LOCAL NEWS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 109, 11 May 1869, Page 2

LOCAL NEWS.

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT. Before John Sharp, Esq., RM., This Dat. Charles Eolton, charged with being drunk and incapable on the Haven Road, last night, was fined ICs. and costs, or in default 48 hours imprisonment. Charles Baker was charged with stealing 11 yards of duck value 13s. from David Ritchie. " Prisoner stated that at the time he was under the influence of liquor, and did not exactly know what he was doing, and that it was a mere drunken lark; this was the first time he had had the honor of appearing in a Court, and he trusted his Worship would deal leniently with him. The complainant was then put in the box but as he proved to be under the same influence as that which led to the alleged crime, the case was postponed until two o'clock, the police meantime receiving instructions to keep him outof the way of temptation. At two o'clock, by which time the prosecutor had sufficiently recovered to allow of his entering the witness box, the case was again called, and after hearing the evidence, His Worship discharged the prisoner. James Delap was charged with unlawfully assaulting Police-Sergeant Nash in the execution of his duty as constable. John Nash, sworn.- I was on the wharf yesterday afternoon, and went to the assistance of Constable Clark, who had the prisoner Baker in custody, but was unable to get him off the wharf. Prisoner was trying to get at Clark in order to release Baker. I told him to desist, when he struck me. A bystander came to my assistance and threw prisoner down, when I secured him and brought him to the lock-up. Prisoner said he would not allow his mate to be taken to the lock-up. His Worship said, that the prisoner had committed a serious offence, in assaulting a constable, and that it was in his power to inflict a heavy fine or to sentence him to two months imprisonment. He supposed however, that there existed an esprit dv corps among sailors, and that thsy did not like to see their comrades arrested, and as it appeared that at the time, the prisoner was, to a certain extent, under the influence oi drink, he should fine him £2 and costs, or in default,- 14 days imprisonment. Accident at the Wharf. — A s the Alhambra was leaving the wharf about 8 o'clock last night, a woman -who was standing close by, put out her hand and laid hold of one of the ship's boats, when she was draeged off the wharf and fell into the water. Mr. Pearce, the chwf officer, very plnckily jumped overboard and laid hold of her, holding her up until assistance was sent from the shore, when the two were rescued from their perilous position. It appears that at the tiiae there was no light whatever on the wharf, and we have been requested to call attention to the .great danger of allowing* the wharf, with timber and all sorts of lumber lying-about it, to be lefc in a state of total-darkness. : o .• ■ Mr. G. W. Home has: resigned his seat in the Nelsou Provincial Council, ..and will not be present " during the •> present -.; session. The Charleston Herald says : — " Although Mr n.me nas tendered his resignation, ; he might yet be induced to withdraw it, and we should be glad to hear that the representations of his admirers and supporters should have induced him to act in a manher.; ! which ■we _ are satisfied will be in accordance with the wishes of the majority." — Grey River Argui,

The extravagance of Ballarat .females in the matter of dress, &C;, is thus commented upon by a writer in the Evening Post : — " Old, young, and j middle-aged women— especially handsome women of the middle class— who happen to be the wives or daughters of clerks, mechanics, and professionally engaged men, do dress beyond their means, and, unable to .repress his love to his wife or to his daughter, the father and husband silently endures the mortification of seeing his estate in the court of bankruptcy, the sole cause of this crisis being often the inordinate vanity in dress of his family. A fashionablydressed woman, as she stands in her boots, costs £30 •> add jewellery, and you may say £60. Add the life a fashionable woman leads, and an average of £10 per week is the outlay of some of our Lady Audleys; And what is got for all this vanity in Ballarat? We have no Rotten Row, no Champs Elysee, no Sackville-street, no Her Majesty's Theatre, and few evening private parties and literary and musical society, and political society, like that of Wyndham, the Fielding, and the Reform Clubs, do not— cannot exist. Our squatters (who, to quote Touchstone's phrase, get their living by the increase of cattle) are boors ; our clerks are puppies, with heads containing a maximum of pomatumed hair with a minimum of foolish brains ; and this then is the only audience for which Emily Jane expends three hours before a glass arranging her golden corkscrew ringlets. When I marry, my ! wife must have two attributes — first, sense; secondly, dollars." The West Af ican mail steamer brought to Liverpool the crew aud passengers of the barque Florence Nightingale, which was wrecked ofFthe west coast of Africa on the 26th of December. j Their sufferings appear to have been dreadful. Twenty persons were crowded into a small boat and expos-d for nine days to a tropical sun with only 20 lb. of provision and no water. One of the seamen became insane, and was bled by the captain, and his blood was greedilj sucked up by his comrades, who were very quarrelsome and violent. They at last resolved to draw lots who should kill the man before he died. The lot fell upon a colored boy, who refused to act. Just then the captain caught a fish 3 lb. weight, which was eagerly devoured, and they soon afterwards reached land.