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Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1577, 9 December 1885, Page 2

The Waikato Times says this year's clip m the Waikato promises to be an unusually large one. There seems to" be a scarcity of good shearers, and consequently at many of the stations amateurs may be seen busily at work trying to knock out wages. Good wage-? are being paid, the most of the stations paying from eighteen to twenty shillings a hundred. Mr H. Cornfoot, of Wanganui, has declined to accept the position of Justice of the Peace. He has communicated with the Government accordingly, stating that he fully appreciates the honor done to him, but does not care to occupy the position. At the Napier Supreme Courtj Victor Clisson, a stalwart Scandinavian youth, was charged with breaking into the dwelling-house of one August Fisher, of Norsewood,, on the 30th August, and with stealing a gun and pistol therefrom. The prisoner, when asked whether he was guilty or not guilty, m a defiant manner told the Registrar to " find out." The Registrar, to give him a chance for second thoughts to crop up, asked "What did you say?" I said '♦ Find out," he replied. A plea of not guilty was registered. After evidence had been taken the jury without retiring returned a verdict of guilty, and the prisoner was remanded for sentence. A peculiar case of obtaining money by decidedly false pretences is reported from one of the country settlements (says the Taranaki Herald). A yonth of about 17 went to several of the settlers asking whether they could change a£s note. When the person applied to did not have the change the young man asked for a small loan. Several sums were obtained, m one instance £2. It is the intention of the sufferer to place the matter m the hands of the police. At the conclusion of a lecture delivered m Wellington by Miss O'Gorman, who calls herself " the escaped nun," the Rev. Mr laitt, m seconding the vote of thanks, said allusion had been made to the manner m which public men bid for the Roman Catholic vote. A notable instance of that might be found m the present Government of New Zealand, m which, it might truly be said, extremes meet. He should like to have seen there that night two members of tha Government — Messrs Stout and Ballance. Thene two gentlemen were the champions of secularism and freethought, yet they were the men who were deliberately purchasing their present positions by bidding for the Roman Catholic vote by means of appointments of Roman Catholics to official positions, to the exclusion of Protestants. He challenged anyone, m the face of the notifications which had filled the papers recently, to deny that. The Taranaki Neios says : — An accident, ot an exciting character, occurred on Wednesday, at the breakwater. A locomotive, to which was coupled a truck, was proceeding along the pier, when, coming to the points just past the root of the breakwater, and near the gap m the parapet, the onlookers were surprised to see the engine disappear over the wall. Investigations subsequently made proved that the accident was occasioned by some obstruction to the working of the points. The engine dropped m to -the soft sand, a distance of some 12 feet, whilst the truck struck at the edge of the wall. The fireman, uerceiving the danger, jumped out, , but the driver (L. Christopher) went over with his charge. Fortunately, however, he sustained no injury, the engine likewise escaping damage.