LATEST TELEGRAMS.

Kumara Times, Issue 440, 22 February 1878, Page 2

LATEST TELEGRAMS.

[press agency. I

Auckland, February 21. Mr George Collins, formerly a partner with Mr D. M. Luckie, in the Nelson Colonist, has been suffering for some time from' paralysis and .occasionally congestion of the brain and

sleeplessness. Yesterday Mr Collins left the school and .went into fak house j when his wife returned from the school she found him lying on tire bed with his eyes glazed and fixed and his teeth set. An empty tumbler and chloral bottle was found on the table by his bedside. It is supposed that he took a$ overdose by mistake, Christchurch, February 21. Two boxes of American white fish ova, containing 20,000, which were piesented to Canterbury by the Government, arrived by the California mail, but turned out a dead failure, not more than 12 ova out of the 20,000 being alive. Many were already hatched out. Mi* Farr and the Secretary of the Acclimatisation Society are of opinion that there was too much ioe employed, and that the ova was killed by its weight. He telegraphed Dr. Hector, at Port Chalmers, recommending him not to proceed to Lake A nan, near the Bluff (where tfaedoetor proposed to liberate 20,000 ova), without first examining the boxes in his charge. At a largely-attended meeting at Bangiora, a resolution was passed condemning the system of mixed schools. Wellington, February 21. Four Government clerks have been told off to work up the evidence in the case of Frederick Whitaker, late Attorney-General v. George Jones, jun. All papers in connection with land transaction in the Waikato since 1870 are being raked up, and alj original letters in connection with these transactions will be produced ■'•in the Supreme Court by Mr Clarke, Undersecretary Native Department. It.: is said the case will be opened on the first I week in March.

Great efforts are being made on the part of the Customs Department obtain from the Natives a suitable site for a lighthouse at Cape Egmont, New Plymouth, February 21... Major Atkinson addressed-a large meeting of his -constituents, and reviewed: the business of last session exhaustively. He pointed ont how the present Government took their predecessor’s measures ; and that Nir George Grey had promised reductions to the extent of a hundred thousand pounds, but bad failed to do so. If a property-, tax was .introduced, it would not yield a very large amount. He instanced the present Treasurer opposing the Laud Bill of his owu Ministry. Sir George Grey’s conduct In asking the Land Bill to be disallowed was most unconstitutional. He objected to the present Constitution, and instead of Boards there ought to be Commissioners. He approved of Mr Sheehan’s action re confiscated land, and said that according to the statement of finance laid bn. the table by Sir George "Grey, there would be nearly a quarter of a million unprovided for. He felt that additional taxation would be required, but doubted whether the property tax promised would bring in much, or relieve the Customs greatly. The present electoral qualification was liberal enough; perhaps the registration could be improved. He said the Government intended to disfranchise New Plymouth, and that practically meant its abolishment. A vote of confidence Was carried.

LATEST UNPUBLISHED. Westport, February 22. Clark’s Rink Hall was totally destroyed by fire at 12.30 last night. The cause is a mystery, the proprietor being out of town at the time. His wife states no one was known to have entered the bnilding after eight o’clock in the morning; the dpors were then all locked; the adjacent buildings were saved by the strenuous- efforts of the Fire Brigade. Insured in the Nevr Zealand Company for £550, the value of the Hall and contents being £6OO. Wellington, February 22, In the published report of a conversation between Mr Barton and a reporter of the Post newspaper at the gaol, he is reported to have said “‘The Judges are a pair of blackguardsj.attd I’ll let the world know it.”