SUPREME COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 93, 19 April 1879, Page 2

SUPREM E COURT.

CIVIL SITTINGS. [Before^Hia Honor the Chief Justice.] YESTERDAY. M'Wamara and Wanttaltv. Norwich Union Insurance Company. Elizabeth Maason: I am the schoolmistress near M'Namara's. At the time of the flre there were about 20 children at the school ranging from five to fifteen. I recoilect Mr Petterson giving the alarm. We all ran down, and when I got there I found Petterson > Gibbons, Frank Barnett, and a lot of the children. Smoke was coming through the roof near the chimney. Mr Gibbons broke open the front door, and he, Petterson, myself, and several of the elder children went m. Mr Gapper also was there. We went to work at the drapery. I went behind the couater and passed it over to the child-

ren, who ran out with ifc. There might have been six children present. We cleared the drapery shelves and then I got the glassware out. I dou't think there was any drapery left on the shelves. There was a mattress on the floor behind the counter with blankets, which looked as if they had been used. I lifted it on to the counter, and it was carried out. I left the drapery side because ajl the shelves were completely cleared. Eventually the smoke drove us out. There were some things left then on the grocery shelves. There were sardiue tins, mustard, pepper, and a few boxes of matches. I don't think there was anything of importance left on the shelves or behind the counter. I don't think there was anything on the counters or the floor. I saw no books, but Mr Gibbons carried out some papers, saying they might be of value. The boards in the windows were cleared. Besides a barrel of washing soda that was there I believe I could have carried out everything else that was left in five minutes. Mr Fell: Could you have put them into a clothes basket? Witnessi That would depend a good deal upon the size of the basket. Cross-examined: Almost all the drapery j was taken down with my own hands. I could reach the second shelf from the floor, and the third one from the counter. I had the least work to do because it was so much nearer from the shelves to the counter than from the counter to the door. Altogether j we were a iittle more than half an hour from leaving the school to returning to it. When tbe smoke once commenced to come in it poured in very quickly. F. H. Gapper stated that M'Natnara had bought from the mill about 1600 feet of good timber, and a load of waste timber, for which he paid £1. Cros3 examined by Mr Conolly.- Neither nails nor labor had been spared in the build ing. He would undertake to put up a similar building for £40 if he could purchase an old house for lOs, and get the windows out of it. By the Court: There was nothing worth ! mentioning on the drapery side when Miss Manson left. He knew that because he called her attention to a roll of calico she had left, and which was afterwards brought out. He never saw anyone work like she did. She fairly put the men to shame, as they were afraid of there being gunpowder in the store. H. Abbot, storekeeper at Takaka, had valued the goods saved at £87. There were some books among them, and if those produced were the same they had been mutilated since then. Wanstatl said at the time that orie of them was his or their account book. Ho thought such a house as that burnt down could be built for £30 or £35. Frank Barnett was at Miss Manson's wheu the alarm was given. He went down and knocked a hole through the wall into the bedroom, and got in and threw ottt Some clothes, leaving nothing in the room. He then went round to the front and helped to clear the store. Nothing was left on the shelves on the drapery side. Some glassware, a cask of saltpetre, and a few matches and sardines were left. William Barnett valued the house at less than £50. He had seen the tank before it was put up as a fire-place. It was old and rusty, and had holes in it. Cross-examined : During the last few weeks before the fire the store Appeared to be better stocked than usual. The tank collapsed after the fire. This closed the case for the defendauts at 545, and the Court adjourned until 7 o'clock, when Mr Fell addressed the jury for the defence for an hour and a half, Mr Conolly following for the plaintiffs for about the same time, and between ten and eleven the Court adjourned uutil this morning at 10 o'clock, when His Honor commenced his summing up, which lasted until shortly before 12 o'clock, when the jury retired. At a little after two the foreman returned to the Court and asked whether, if after the jury had arrived at a decision upon the question involved in the 7th issue as to oue portion of the property insured whether it was necessary for them to go on and answer as to other property ? (The issue referred to was as follows :— Was there fraud in the claims made by the plaintiffs on the defendants : for and in respect of the said alleged I. ss sustained by the destruction of the said 3tackin-trade,buildings, household furniture, and wearing apparel, or any or which of them ?) His Honor thought that they had better do so. The Foreman then asked whether they might have refreshments provided for them. His Honor could see no objection. For his own part he did not think that he could give proper consideration to a subject upon an empty stomach, and probably the jury were similarly constituted. As this request seemed to indicate a further lengthy consideration, the Court adjourned unti£4'3o.

Says a correspondent of the New Ztalander :— lf the quality of the sportsmen who on Thureday evening and yesterday morning left by train for the purpose of shooting in the Wairarapa and Wainuiomata was in any way equalled by their quantity, tbe ducks and rabbits must by this time have suffered severely. But if, on the contrary, the young man who took the stock, case, &c, of his gun with him, and left the barrels at his place of business, be a fair sample, the game will be more frightened than hurt. A sorrowful occurrence, arising out of larrikinism, occurred at Melbourne recently. A gang of larrikins were brought to court to answer for their misdeeds, amongst them being one named Maher. His mother was called on to attest to his former good conduct, and was so affected by her position that she fainted in the box. She was hastily removed to her home, and then, upon examination, it was founii that she was dead. Madame Miohan-Carvaho wben playing id Lucia di Laramermoor at Marsaillea had ordered a restaurant-keeper to send her a basin of hot soup at nine o'clock. The hour came, and with it a girl carrying the star's refreshment. The girl made at once for the stage, and arrived at the wings as Madame was singing in the finale of the first act ; aud the next moment Havenawood and Lucia were astonished by a soup tureen being set down on the mossy bank in front of the fountain, the cover lifted and the intruder addressing then?, as she plunged a spoon into the bowl, with : " Begging your pardon, sir, for interrupting you and lady, but here's the soup." This clipping concerning last Paris fashions may interest our lady readers, and even others of the sterner Bex ;— Linen never less deserved tbe name than now, being made of anything but linen. Old-fashioned collars and cuffs are scarcely seen, these articles being replaced by crape ruching, needle-ran lace, called "Bretan lace," unbleached foulard, edging, and embroidery. Small insects, such as bees, and larger creatures, such as dragons, salamanders, scorpions, and snakes, arc now dividing favor with mice, which are worn small aud stuffed. A very small stuffed squirrel has been seen on a jaunty sealskin bat. Tbe fashionable handkerchief is transparent lawn, with a border of nude ling (sic), and a colored button-holed edge. An English Exchange says the heaviest bullock heard of in Great Britain weighed 28 cwt, and took the first prize at Edinburgh in December 1873. A New Zealand bullock turned the sca'e at 3948 pounds, or 35cwt lqr. The Turkish monitor destroyed by the Russians on the Danube was of English build, and cost £160,000. ....««■ . ■ .i ■ i imnir.l ■ nr w »4iiw«»i.inm..