Local Intelligence.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 659, 2 March 1859, Page 4

Local Intelligence.

At; an auction sale at the Land Office, Christchurch, on Thursday, 1 acre and 30 perches of 1 imam town land sold foi £87 in four lots,. Several small detached pieces of rural land put up to auction, under the regulations, wero bought at prices considerably exceeding- the upset price! One section of four acres fronting on the Avon, about three miles down the river, below Christchurch fetohed £'60, i.e. £15 per acre. The Revenue from land sales during the month of February exceeds £5000, ■ . ,

By the Lord Ashley we have Otago papers to the 26th ultimo. On the 14th Mn Dick was dected without opposition a member of the Provincial Council for the town of Duriedin, vice J, jj t Harris,' Esq. Arrangements had been made f or forming a road to connect Invercargill with Camp, belltown. The Lord Ashley made the run from this place in twenty-four hours, beating the White Swan by an hour and a-half. There h no local news in the papers sufficiently interesting for our columns. The ' Witness' of the 26th has an arti. cle giving a somewhat gloomy picture of the finan. cial condition of the province, a perusal of which might be profitable to some of our readers, but we have not space for it to-day. The Lord Ashley left on Sunday, and the White Swan was to sail yesterday. From Wellington we have received per schooner Brothers, one paper, tlio ' Independent' of Wed. nesday last. It contains a somewhat lengthy snni. Mary for the Australian arid European mails, but there is nothing new of any importance to this province. The 'Summary 'is very complete as an i annals of Wellington for the last two months; as | usual with Wellingtonian estimates of Wellington I everything is touched up with couleur de rose. We have heard a rumour of a large fire having occurred last week in the town of Wellington, but nothing authentic on the subject has come to hand, we therefore trust it is but a fabrication. The Lord Ashley sailed at six o'clock p. m. yeaterday, for Wellington .and.Nelson. She took a respectable number of passengers and a considerable mail. _______________ SUPREME COUItT.—TuESDAY, March 1. A sitting of this Court, for. the "despatch of civil and criminal business was opened this morning at the Town Hall, Lyttelton, before his Honor Mr, Justice Gresson. There were only six caees on the record, all, with one exception, of a trivial character. The Judge briefly charged the Grand Jury, who retired and found true bills in the several cases reported below. THE QUEEN V. BETTEB. In this case, the - prisoner was charged with stealing from the Auction Mart of Jar. Thomson, on the 14th January, a meerschaum pipe and agate snuff-box, the property of Mr, Kesteyen. Mr, Duncan prosecuted, and Mr. Johnstone appeared for the accused. We gave the details'of .this case at the time it was. brought before the Kesident Magistrate's Court. It will be remembered that in January last Mr. Thomson had a sale of curiosities and articles of vertu, the property of Mr. Kesteven; and that, after the sale was over, the two articles named in this indictment were found to have been .abstracted from the unsold portion of the property. Possession of them was traced to the prisoner, and hence the.present charge. These facts having been proved in evidence,'counsel for the prisoner urged that his client was incapable of feloniously taking the articles, and that they must have been placed in his box by another party. The jury took this merciful view of "the case, and acquitted the prisoner. ' :: ASSAULT AT KAIAPOI. John Skinner, and Matilda- his wife, were charged with having broken into the.house of Henry Wilson, of Kaiapoi, on the night of the 18th December, and violently assaulted-the prosecutor, by beating him while in bed. The evidence adduced shewed the case to be of a paltry character,.and his Honor said that it ought not to have been sent to that Courts The charge against the female defendant was withdrawn, and at the .suggestion of the learned judge, Skinner- withdrew his former plea and pleaded guilty, and was fined 40s, • lABCENY. -—■ Butcher, aged 19, was charged with stealing two watches from, one of the passengers per Indiana. Prisoner, had absconded from the ship, but was captured at Akaroa, and was sentenced at the Kesident Magistrate's Court, Lyttelton, to two months' imprisonment with hard labour for leaving the ship and stealing one of her boats. He was at that time also committed for, trial on the present charge. A witness named Shepherd deposed to having seen the watches inprisoner's possession, onboard the Indiana. :This evidence;was corroborated, and the prisoner was 7 found guilty, but; recommended to. mercy on account: of bis youth. —Sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour. , !