The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1884.

Kumara Times, Issue 2336, 22 February 1884, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1884.

The ordinary meeting of the Borough Council which should have been held last night was adjourned till eight o'clock this evening. The Supreme Court sittings commence on the 10th of March, and the session is likely to last for at least a week. Judge Johnston is expected at Hokitika from Christchurch on the evening of the Bth proximo. The three principal cases are John O'Donoghue for murder, John Maloney for arson, and John Hughes for aiding and abetting arson. An address of welcome is to be pi-e----sented to the Rev. Father Devoy, at St. Patrick's school room, to-morrow evening, at 8 o'clock. The attendance of wellwishers is respectfully invited. A four-roomed house, two eligible cottages, and a number of improved freehold sections, are advertised for sale by public auction on Tuesday next, by Messrs Mark Sprot and Co. From a private letter written by a former resident in Westport, but now of Auckland, the Westport Times was permitted to extract the following item : " You may have heard of Captain Campbell coaling the Australia on her last trip here. Campbell is evidently a good man for looking after his company's interests. The Australia would not stay long enough to allow the Orawaiti time to discharge her full cargo of coal, but Captain Campbell, nothing daunted, moored his steamer alongside the Australia and discharged the coal as the latter steamed dead slow for twenty odd miles outside of Auckland harbour—in fact as far as Tiritiri. Captain Campbell then returned to port with only about 50 tons left. That was worthy of the go-a-head enterprising spirit of the South, and rather astonished the Aucklanders." On the subject of the Federation of the Australasian Colonies, the Wellington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times writes :—" I notice it is currently reported that Ministers stand pledged to stake their existence on the adoption of their proposals in favour of Federation, and Sir George Grey has made a. public statement to this effect. I believe, however, I have good grounds for asserting that there is no foundation for this idea, as I understand the agreement arrived at at the Convention was that Ministers should submit the proposals to Parliament, but not necessarily stake their existence on the result; and while I have no authoritative information on the subject, I have the strongest reasons for believing that Ministers have not the slightest intention of making Federation a vital Ministerial question. Whatever may be said on the other side, I am satisfied you will in the end find this correct." Mr Milner Stephen, who is advertised as the "Australian Healer," has been receiving patients in Reefton during specified hours of the day. He leaves for Greymouth to-morrow. The Inangahua Times of Wednesday says:—"That Mr Stephen has really some extraordinary healing faculty is past controversy. The extent of that power is all that is now debateable, and on this head Mr Stephen points to the results of some eight or ten years' practice. With that evidence most people are now familiar, and unless human testimony is wholly untrustworthy he has established a case which it is difficult to break down." A telegram in the Argus says :—" Constable Dormer, of Bungonia (New South Wales), shot his wife on the 24th January under circumstances showing gross and culpable carelessness. After explaining the use. and act ion of his revolver to tovo

female friends of his wife, he in fun aimed the pistol, fired at one woman and then at the other, snapping it both times. He then aimed it at his wife, who threw her right arm before her face and told him to desist. He drew the trigger, and the pistol went off, the bullet passing through the fleshy part of his wife's arm and lodging in her neck a little above the collarbone. She is in a very critical state. There is no doubt that the constable believed that the pistol was not loaded." Archibald M'Pherson, a labourer, was found dead on the road ten miles from Roxburgh, Otago, on Tuesday last. Heart disease is supposed to have been the cause of death.