THE Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri TUESDAY, 2nd JUNE, 1874.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1581, 2 June 1874, Page 238

THE Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri TUESDAY, 2nd JUNE, 1874.

The natives have a second time demolished Mr Sutton's house on the disputed land at Mangateretere West. In the Kesident Magistrate's court on Friday, two drankards were fined five shillings. Yesterday morning three more were fined five shillings, and one, for a second offence, was fined double that amount.

In the Resident Magistrate's Court, on Tuesday afternoon, Arthur Perry, able seaman; Samuel Chandler, apprentice ; Thomas Turner, immigrants' cook; and James Crawford, third mate, all belonging to the Sehiehallion, were charged with a series of breaches of the Merchant Shipping Act. As a different series of charges was laid against each individual, and the same string of witnesses was called in support of each charge, the case was wearisome in the extreme, and. lasted the whole afternoon, till nearly 5 p.m. Arthur Perry was charged with drunkenness and with assaulting the captain. It was shown that the captain and mate went into the forecastle, and found him drunk. Seeing the source of the mischief—a black bottle —the captain attempted to confiscate it; and Perry in his desperate efforts to retain the bottle, it was alleged, seized him by the throat. This the accused denied. Samuel Chandler was charged with drunkenness; also with impeding the navigation of the ship by battening the captain and mate down in the forecastle while the vessel lay at anchor. It appeared that while the captain and mate were below engaged in the interview with Perry, some unfriendly hand closed the forecastle hatch and tied it down ; and the lamp below at the same time being extinguished, the master and mate found themselves in darkness and in " durance vile." The mate thumped vigorously at the hatches, and called loudly for deliverance, which was afforded by Pilot Kraeft, who stepped opportunely on board. Chandler denied the offence, and the pilot's evidence only showed that he was standing by the hatch at the time—not that he had closed or fastened it. James Crawford, third mate, was charged with drunkenness and neglect of duty, in having failed to report the rioters to the captain. Turner was charged with drunkenness and refusal to obey orders, having declined to take a turn at the windlass. He pleaded that he had fulfilled all his duties as cook ; that he was not bound to assist in the navigation of the ship, for which work he was also physically unfit. This case was dismissed. The captain pressed all the charges strongly against the accused. To Perry and Crawford he gave a fair character generally speaking. Chandler, he said, was a great blackguard, always giving trouble. Chandler replied that the captain o sired him an old grudge, having once been fined in Sydney for brutally assaulting him on the Circular Quay. In reply to the Court, the captain said that this statement was correct.—The Court found "Chandler, Crawford, and Perry guilty of drunkenness and disobedience to orders, dismissing the more serious charges.— The defendants were each sentenced to four weeks imprisonment with hard labor, - having, in addition, to pay £1 12s, expenses incurred in bringing them ashore,

Our English telegrams, received last night, contain the satisfactory intelligence of an advance in the price of wool, v

On Friday the R.M. Court was occupied the whole morning with a series of civil cases, of no public interest. Reisima r. Hart & M'Kinlay.—Claim of £l7 2s for ferry services, and other work performed. The greater part of the claim was disputed by the defendants, who maintained that the plaintiff had consented to carrry on a verbal arrangement entered into by his predecessor who held charge of the ferry. Plaintiff showed that he had crossed the ferry at all hours of the night for the convenience of defendants, and also that he had ferried over large quantities of wool, which his predecessor had not been called on to do. He disclaimed being bound by another man's verbal arrangement. —Judgment for £ll 2s, and £4 7s costs. Lascellcs v. Rush.—Claim of £lO 4s 2d, solicitor's charges in instituting an action for false imprisonment in the Supreme Court.—Defendant protested that he had never given authority for the case to be taken to the Supreme Court, though Mr Lascelles pressed him to do so. He had only given authority to conduct a case in the Resident Magistrate's Court, and had paid him for his services.—Plaintiff produced his formal authority, with defendant's mark attached, and the Court gave judgmeut for the amount claimed and 19s .costs. Macfarlane v. Hart & M'Kinlay.—Claim of £3 17s for work performed and goods delivered. All the work was done to the defendant's order; but they disputed several items, ob the ground that they acted for a third party. They admitted and had offered £2 ss, which plaintiff had refused to accept. Judgment for £2 6s, without costs. Knowles v. Hague.— Claim of £1 7s Gd. Judgment by default for amount of claim and 9s costs. N. Williams v. Nightingale.— Judgment summons foi £4 4s Id.— Defendant stated that he had money coming to him on Saturday more than sufficient to satisfy the claim. Plaintiff expressed serious doubts as to the correctness of this statement, and the case was adjourned to Monday, his Worship stating that if the defendant was then found to have made a false statement in this respect, he would be committed to prison.

The Poverty Bay Standard, in publishing the opinions of the Auckland press upon its enlargement, quotes as from the Southern Cross, the paragraph in which this paper recorded the circumstance. This, *we presume, is due to the fact that our paragraph was transferred verbatim to the Cross's columns without acknowledgment ; but the editor of the Standard, we imagine, could scarcely have been unaware of the source from which the complimentary paragraph in question was derived. A correspondent of the Poverty Bay Standard, sends " a plea for an addition to the Queen's English " —said proposed addition being the Maori word " meaha." " For the information of any ignorant of that noble tongue," he adds, " I may say it means almost everything, ( I don't care .' 'lt does not matter ;' ' (Jest egalf ' It is a matter of perfect indifference, Et ho c multis aliis; in fact, combined with a shrug of the shoulders, and a scornful curl of the lip, it is about- the most comprehensive and cynical word in that language."—He then breaks into indifferent verse. His effusion extends to five stanzas, two of which we quote : " There is a word, a little word, A duosyllable, Altho' 'tis small, be it observed A great deal by it is inferred And is not hard to spell. " Now is it not expressive just Of all you want to say, A sentence in it is compress'd Of Maori words by far the best. It should be English, eh ?" —•The English language, we imagine, would be little improved by the addition of any such equivocal expressions. The " little word " is not a " duosyllable," and in reality an interrogative sentence, being correctly written " Me aha ?"