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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 207, 2 November 1866, Page 2

In the Resident Magistrate's Court, to-day, Thomas Norton was fined 10s. and costs, for drunkenness; and George Smith was fined 20s. and costs, for drunkenness and using obscene language. Alexander Webster was complained against for throwing stones at Messrs. Hooper's malthouse, in Bridge-street. The charge was not pressed, and the defend- ; ant was dismissed with the information that, under the New Act, he was liable to three months' imprisonment. Caroline Rankin, a wretched woman who has no visible means of support, and who has recently been discharged from prisoD, was brought up by Constable Beattie, under a charge of vagrancy. He found her in the porch of the Union Bank, the previous evening. She had been found in outhouses and timbersheds, smoking. She admitted to the constable that she had spent a night in the outhouse of Messrs. West aud Lewis this week. The Magistrate said it was a charity to "send the woman to prison. From some cause she was in a very Bad state, and could not be permitted to roam : about at night in this way. She was sent to prisofctfOr 28 days. We understand that Mr. A. Pitt has received a commission from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania, empowering him to administer and take^affidavits and affirmations concerning any matter depending in the said Court. The adjourned case of Pyke v.. Wise occupied the Resident Magistrate a considerable ■ time this morning. The''claim was for £90 odd, money lent, and it was decided in favor

of plaintiff on the 15th ultimo, by default of appearance . _i;the part of defendant. On the application:.^. Mr. South, who showed cause why defendant .could not appear, a rehearing was granted /when the Resident , Magistrate made an ineffectual attempt to get the case referred to. arbitration. This morning was appointed- for the production, of the. accounts by Mr". Wilkinson, to whom they had been referred. After a tedious examination Mr. H. Adams for plaintiff and Mr. Kingdon for defendant consented to refer the case to Mr. A. Pitt and Mr. W. M'Crae, who are requested to furnish their report within 14 days. The defence is a set off, a partnership, and money paid for commission and other things. As we were going to press we received a report of a fire, which took place at Riwaka on Monday last, the particulars of which shall appear to-morrow. The Southern Cross says, we were shown a sample of titaniferous iron-sand, about two pounds in weight, which had been amalgamated by a newly-discovered process, and prepared for smelting with the same facilities j attending the commonest kind of iron. Hitherto, from the extreme fineness of the grains of our sand, almost insuperable difficulties have been experienced in preventing the sand from being blown away by the blast of the furnace, or in keeping the fire alight ; but it is contended that by the process under notice all further hindrance to producing the iron in pig form are obviated at a very cheap rate. The usual quarterly statement of the liabilities and assets of the various banks in the colony has just been published. From this it appears that the liabilities of the Bank of New Zealand amount to £1,845,286 19s. sd.j assets, £2.575,106 19s. 4d. Union Bank of Australia — liabilities, £1,067*572 ss. 9d.; assets, £1,198,594 Is. 6d.: Bank of New South Wales— liabilities, £900,193 16s. 5d. ; assets, £1,134,397 10s. 10d.: Bank of Australasia — liabilities, £120,174 10s. 4d. ; assets, £402,805 16s. 3d. : Bank of Otago— liabilities, £191,216 12s. Sd.; assets, £sl2,346 6s. 2d : Bank of Auckland— liabili_es,_so,3__ ss. 2d. ; assets, £100,400 os. Id. : Commercial Bank of New Zealand — liabilities, £45,514 6s. 2d. ; assets, £104,746 ss. 3d. The Independent states that a machine I for splitting shingles and lately patented by a Wellington settler, is at present for sale. The Machine is guaranteed to split from 50 to 100 shingles per minute. An informant, who has seen it at work in the factory of Messers. Fraser aud Sillie, Auckland, was astonished at the beautiful precision and wonderful neatness with which the shingles were cut off. Henceforth writes the correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, New Zealand is to have no limit of the law on the Ministerial Bench. The Attorney-General is a fixture at £1000 a year. It is hard to believe that the legislation of the colony will not be greatly benefitted by this arrangement. It is doubtful, however, whether the member for Parnell will find it altogether pleasant, as he is quite sure to be appealed to on every occasion when a little extempore law is wanted by any captious member in committee. According to the N. Z. Advertiser the last act of the House of Representatives, before being prorogued, was to discuss the question as to whether honorable members should be allowed wine-money on their passage to and from the place of meeting of the Assembly. It appears that the Government had issued an order for the discontinuance of this allowance, on account of the great abuse that arose through it, many members having been put down for wines aud spirits who had never tasted anything but soda water and lemonade. The order, however, had been issued subsequent to the exodus of those gentlemen who thought fit to absent themselves before the closing of the session, and it was considered unfair that they should have a benefit which others, certainly more deserving of it, would not share, and so the order was rescinded. It will, be in force again next session, when, as Mr. Stafford said, "all can start fair." An interesting case, says the Wakatip Mail, was recently heard in the Court at

Lawrence. The police summoned Dr. Halley for carrying on business oh the gold-fields without a business license. The" case had been adjourned to allow Mi\ Keen time to prepare his "defence, and he how admitted that Dr. tlalley'did exercise his profession on the gbld : fields, and denied any/ liability touching a business license. Constable Mcc having deposed to the fact of Dr. Halley visiting a pafiehf at the Blue Spur, Mr. Keen ad.dressed the Bench for the defence. He regretted- that though he had. communicated with Mr, .Oswih, .Secretary to the Otago Medical Board, ,_.e had not. as yefc been able to get a copy ©f the Imperial Medical Act. That Act, passed in 1856, made it incumbent on every. medical. man to register under it, and any man so registered was ever after- . wards, by the provisions in that Act, entitled to practise in any portion of her Majesty's dominions. A medical Act existed in New Zealand, but he (Mr Keen) could prove by a recent magisterial decision, that no medical man registered under the Imperial enactment could be called upon to register under the colonial enactment; ergo, he could not be called upon to take out a business license. After a considerable argument, of which the above is , an outline, the Bench granted a further adjournment for 14 days, it being deemed desirable to procure the Acts bearing upon the question; Mr Keen representing that very considerable interests would depend on the result of this case, and though he was quite prepared with another and very different defence, it was his wish to obtain a verdict in the case upon the highest grounds attainable. The Wellington Independent says — Some Supplementary Estimates were brought into the House, and the manner in which they were introduced was somewhat peculiar. They are called " Messages from his Excellency," but we beg to assure our readers that they are no such thing. The whole affair is done in this way — we found out all about it last, night : One of the Ministers rises from his seat without any apparent motive, and goes out of the House on the sly, .when nobody's looking, by the door leading into the Executive Office. As he passes through, he picks up the Estimates enclosed in an envelope, and comes round to the Members' door, and tells the Sergeant-at-Arms that he has a message from his Excellency. "Don't believe it," says the Sergeant-at-Arms; " But I suppose I must obey." "A message from his Excellency," then says the Sergeant-at-Arms in a loud tone of voice. The members of course rise, and no doubt feel themselves considerably sold when the familiar form of the Cabinet Minister reappears, and stalks up the floor of the House. " Sold you there," said the Colonial Treasurer, as he walked up to the Speaker last night with the official despatch. -• Sold again, and we'll get the money presently," said the Postmaster-General, as he came in shortly afterwards with another batch of Estimates ; and it takes members a few minutes to recover from the shock. The Daily Telegraph of June the 29 says: j — A pleasing recognition of brave conduct •has just been made by the resident students |in King's College to Mr John Minchin of 5 Canterbury New Zealand, one of their num- , ber . He saw two men upset in the river : near Putney, and at considerable risk plunged from his own outrigger, and rescued both. :,To show their sense of his noble conduct, his J fellow students presented him with a hand- | some silver cup. Ah appropriate address ac- | companied the presentation. "" "A Victorian paper understands that the article in the "Cornhill Magazine" by one of the survivors of the London is from the pen of Mr Wilson who used to be a miner in Ballarat and elsewhere in Victoria. Mr Wilson is a native of Nova Scotia, and is now in. some part of the American continent. It is said that he received a" good round 'sum for his contribution to" the, "Cornhill." A narrative by Mr Munro, another of the survivors, will probably see the light iv New Zealand, as that gentleman has been written to by' Judge Chapman for particulars of the disaster which deprived his Honor of so many members of his family. The accompanying notice to mariners, respecting the sunken v essels City of Launceston

and Eieutheria, is jmolished for. general information in the Victorian Gazette" of ifche: 9th: lilt. :-f-Notice is hereby given that the lightship and buoys which were placed "hear the sunken ste__er City of Launceston and the sunken- hulk Eieutheria, will on the 10th instant, be 1 removed: . The masts and - funnel'of the steamer, and the masts of the hulk, having been taken out, the least depth of water oyer; the highest part of either vessels is seven '(7)~ 'fathoms. .' Chas. Ferguson, Chief Harbor Master. Department of Ports and Harbprs, Melbourne, 3rd Oct. 1866.