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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 133, 7 June 1877, Page 2

The following "scene in Court " is stated to have occurred on Friday, at Hokitika, in the case of " Regina v. Mulligan." After fche verdict had been returned, the question " What is your age?" was put to the prisoner. To which he replied, « Write home and find out." He then turned to the jury and said, shaking his fist at them. "There is not a man among you." Turning to the Bench, he continued, "There's neither law nor j justice in this Court." 1 The Dunedin Witness says:-. We have a most benevolent Corporation. They give us ' water to drink as thick aa pea soup, they I supply os with bad gas, they charge us exorbitant kerbing rates, and when we are hard up and can't pay they send a steam roller to disturb our rest in the middle of the night, and now they have taken to raking liquid mud into long rolls on the sides of fche footpath?, which, in the moonlight, look like nice dry places, and you step into them, causing you to swear enough to last for a fortnight. It's too bad. " C. J. H.," writiDg from San Francisco to the Auckland Star, says :~ " Baldwin's Academy opened on February 24th with De Murska, supported by Susiai, Bianchi, and some other good names. It was all to no purpose. The Hungarian sang divinely, but hardly anybody went to hear her. The reason is said to be a moral one. The excessively virtuous ladies of this city are shocked at the too much marrying of the nightingale." A telegram to a contemporary narrates the following series of accidents on the Napier and Waipukurau railway :— Soon after the up train from Waipukurau to Napier had left the Kaikaro station, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, some cattle straying on the line compelled the engine fco be slowed. Just as the cattle were clear of the line, and speed had been again put on, a beast deliberately stepped in front of the engine and was at once knocked down, but instead of being thrown off the line, it got under the wheels. The result of this waa, that the engine was knocked off the rails and slewed across the line, and three out of the fourteen leading trucks were also thrown off. Fortunately these trucks were between the engine and the passenger carriages, or the consequences might have been fatal. There being no Talegraph station at Kaikora the news of the accident had to be forwarded to Napier by way of Waipawa. When the intelligence reached town at about five o'clock, Mr Miller, the General Manager, proceeded at once to the spot with a special engine and lifting appliances. On the way up this «ngine ran over three horses, all of which were killed, but the line was not cleared until three o'clock a.m. The up train to-day which was due at Napierat 10-22 o'clock, did not reach town till nearly 1 'p-m. The delay was caused by the engine being bro ight to a sudden stand still by running into a bullocS. The jerk threw some of the trucks, between the engine and passenger carriages, off the line. The passengers had j-two hours' work to put the train to rights. • The Telegraph again points out the manifest

duty of the Government to get the line fenced in before any accident to human life occovs.' . . : Application has been made by the manage): of the Brunner Railway to the Government for fifty extra coal wagons,- the number^now available not being nearly equal to the traffic. Greymouth coal is rapidly growing into favor in Wellington, one illustration of this fact being that M. Kennedy, Esq., the manager of the Brunner Coal Company, has received a letter from his Excellency the Governor, ordering 10 tons a month for fche use of Government House. — G. R. Argus. ' We (G. R. Argus) are informed that fche road up the Buller River, upon which so much money has been expended with the view of diverting the Reefton trade to Westportj is in a frightful condition, and cannot, without a very large further outlay, be utilised to any but the smallest extent. The following Dunedin telegram appears in a Wellington contemporary:—Considerable discussion arose upon a motion made at the last meeting of the Tuapeka County Council, that in future 5 per cent was a sufficient deposit upon the tenders for work, in order to. allow poor men to pufc in for large contracts. It was urged against the motion that it was inadvisable for the Council to encourage poor men to tender for large [ works, as generally they were wanting in judgment, and eventually had to leave contracts unfinished. The motion was, however, carried. - A svm of money came into the hands of the Melbourne police in a very peculiar manner. During the past few days, says a Melbourne paper, a stray retriever dog has been endeavoring to ingratiate himself into favor at the Russell-street barracks, and yesterday morning it followed Constable Russell to his beat in West Melbourne. When walking up Bourke-street west,, near William-street, the constable's attention was attracted by the dog jumping round and fawning upon him, and as he looked at the animal a one-pound note dropped from its mouth. After walking on a litfcle further, the constable exahiined the dog's mouth, and found there a roll of genuine one-pound notes. He took possession of the money, and forwarded it, with a • report of the circumstances under which ; he had found it, to' his superior officers. Where the dog: found the notes is a mystery. The Timaru Herald in reply to some doubts Which had been expressed as to the authenticity of certain information ifc published relative to the alleged instructions issued to fche Governors of the Australasian Colonies as to their conduct in the event of war breaking out says :— " We do not pretend to have access to any special sources of information. The news of the Secretary of State's despatch came to us in the ordinary course, and wa3 certainly known to a good many people before it appeared in our columns. The only wonder to us is that the Hermld should have been the only paper in the colony which published the intelligence. A good many have expressed a curiosity to know where we obtained our information on this occasion. Would they be surprised to learn, as Mr Hawkins, Q.C., used to say in the Tichborne trial, that the information came striaght from one of the exalted personages who received the Circular Despatch from the Secretary of State for fche Colonies."