The Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 67, 19 March 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1879.

The Insurance Companies, it appears, are taking alarm at the large number of fires that are occurring just now in New Zealand, and naturally so, for scarcely a day passes without destruction of propeuy from this cause being reported from one or another of the towns of the colony. The remedy to be tried to put a stop to these incendiarisms, for to incendiaries there can be no doubt whatever that many of these fires are due, is to demand an inquest on every one that occurs. We trust this may prove an effectual preventive, but are very much disposed to question it, for instances of convictions being obtained through the medium of a coroner's court are very rare. A few some detectives scattered about through the colony would be far more likely to prove of service than any number of public examinations of witnesses before a coroner. The City Rifles and Cadets were inspected in the Drill Shed last night by Colonel Packe, who, r £ ter they had gone through several manoeuvres, addressed the Rifles, and complimented them upon their general efficiency. He pointed out one or two weak points in their drill, which he hoped they would endeavor to remedy, but said that upon the whole they were as smart a corps as he had inspected, and that he should be able to report most favorably upon them. He wished to call attention to the moans adopted by some of them for cleaning their arms. In one instance lie bad been much shocked at the reply he received, when in the innocence of his heart he had asked how the rifle had been cleaned, and was told " with emery powder." He cautioned them against thus deliberately spoiling the beautiful weapons with which the Government supplied them, and recommended " elbow grease " as the safest and most effective lubricant that could be used. To-night Colonel Packe will inspect the Naval Brigade in the Drill Shed, and to-morrow at noon the College Cadetß in the College grounds. A most interesting and carefully prepared lecture was delivered in the Masonic Hall last night by Mr Charles Bright, on " Evolution : its processes and possibilities." The subject is so large a one that it may be imagined how difficult it must have been to condense even a few of the most salient points into one lecture of an hour and a-half, but Mr Bright had evidently devoted an immense deal of thought to the matter, and was enabled to afford in that short time a large amount of interesting information to his audience. To-night he will lecture upou " The reign of law." The Harmonic Society will give their usual quarterly concert at the Provincial Hall to morrow night when, in addition to those the audiences have been accustomed to hear, there will be several new performers both vocal and instrumental. The meeting at Richmond in connection with the Wesleyan Sunday School, which was to have taken place to-day is postponed on account of the weather until to-morrow evening. We are requested to sf-.te that it is in tended to devote the balance of receipts over expenditure at the late harvest thanksgiving festival at Richmond to the Ivaitangata relief fund. At a meeting of the Sydney Exhibition Commissioners, held iu Wellington, it was resolved that the Committees of Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland be each allowed £100 for expenses in connection with the Exhibition, and that £30 be allotted to Nelson. At the Magistrates' Court this morning, before the lion N. Edwards, and W. Oldham, and J. R. Dodsou, Esqs.. J.J.P., John Woodhouse was charged wish using threatening language to his wife, Elizabeth Woodhouse. Mr Bunny appeared for the "complainant, and Mr Fell for the defendant. It appeared from the evidence for the complainant that she had a protection order against her husband which provided that the daughters were to remain with her, and the son, 12 or 13 years of age, with the father, who, under the impression that she was harboring the boy, went to her house, and in the presence of a man named Scott, a baker living in the same house, demanded the boy, and held up a stick he had in his hand, saying that it was loaded with lead, and that he would break his wife's skull if she did not give up the lad. This was corroborated by Scott, and Constable Hawksworth stated that defendant threatened him in a somewhat similar manner if he interfered between him and his wife. Mr Fell, for the defence, said that Woodhouse was much i.ritated by the apparently familiar terms upou which lm wife was living in the same house with Scott, and that he had reason to believe that the boy was encouraged by her to leave his father. This naturally made him angry, and it was quite that in the heat of the moment ;he might have used stronger language than he should have done, and held out threats which, however, he never intended to fulfil. The Chairman sr-id that this was one of those unfortunate cases in which man and wife could not get on together without perpetually quarrelling. There were faults on both sides. There was reason to believe that the woman had harbored the boy, while the man threatened to .ake the law into his own hands. The Bench did not consider that he intended to inflict any bodily harm, and would dismiss the case, but at the same time would warn the defendant of the consequences of appearing again upon a similar charge.