LATEST UNPUBLISHED.

Kumara Times, Issue 690, 13 December 1878, Page 2

LATEST UNPUBLISHED.

FIRE AT GREYMOUTH. Greymouth, D-cember 13. Bradley's Race Course Hotel was burned to the ground at an early hour this morniug. The landlord and his wife and family barely escaped with their lives, and nothing was saved. The insurance ou the house was £SOO, and on the furniture £IOO. in the South British. Wellington, December 13. It is stated that the Maquis of Norman by is not to enter upon his duties as Governor of Victoria before the end of February next. The question of a more central site for a railway station here is being taken up vigorously, and the City Council will memorialise the Government to remove the present station to the extreme end of the reclamation ground. The City Council passed a resolution that it was undesirable that any officer of the Corporation should become a member of the County Council or other political body. The City Council has also agreed to ask permission of the ratepayers to borrow £IOO,OOO for improving the streets and footpaths. In reply to the deputation of the Hutt County Council, which waited ou the Government to obtain aid towards repairing serious damage inflicted on the West Coast road by the late floods, Mr Ballance said the Government declined to accept any responsibility whatever in regard to the main roads of the Colony. "If the counties would not undertake the work." he asked "what use were they at all? If Government did loan them a sum it could onlv be for two years, the time for which subsidies were guaranteed, and the County would have to undertake td repay the loan out of subsidies at the end of that time." MR BARTON AND THE .JUDGES. Wellington-, December 13. After a considerable delay caused by a careful inquiry into all the charges made against the Judges of the Supreme Cqurt by Mr Barton, the Government have replied at great length to his demand for an inquiry into the conduct of the Judges. There are twelve charges* all of which are replied to Categorically and attached to letter areappeiw dices giving fuller and detailed particulars. Regarding the charges, the sub* stance and general import of the reply are shown in the follnwiug sentences which appear in the concluding paragraphs of the letter :—After a careful and calm review, I am boiind to say that I regret; that you should have made the charges, and I feel abSured that you will yet acknowledge that they were made either under some temporary irritation or without due consideration. 001. Whitmorej who also signs the letter* also adds that " It is a misapprehension to assume that the function of the Executive of the Colony is to act as an appelate tribunal. There is machinery to review the conduct of the Judges if they decide contrary to law. The administration of justice would be impeded if the Executive interferred with the Judges whenever a disappointed litigant invoked the aid of the Government.