The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 120, 21 May 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1879.

Thk manner in the public are treated now in connection -with the holding of the Wednesday Magistrates' Court is simply scandalous. For the Court to open

at the appointed hour, eleven o'clock, is quite the exception, and, as a rule, it is nearer half-past before a quorum of Justices can be hunted up. This was the caro again this morning, when, as it so happened, the number of defendants, witnesses, and others concerned, was much larger than usual, and the whole of them were submitted to the great inconvenience of dawdling about the Court wailing for a Magistrate to turn up. It is high time that this state of things was remedied, and we appeal to the proper authorities to insist upon some more satisfactory arrangements being made without any further delay. We are requested to state that the reason for Mr Acton Adams' name being placed bu the Commission of the Peace was that he had been appointed official visitor of the Asylum, and the Act requires that anyone holding that position shall be a Juslice'of the Peace. Although there was a difficulty in obtaining Justices to sit on the P.euch this morning, there was no lack of them in Court, the names of two, as will he seen by our report, appearing on the list of defendants against whom informations had been lodged for breach of the by-laws. At a meeting of Volunteer officers held last night, it was decided to hold the review on Monday instead of Saturday next. The receipts of the Nelson railway for the four weeks ending sth April were £673 13s 1 Id, against £5 i 7 19 4d for the corresponding period of last year. The number of passengerswas 5724, and the quantity of goods carried 1138 tons, being an increase of 359 tons as compared with the corresponding period of last year. The value of the imports into New Zealand during the quarter ending 31st March last was £2,556,652, of which £1,753,553 was for goods imported direct from England. The increase as compared with the corres • ponding period of last year is £207,361. TnE first coursing match of the season will take place at Hope to-morrow, when a good day's sport is anticipated. A fourhorse coach will leave the Trafalgar corner at 9 a.m. TnE new Catholic Church at Motueka will be formally opened on Sunday next at 11 a.m. On the following day a public tea party will be held at 3 p.m. Thosk who arc interested in the Christmas Tree entertainment in aid of the building fund of the schoolroom in connection with Christ Churcii are reminded that it takes place this evening. An inquest was held at Happy Vallpy yesterday afternoon before Dr Boor, the Coroner, and a jury, on the body of William Adnams, who on the previous day while taking his dinner at the house of his son-in-law, Mr John Powell, was suddenly seized with a shivering fit, and fell hack 'dead in his chair. Dr Marks, having made a post mortem examination, stated tiiat death was caused by heart disease, and a verdict was returned accordingly. The deceased, who was about 64 years of age, was for some time landlord of the Bay View Hotel, on the ! Wakapuaka road. ATimaru telegram of the 14th instaut reports quite a chapter of accidents. A man on board the Edwin Fox had his head split open by a blow from the handle of the winch; a man named Campbell was thrown from his horse and had his arm and collarbone broken; a child in a perambulator had its collar bone broken by coming into collision with a passing vehicle; a man named Edwin liart, who had been drinking, was found lying on the beach with a fearful wound in his hip, from which the doctors took a piece of bone an inch and a half long, lie does not know how he received the wound. Michael Murphy had his leg broken by the wheel of a dray passing over it; and Charles Payne, who had only lately been married, met with a boat accident, from which he is not expected to recover. Regarding the Government refusal to make Monday next a holiday instead of Saturday, the Post says :— The Government, we learn, were not only willing, but very desirous that the date of tbc- holiday should be altered, tfie 24th being mail day as well as Saturday, and therefore exceedingly inconvenient to everybody. Unfortunately, however, the Bank Holidays Act provides that the 24th May in I every year shall be a bank liolday, and the Government arc advised that they have no power to make it not a holiday. All they could do would be to proclaim another holiday as well, which would not get over the difficulty, but rather would increase it. During the month of April, 1879, 5 violent deaths occurred in New Zealand. The causes were as follows:— Fractures and contusions, 2; gunshot wound, 1; found drowned, 1; died overlaid by a mother, 1. The exports from the the colony for the quarter ending 31st March last were of the value of £2,455,077 against £2,396,180 for the corresponding period of last year. In gold there wa9 a large falling off, the value of the amount exported during last quarter being £285,930 against £400,475 for the same quarter of 1878. Of wool, the value for the 1879 quarter was £1,852,327, for the 1878 quarter £1,751,903. The value of the wheat j exported had gone up from £62,347 to £93,962. Rabbit skins show an increase the figures being £15,09 Gaud £12 374 respectively. ' From the Registrar General's report of the vital statistics of the principal tdwns of the colony during the month of April we find that the proportion of deaths to the 1000 of population waa lowest at Lyttelton, where it was only 058. In the other towns it was as follows :— Hokitika, 070; Invercargill 074; Nelson, 0 88; Napier, 092; Auckland' 1-48; Dunedin, 1-50; Thames, T6O; Caversham, 1-75; Christchurch, 1-76; Oamaru 2-03; Timaru, 236; Wellington, 241; and Wanganui, 300. The total number of deaths was 189, and of births 392.