PROVINCIAL NEWS.

Kumara Times, Issue 2328, 13 February 1884, Page 2

PROVINCIAL NEWS.

[NEW ZEALAND PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, February 12. Parliament has been further prorogued until the 7th insfc. With reference to the detention of New Zealand letters at Loudon, which are not specially addressed, the fol - ing cable message has been received from the Agent-General: arranged that the decision of Fawcett, Postmaster-General, will not apply to New Zealand until you have fully considered the matter. The public are very angry at the detention. All letters for Australia were sent on Friday by way of Brindisi, however marked." Inveucargill, February 12. The Chinese leppr, about whose case so much has been heaul latety, was

found hanging by the neck in the hut. He was then quite dead. He is believed to have committed suicide, and it is not likely that an inquest will be held. Dunedin, February 12. We have wintry weather again. At Lake Wakatipu there was a fall of snow on the ranges. Christchurch, February 12. The body of a boy named Andrew Giddies, 13 years old, was found in a creek near Rangiora. His clothes were on the bank, and he evidently had been drowned while bathing. Napier, February 12. A drayman named Fred Joues was killed at Kaikora by falling uoder the wheels of a dray. Auckland, February 12. Patrick M'Manus, son of the landlord of the Oxford Hotel, was thrown from his horse and killed. A native named Tewha, of Tawhera, was similarly killed while riding through Cambridge. FATAL ACCIDENT AT WESTPORT. _ Wellington-, February 12. A terrible accident occurred on the Westport Coal Company's incline this afternoon. Joseph Brown, butcher, and a member of the County Council, and William Harrison, storekeeper, of Waimangaroa and Denniston, respectively, were ascending in an empty truck, when the shackling of the descending loaded truck broke, and the full truck dashed into the empty one, killing Brown instantaneously and seriously injuring Harrison. The latter was brought into the baspital. Later. The doctor pronounces Harrison out of danger, Brown's back and neck were broken. Brown leaves a wife and eight children. FIVE MURDERS BY A LUNATIC. Napier, February 11. From particulars furnished by the Herald's Orniondville correspondent it appears that the murder of the Edwards' family was carried out in a most deliberate and determined manner. Edwards, although conscious, keeps a strict silence, but the appearance of the room in which the bodies lay tells the tale only too truly. Three of the four children went to church on Sundav evening, the mother staying at homo nursing the baby. On their return they went to bed, and the mother lay down dressed on the bed awaiting her husband. When he returned it would seem from a heap of chips at one corner that he took a half charred log from the fire and with a pocket knife coolly cut one end in the shape of a convenient handle. He must then have stunned his wife and children, as they lay on the bed, the foreheads of all being cut and bruised. The wife's throat was then cut on the bed. From the enormous quantity of blood in the middle of the floor, and on a chair, it appears that he lifted the children from the bed and taking them between his knees one by one cut their throats also. He placed them again on the bed, their arms entwined about each other. Probably he then cut his own throat, but not deeply. i The tragedy must have occurred before midnight. Early in the mornin<* before daylight he went to the house of a neighbour named Plank and asked for some water. Plank says he had a presentiment that all was not right, and he refused the water, and when Edwards went away Plank followed hira with a loaded gun, but soon lost him in the darkness.

I Edwards next called afc another neighbor's named Pyke, and there got water. It being dark, Pyke saw no blood, but Edwards' manner was so strange that Pyke became uneasy and went and aroused the local constable. They went to Edwards' house, and there discovered the horrible truth. When daylight broke Edwards was found on the trestles of a high bridge, from which he threatened to jump, but he was ultimately secured with great difficulty. He was taken to the Waipuikurau hospital to have his wounds dressed, and he is not in danger. Edwards is a man of some education and a practical engineer. For some years he was chief engineer on one of the coastal steamers, but was discharged for drunkenness. He received remittances from home, his friends being well connected, and a short time since received £IOOO, with which he bought land at Ormondville. He was given to drinking, and when drunk was like a madman. Twice he had been charged with being a lunatic, and kept in confinement until the effects of the drinking bout passed off. It has transpired that when drunk he has more than once severely assaulted his wife, and a short time since he placed a quantity of gunpowder under his wife's Ikm] and exploded it.