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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 106, 4 May 1875, Page 2

Some curious answers are sometimes returned by witnesses in the courts of law. Very lately, in an assault case, before Mr Beckmao, RM,, at Auckland, in which females were concerned, a man named Pridmore was put into the box, and when the question that invariably follows asking witness his name was put to him, be replied, amid laughter, "The husband of my wife and the father of the child," who was the actual complainant. Mrs Pridmore was more amusing still. The merriment was most hearty while she was being examined. In one part of her evidence she said— "Defendant had promised to do for her girl ; and when she spoke to her on the wickedness of her threat, she looked hard into her face and called her a 'hussy.' She believed there was a dreadful prefix to the term, beginning with a 'D,'" Whereupon his Worship asked what a hussy was, to which innocent question Mrs Pridmore replied, " that when she was a girl it was something in the shape of a little book for the protection of needles." The reporter does not say whether the magistrate was satisfied or not. Matters do net appear to be progressing quite so satisfactorily at the new settlement at Jackson's Bay, Province of Westland, as some of the reports would cause us to believe. In his last report, the Resident Agent at the settlement, speaking of the immigrants, pays:-—" I have found some difficulty in getting some of the men to go on to the land and build their bouses, so that they could go to work on the flat. I pointed out to them the advisability of joioing together to help each other to erect their houses. There were some objectors to. this system, and a want of unity and helplessness seemed to prevail amongst them. I got over the difficulty by selecting one of my best men (a thorough bushman) to take a number of men in hand, and they are now progressing very favorably under his supervision with the work of clearing and building, and in the course of a week or two I hope to see a good many in their own houses. I have also to mention in connection with this matttr that the Scandinavians sent down here have not turned out well, Out of the four sent down only one was of any account. He has settled on his land. One left for Dunedin two days after he landed here, and the other two are returniug to Hokitika by the Waipara. They not only refused to go upon their land, but they. would not work, so I had to adopt stringent measures with them.

I made them understand that those '. who did not work should not eat, and after a few days trial they thought better of it and went to work, bnt vowing vengeance against the overseer. . They are strong able young fellows, but don't like work. Those two men have not quite sufficient money to pay their passage back, but I can get no good out of them here, and so I have not thrown any obstacle in their way."