotel, and that no issue of a receipt for the last premium precludes him from recovering the insurance money. His Honor remarked that no issue of a receipt by tbe defendant

for money received could not be made a valid defence, even although they had formerly ‘Sustained wrong. It was a kind of defence which no respectable company would resort to. The issues, as proposed by the plaintiff, were settled, and the trial fixed to taka place during the approaching sessions of the Circuit Court.

Malpractices in Sale of WoolHitherto there has been very little resorting of wool down here after it was sold at auction, and cheats, which have been perpetrated, have not been discovered until after the wool arrived in London, where no prooeedings could bo taken hero against offenders. This year, however, a different policy is being pursued. Several large purchasers are having nil hales and packages opened after the sale, the wool taken wholly out, carefully examined and re-sorted. This work has brought to fight a greater degree of iniquity than was over imagined to exist. So bad are some of the evil practices which have already been detected, that some of the original sellers have had to come to such terms as were satisfactory to buyers. In one case the packing of a number of bales of wool was so carefully and systematically done that no doubt could exist as to the intentions of the vendor. RacingThe racehorses per Bingarooma arrived in good condition. Sale of BrigantineThe brigantine Magellan Oloud was sold to-day for £550. NAPIER, December 21. The late Chief TarehaThe old chief Tareha is to have a military funeral, the Government bearing the expense, and also paying the passages of Natives from Wairoa and other places. TIM ABU, December 21. Another Paper DefunctThe “Evening Telegraph ” ceased publication to-night. INYEROABGILL, December 21. Charge against a Doctor. * The Supreme Court resumed to-day, when the charge of manslaughter against Dr. J. A. Moffatt, formerly of Winton, was gone into. Borne months ago, accused was called in to attend a woman named Cameron in child bed, and the prosecution alleged that culpable negligence on bis part caused her death. The hearing of the charge occupied all day, and at 11 o’clock to-night the foreman of the jury came into Court and announced that they were unable to agree. Judge Williams accordingly ordered them to be locked up ' until half-past eight to-morrow morning, 1 when, if they had not agreed, he would dis- : charge them. [peom cue own oobsespokdent. j WELLINGTON, December 21. Sale of Waimate Plains. The final sale of village settlement and small farm allotments at the Waimate Plains was completed yesterday. No fewer that 114 1 applications were received at Hawera and 1 fifty-three at Patea. Only four deferred pay- j ments sections are available for application as r . small farms at Manaia out of twenty-three j which were opened ; at Otakeiho there are t eleven out of twenty opened; while at ] Opunake only one section is left for disposal, s Four sections within the village of Otakeiho were also taken up at prices ranging from £l6 i to £24 per acre. The Manaia small farm lands J were opened at £6 per acre, and those at j Otakeiho at £5. In the case of section 110 at t Manaia, containing thirty-six acres, there were < no fewer than thirty-eight applicants. It is i considered that this keen competition for the t small farm and village settlement allotments - augurs well for the actual settlement of the - plains by farmers, as the land has not been ] bought merely for speculating purposes. It should beexplained that the sections for which i thirty-eight applications were made will not i go to auction, but will be allotted by lot among the applicants at the upset price. The - adjoining section brought £l9 per acre at ( auction, but the Government desire to en- i courage settlement rather than screw out the highest possible prices. ] The Murderer Tui. ' I am informed that at a meeting of the j Executive Council at Government House today at noon, the Governor presiding, _ and the ( Premier, Colonial Treasurer, Minister of ( Justice, and Native Minister being present, ] the case of the murderer Tuhi came formally 3 before the Council, and the whole circumstances were carefully considered, with a view of ascertaining whether anything called for interference with the course of , the law. It was decided that there was ( nothing in the circumstances of the case that ] justified any interposition on the part of the j Crown, and it was determined that the law , should take its course, and the sentence of ( death be duly executed. The necessary warrant has been issued to the sheriff, who is ] accordingly required by law to fix a date for j the execution, such date to be within seven days from that on which he receives the ] death warrant. As only three days intervene j before Christmas, it is thought probable that the prisoner will not be hanged until after i Boxing Day, which would leave only Tuesday , next available for the execution, , Contemplated Release of Maori Prisoners. I have authority for stating that it has been j decided to release another batch of Maori i prisoners almost immediately. The prisoners to be set free will be Natives from the Bast i Coast, who were inveigled by Te Whiti into , the illegal actions for which they have since been detained. The Native Minister and Mr Farris will proceed South on Thursday next in the Hinemoa, and select the prisoners who are to be released. It is not known what number will be set at liberty, but it will probably be about twenty-five. The discharged Natives will be brought up at once in the Hinemoa, and conveyed to the East Coast, where they will bo landed, and allowed to return to their homes. It is hoped that they will take warning by their recent lessons against acting in defiance of the law. The prisoners who were previously released have since behaved irreproachably, and similar favorable results ora expected from the proceeding now contemplated. The Charge against WarepaI learn on official authority that the Stella leaves for the Chatham Islands to-morrow to bring down the witnesses in the murder « case against the Native Warepa, who is under committal for trial charged with killing his European wife.