PROVINCIAL NEWS

Kumara Times, Issue 2917, 5 March 1886, Page 2

PROVINCIAL NEWS

[iTNITKD PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Dunedin, March 4. Alfred Wool, a chemist of Green Island, was found dead in his bed this morning. Death is supposed to be from an overdose of morphia, taken to procure sleep while suffering from neuralgia. He is a married man with a family. A sub-contractor on the Otago Central was killed yesterday by the explosion of a charge which missed fire. His name was James Russell. He has a wife in Dunedin. A navvy named John M'Giath was hurt about the face and eyes at the same time. It is reported that a party at Criffe! has obtained 1000 ounces from two weeks' work.

ELOPEMENT EXTRAORDINARY Wellington, March 4.

The Taranaki Herald gives an account of an elopement attended with more than the usual degree of the romantic that is reported to have occurred in Taranaki a day or two a"o. It seems that a settler in one of the out settlements became enamoured with a young lady whose daily avocations were performed in some humble sphere in the village inn. His affection was reciprocated, and the parental consent and blessing were solicited, but family pride was up in arms at the bare thought of such a union, and Betsy Jane's young man went defected away. However the pair put their heads together to contrive a plan to overcome the obstacles, and the result was that an elopement was arrauged. Suspecting something of this sort, the mother and one of her sons took horse one day and hastened to prevent the consummation of the design, and they arrived on the scene just in time to catch the pair leaving i u A trap. An altercation at onco ensued between the brother and the lover, and it ended iu a pitched battle between them. The lover " 0 t the worst of this engagement aud unheroically offered £5 to be allowed to carry out his intentions unopposed. This was lefused, and the bid was raised to £lO, and then £ls. The mother desiring to get her daughter once more beneath her own roof, ciaftily suggested that they should all journey hack to Iter house and talk the matter over. The mother's horses were placed at the disposal of the lover while she herself took a seat behind her daughter in the trap, and in this way the mother and daughter driving in front and the brother and the would-be brother-in-law bringing up in the rear they journey to the parental mansion! Arriving opposite the gate the two men dismounted and the mother alighted from the vehicle. Ate you clear of the steps mother, dear? asked the daughter; and, on being assured she was, the young lady struck the trap horse, while at the same time the swain jumped and they drove with all haste through New Plymouth aud oa to Waitara,

where they caught a steamer on ihe point of leaving. The saddle horses being too ranch jaded by their double journey were useless m the pursuit, ■md the add. ess of the pair is, says the Taranaki Herald, somewhere ia the Auckland provincial district.