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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 308, 30 December 1870, Page 2

Murder at the Grey. — From thi 8 morning's Colonist we leara that a mme 1 " named George Patnodi was murdered on Thursday last, at Noble's diggings, Grey river. He was stabbed in the heart aud died immediately. The assailant is unkuown, but supposed to be a woman. Wesleyan Chapel Richmond. — The anniversary of the Wesleyan Chapel at Richmond will be celebrated on Sunday and Monday next, on the former of which days three sermons will be preached, in the morning and evening by the Rev. W. J. Watkin, and in the afternoon by Mr. J. T. Stnitb. On the following day there will be a Tea Party and a public meeting, when Mr. Barnicoafc will take the chair, and addresses will be delivered by several gentlemen. Caledonian Society. — Mauy people are looking forward with pleasurable anticipation to the Caledonian games to be held on Monday next, but very few, we imagine, know anything of the Society to whom we are to be indebted for the day's amusement. It is generally supposed that it is simply an association of Scotchmen who are desirous of, perpetuating the games and athletic exercises of their native land in the colony,, and we believe that many of pur readers will be surprised to learn that it is essentially a benevolent Society, and that the games and pastimes in which the public are invited to take part are but the outward signs of the existence of a body which, is quietly and unostentatiously, laboring for the good of the community. The. following are some of the objects of the Society : — The promotion of education by assisting youths whose parents are members, or of Scotch extraction, but -whose ; pecuniary circumstances., are :such, as to preclude them from giving their : c^ildrjenr a ..liberal education ; affording aid in special cases of, destitution, ; .i:e warding individuals, irrespective of f nationality, who '■ may have performed deeds of. bravery, such as saving life from ; dr.owning, fire, or other peril; encouraging excellence in the performance of national feats, games, and pastimes; and lastly, promoting national information by procuring and diffusing among the members of the Society, works treating on subjects relating to antiquities, customs, feats, &c, of a national character. Such are some of the laudable objects of the Society at whose annual gathering the public of Nelson are invited to attend on Monday next. Mr. Maccassey, in addressing the electors of Dunedin, was frequently more plain than pleasant. Speaking of our J.P.s, he said they reflected discredit on the Colony. Hs believed that a large number of men had their names on the Commission of Peace to whom you would scarcely lend five pounds — and that they were not only beggars in person, but beggars in character. Accident. — At Mr. Talbot's dumpingshed, Lyttelton, last week, it appears that a man named Sydney Cohen was at work dumping wool, and he dropped his wool hook on to the lower plate of the dumping- machine. He got into the machine as the upper plate was decending, and before he could manage to get out, the plate was on him and crushed him severely. Fortunately the engine was stopped, or the man must have been crushed to death. In the Supreme Court, Wellington, last week, his Honor the Judge drew attention to an anomaly in the way jurors are paid, that looks very much as if there had been great hurry or great want of reflection in framing the act. His Honor pointed out that while jurors in criminal cases are paid 3s. to Bs. a day for their attendance, civil jurors, who are drawn from exactly the

same class receive 10s. for each case on which they sit ; so that it might happen, if the cases were short and the chances of the ballot placed a juryman on three or four, consecutive cases, he would receive 20s. or 30s. for a day's attendance. This would be a windfall to a needy juror out of work and a resident in the town, but to a juryman who lived some 14 or 15 miles out of town., and whose chance compelled him to hang about the Qourt three or four days without being ballotted in any case, so that he would receive nothing, this would be very hard lines indeed.