RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 171, 4 August 1869, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Before John Shabp, Esq.., R.M. Yesterday. J. Andrew charged with being drunk and incapable was fined ss. and costs. Matilda Godbaz for beiug drunk and disorderly was fined £l and costs. This Day. Laioick v. Richmond (a native) . Claim for £8 16s 2d, for goods supplied. Judgment for amount, and costs, 13s. Pike v. Kerr. Mr. Kingdon appeared for plaintiff and Mr. Pitt for defendant. This was an action to recover the sum of £57 for damages alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff in, consequence of defendant not fulfilling an agreement for the sale and delivery of certain sheep. Mr. Pitt objected to the case proceeding on account of the stamp on the agreement not beiug duly cancelled as provided for by the 9fch ' Section of the Stamp Act Amendment Act, 1867, in consequence of which omission the deed could not be admitted under the 30th Section of the Stamp Act, 1866. ■/.;".. His Worship ruled - that the obj ection was fatal and non-suiteS the plaintiff with , *c<wsts,;£3: 3s. zyyy : y 'yy''. '.,. '-. - ;, '.••. '

English MAiL.—-The English mail will close at three o'clock to-morrow afternoon. Earthquake,— Two distinct shocks of earthquake were felt this morning at about twenty minutes past two, the vibrations apparently travelling north and south. Parliamentary. — By telegrams which appeared .in this morning's Examiner, we fiud that a meeting of tbe Oppositionists was held yesterday morning, and that it is possible that they will defeat the Government on Mr. M'Lean's resolutions, which state that the exhausted state of its finauce prevents the Colony from supplying sufficient troops for the protection of life and property in the North Island, That as the countenance of the Imperial Government afforded by the presence of its troops is of considerable importance, an appeal should be made to the mother country for their assistance on condition that the colony provides an efficient Constabulary Focce. That the House will pay whatever (sum may be arranged with the "Imperial Government for 1500 men for five years. Thafc Commissioners be sent to England for this purpose. That the opinion of the best military authorities as to the advisability of employing Goorkahs or other body of disciplined men be obtained. *- Mud Heaps in the Streets.— -We are requested to call the attention of the Board of Works to the inconvenience, and even danger, of allowing the scrapings of the streets to lie in heaps during the present dark nights. It appears that a serious accident occurred to Wm. Tregea, son of Mr Tregea, of the Wakatu Hotel, who, in running along the street last nighfc, fell over one of these heaps and fractured his arm. The Progress of Civilization.' — We wonder if it ever occurred to any of our readers thafc the Robinson Crusoe, who was the delight of our youth, must have suffered considerable inconvenience from the want of a Post-office in his limited dominions. We confess that the idea never suggested itself to our mind until we received certain information this morning relative to the establishment of aa office on a desert island not many miles from Neleof 1 , and we could not then refrain from thinking over the subjc-cc and picturing to ourselves what an agreeable break ifc would have been to the monotonous existence of our goatskin-clad frieud had he been able to sit at the door of his cave aud there to listen, with all the studied politoness of a modern Post-office official, to the enquiries of Mr. Friday as to whether the mail, by which he ex pected his remittances, had arrived. We fauey we see the venerable acting postmaster as with a sympathising shake of the head he replies in the negative to the oft repeated enquiry, aud we can even imagine how occasionally, when suffering from a fit of indigestion, he might, of cours°, in contrast to the courteous manner of the official of the present day, slam to the door of his office when the enquirer had turned his back, and give vent to his wrath in curses, net loud but deep, on the pestering public. Then again there was the cockatoo, who has so often excited our admiration, who might have been made use of as an advertising medium and been taught to proclaim in authoritative tones to Friday, the goats, and the poultry, that the mails for a certain portion of his master's kingdom would close on the arrival of the next steamer, &c. We said that these thoughts were suggested to us by a piece of information we received this morning ; this was to the effect that the Government had deemed it advisable to constitute the Farewell Spit Lighthouse a temporary Post-office. Verily this is an age of luxuries, since ifc is considered necessary, wherever 15 or 20 workmen are gathered together, there to place a Postoffice in their midst.