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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue XIV, 1 April 1879, Page 2

An affiliation case was set down for hearing this morning in the Resident Magistrate's Court, in which Sarah Newberry sued Lawrence Akersten for the maintainance of her child. Mr Bunny appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr Pitt for the defendant. The case was adjourned for a month. A serious accident occurred at Wakapuaka this morning to a young man named Cornelius Hibberd, who was getting out j gravel at Mr Martin's quarry, when a lot of the stuff fell, inflicting serious in jury on him. A messenger was at once sent to town, and Dr Marks started for the scene of the accident, and found that one of his arms was I broken, and that he had received a blow on ' the back which appeared to have injured him internally. This is the third accident of the ! kind that has happened at the same 'place, j showing that greater care is required'in ex- ' cavating than is at present exercised. Later ' accounts, we regret to say, give but little hope of the sufferer's recovery, symptoms of paralysis having displayed themselves. We regret to learn from our telegrams today of the death by drowning of Mr William Pitt, brother of Mr Albert Pitt of this town, which occurred in the Arahnra river some three miles out of Hokitika on Sunday evening. The deceased, who was a widower, his wife having died fourteen years ago, had for many years been practising as a solicitor and barrister in Reefton. He leaves three sons and a daughter. He had made many friends both in and outside his profession who will learn with sorrow of his sad and untimely end. Disaffection among the Maoris does not appear to be confined to those in the vicinity of the Waimate Plains, the surveyors at Manawatu like their brethren at Waimate having been stopped in their work by the Natives. It is to be hoped that the perpetrators of this insult are but a small and a foolish band who are acting without the cognizance of the more powerful of the tribes, but it certainly does appear ominous that resistance to the Government should thus be offered in two distinct places within so short a period of each other. We clip the following from the Christchurch Press:— Mr Brock, who has painted some good pictures of Manuka and other celebrated racehorses, has just completed a capital one of Trump Card. It is done in his best style, and shows this admittedly handBome horse to great advantage. Once upon a time it so happened that two men (being equally sick) having a wonderful sympathy for each other— for both were suffering from that torturing maladv, Gout !— hobbled along together, using at short intervals those pious ejaculations, which gouty folk are apt to üße,u ße , when one of them, espying the placard of "Gollah's Great Indian Cubes," said that he had heard so good an account of these medicines, he would certainly try them, at which his companion laughed heartily. The other, haw-

ever, prpc_red" tbb medicine and got cured/ Which of the two -fiord to Nighmost? The Dtlneein Star c. Friday gives tno Allowing account of a tre'tfieft_otJ!j' downMUf of rain that occurred there on the previous evening, and its consequences : — Heavy rain set in shortly before 12. o'clock last night, and though it lasted only a few hours the body of water came down as if from a gigautic waterspout. It was generally thought thai ample facilities for carryiug off the stotra watet existed in this city, but last night showed that either smb is not the case or that the Corporation drainage system is not in proper' working order. On this pofnt we shall not offer an opinion, as tn'ost probably the question will come up for argument | ih the law Courts. It will be sufficient for ' us to gite an idea of. the damage which has been done. The principal , sufferers appear to be the merchants and shopkeepers in Rattray and Maclaggan streets, down which , a perfect torrent of water poured. The former street presented an extraordinary spectacle this morning, for from the Robin Hood Hotel corner down to Bishop Moran's residence the kerbing and channelling on the side of the street had been torn up by the force of the Watet and scattered all over the road. From that point downwards the channelling, at intervals of a few feet, had been scooped up and holes excavated, varying from two to five feet deep. The boulders forming the pitching were carried down to the level part of the street, and with the accompanying earth and clayey sediment from the hills, were spread over its whole width. Meanwhile, as we are informed, not one of the gratings over the drains had been opened, and, as a natural consequence, the water flooded the streets and rushed into the cellars and ground floors of the establishments on either side Mr R. K. Murray is one of the greatest sufferers in this part, and his loss may roughly be estimated at about £100. His cellar was stocked with sngar, lemons, and general confectionery, and all is more or less damaged. In Mr A. Solomon's pawnshop, directly facing the culvert, there was mud a couple of inches deep over the floor, and the dirt had actually got into a Miiner's safe. Mr A. Mercer estimates his 1033 at fully £300, while Mr Isaacs has had some of his chemist's stock injured to the extent of£loo. The water penetrated North and Scoular's, and did an amount of damage to furniture which they have been unable at present to estimate. Along McLagganstreet also there are many sufferers. It appears that some obstacle at the head of that street turned the water out of its proper channel across to the east side, where there were not sufficient means to carry it off, and it then flooded the premises along its course. In High-street, Sargoods Sons and Ewen have about an acre of basement covered to a depth of nine inches. Until a survey is made they cannot estimate their damage, but it is variously estimated at from £10,000 to £30,000. In George-street a great deal of damage has been inflicted, mainly through the body of water which came down York Place and St. Andrew-street. Messrs. Esther and Son, grocers, estimate their loss at about £100 ; Mr James Irvine, grocer considers that bis loss will exceed £400 ; and Mr A. Palmer, china merchant, loses fully £100. An lowa justice refused to fine a man charged with the offence of kissing a pretty girl without her consent. " Nothing," he said, " but the dignity of its office prevents the court from committing the same offence. The temptation to an ordinary person wosld be irresistible." The Wellington Chronicle understands that the effects of James Allen Mackie, late local manager of the Bank of .New Zealand at the Hutt, " who was a short time since sentenced to four years' imprisonment, having been forfeited to the Crown, were sold at auction at the Upper Hutt. Inter alia, there were six valuable horses and sundry ladies' and gentlemen's ■addles." Not bad this for a man with a little more than £150 a year. A contributor of H gossip " to the Bsndigo Independent writes as follows :— I see that the Government have raised the reward for the capture of the Kellys to £4000, and not a moment too soon, as they have been spending the enormous . sum of £2000 per week over the search for them since it began. They have now spent over £20,000 ! Truly Ned Kelly has been a trouble. Some of the sharp ones have a project on foot which, though indecent, will no doubt pay well. It is to bring Ned Kelly's sister Kate to Melbourne, and to make her a barmaid ! Heaven save the wretched girl from such a fate. It will be remembered that the paramour of Bertrand, who was condemned for the murder of Mr Kinder, was got np in New Zealand as a barmaid, and made the fortune of a Hokitika hotel. I refer to Mrs Kinder. A Southland paper says:— "For the past week or two the contractors for the Waimea Plains railway have had to be content with Chiuese labor, European being almost unobtainable, consequent upon the harvesting operations that have been going on. Now, however, European labor is becoming more plentiful, the crops being stacked in several of the country districts. At present there are about 300 men employed on the line, about one-third being Mongolians, and the contractors expect to complete the work within tbe time specified." A somnambulist at Waitara got out of an upper storey window a few evenings ago (says the Taranaki Newt), and fell a distance of thirty feet without sustaining any physical injury. Insulted Liberalism is avenged of its enemies, (says the Australasian). Those who do the clagueur business for Mr Berry in the Melbourne press are jubilant over the fact that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach has asked Mr Berry to dinner, and see in this a sufficient return for all of the cost and ignominy of the Embassy. The most ecstatic enthusiasm is expressed over the courtesy and forbearance of the Secretary of State in not " straightway kickiug him downstairs," and Victorian democracy is getting to look with a more kindly eye on the haughty and effete aristocracy of Great Britain. Our friends who have to do this kind of thing in Mr Berry's behalf say, with a touch of pathos not devoid of the ludicrous, "You made fun of Mr Berry's legs. He is to dine with the Secretary of State in a court dress, with a sword. What do you say now ?" What ? indeed. But it is cruel of these people to suggest to the eye of too vivid imagination the distressing vision which these words cannot fail to evoke. At any rate, we can now see our way to some substantial and satisfactory return for the expenditure of £5,000 on the Embassy. Our constitution may not be demolished, and our loan may be a sorrowful and ruinous failure, but, at any rate, delighted democracy rejoices in the knowledge that Mr Berry has put his legs— or to use a different form of expression, that that great party chief has been honored by an invitation to dine with a live Secretary of State. " jEgles " writes in the Australasian.— A party of ladies and gentlemen returning from a bush picnic on one of the hottest of the late hot days, rode up, very much athirst, to a wayside shanty. Lemonade, sodawater, gingerbeer, aud such-like simple beverages were vainly asked for, the landlord briefly explaining that he " hadn't got none of 'em." " Have you," inquired the most destructive bachelor of the party, in the hearing of his fairest friends, " no lemon syrup— have you nothing that the ladies might drink ?" He ehook his head slowly for a moment, then, with a countenance suddenly lighting up with a happy tho_ght, " Oh, yes ! I've plenty of aeidlitz powders !"

" iEgle9 rt ia the Australasian is responsible for the following : — Being iiu willing «o ta&e adverse view* of the morality even of geaJlemen whose" polities I know to be bail* upM the foundation oifaeif -seeking, I suggea^d 1 io ft' lrie»d ; that even if a few more political retu'fnrag f officers- wese appointed the mischief wouldn't fete serious. " Because," said I, " a returning officer's duties are so simple— he couldn't, even if pattiai^db much that would influence an election unfairly." Said my friend— "You know , M.L.A. You've 9een him perform some tricks at cards. Would he, tor instance, have ranch difficulty in smuggling 500 votingpapers into a ballot-box under the noses of poll eler&s, scrutineers, policemen, and all ?" I conl'dn't gainsay the proposition.