The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, MAY 16, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1445, 16 May 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, MAY 16, 1881.

The mail coach from Christchurch arrived On Saturday afternoon, at a quarter before five o’clock. Its detention was caused by having to carry the heavy Mails (including the San Franciscan) across by the wire bridge at the Taipo from the coach on the opposite side of the liver to r the one on this side. The homeward English, American, and European mails, via San Francisco, close : at the Kumara Post-office on Thursday next, at 12.30 p.m. The Government having recently imported a quantity of new silver coin of all denominations, with a view to the withdrawal of worn silver coin from circulation in the colony, it is notified for general information that new coin will be given in exchange for worn coin on application at any of the following branches of Banks, vix : —The Bank of New Zealand, The Bank of New South Wales, and the Union Bank of Australia (Limited). Mr and Mrs Peters announce a grand ball at their hotel, Dillman’s Town, on Friday next. Coaches will ply on the occasion to and from Kumara. The West Coast Times informs us that “ Mrs Emily M'Gahey, wife of the man who now lies in the Hokitika Gaol charged with the murder of Bell, arrived in Hokitika by the coach from Christchurch on Saturday last. Soon after her arrival, she went to the police station, and confessed that she had wilfully set fire to her husband’s house at Larry’s Creek, in the month of December last. It appears from her story, that funds were subscribed to enable her to leave Reefton, and that she went to Westport and from that port

took ship for Lyttelton. She obtained an engagement as servant to a family in Amberley, by whom, she states, she was very kindly treated. She was however constantly disturbed by the apparitions of her husband and the murdered man Bell. These ghostly visitors urged upon her to make atonement, and as she could not bear their continued reproaches, she determined to come back to the coast by the first opportunity, and deliver herself up to justice. This she has done, as related, and Sergeant Moller arrested her, as he was bound to do, upon a charge of arson. She also informed Sergeant Moller that she asked the spirit of the murdered man whether she should take her owfe life, but was advised to come over here and confess what she had done. Her statement was minute, and she said she had walked twelve miles in order to burn down her house, which she resolved should never become the property of the mortgagee, after all het hard work to make a home for herself.*’ She would, if well enough, be brought Up at the Resident Magistrate’s Court to-day, ivhen a remand would be asked for by the police, with a view of ascertaining more precisely her mental condition. A Kanieri miner, named Riordan, in a scuffle with one David Hutchinson, dislocated his shoulder. The former was a witness for the prosecution in a charge against the latter recently. A gold digger named Neil Herickson, while working in his tunnel on the bank of the Waimangaroa river, a large stone became dislodged from the roof, and, in falling, struck Herickson on the head, smashing his skull and killing him ininstantly. It is not often that a man is surprised with the news that he has been left £132,000. Yet (the Grey River Argus says) it is stated on good authority that a person now employed in Greymouth has received a letter stating that he has been bequeathed that amount. The Westport Times reports that a man named Isaac Gardner died at the District Hospital, recently, through the effects of the bursting of a blood vessel. The accident happened at Lyell, where deceased resided. He was brought down the river in a boat, arriving about 4 p.m., and shortly after his admission to the Hospital he died. In accordance with the medical evidence at the inquest, however, the jury found that deceased came by his death from natural causes. Dr. Thorpe’s evidence showed that Gardner’s inside was diseased. Deceased was a widower, but leaves several children to mourn his death. The Dunedin Morning Herald is informed that most of the missing bodies from the Tararua wreck could be recovered in a very short time if a boat were sent round to the reef. The people on shore can see many bodies entangled in the kelp some distance from the beach, and are obliged to witness the horrible feast of the seabirds upon the remains of the unfortunate victims of the wreck. In his evidence at the Tararua wreck inquiry, Captain Chatfield, of the s.s. Ringarooma, makes some useful suggestions, by which navigation to and from the Bluff and Dunedin may be fraught with less danger to steamers and passengers. He says: “ I have had about twenty years’ experience of the New Zealand coast. I know well the part of the coast where the Tararua was lost. I consider Waipapa Point one of the worst dangers we have on the coast of New Zealand. The point is low, a long reef lies off it, and any sea at all on the coast causes a vapour to arise, which obstructs the land. That makes it hard for a master to judge his distance off the land. I generally run right abreast of Waipapa before I change my course at all. I suggest that a red cutting light should be placed on Slope Point, which would cover the dangerous part of Waipapa; a part of the Dog Island light should be fitted with a redsector, showing over the Toby Rock. It would be much safer to have both these suggestions carried out, but we might do without the cutting light on Dog Island. The danger of Toby Rock causes us to hug Waipapa. In heavy weather we always stop until daylight before we come to Waipapa Point.”