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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 10, 12 January 1880, Page 2

Some of the Opposition journals insinuate — some openly aissert — that dissensions exist in the Cabinet on the Waimate plains difficulty. Such reports are entirely without foundation. We (_Post) have every reason to believe that there is the best possible understanding among Ministers on this im portant question, and that complete unanimity of opinion prevails in the Cabinet as to the course which is to be pursued. According to "Kenelm," the writer of the " Sporting Notes from Zealand," which appear in the Australasian of the 27th December, Sir Hercules Robinson has written Mr Lee, of Sydney, to send him a colt or two for racing purposes. In an article ■ entitled "Embezzlement v. Fraudulent Bankruptcy," the Wellington Chronicle says : — Thomas Chalmers Keid embezzled £1500 of the funds belonging to the Colonial Building and Investment Society at Dunedin, and has been sentenced to eight years of hard labor on the roads. This sentence is a very heavy one, and people guilty of far more serious acts of embezzlement have often escaped with lighter punishment. Thomas Chalmers Reid affected to be a pronounced religious man, and under the cloak of sanctity perpetrated those frauds, which for a time he concealed by making false entries in the books of the company. He has now been found out, consigned to a felon's cell, and ruined, while his wife and I children are left to the cold charity of the j world. Now, had Thomas Chalmers Reid carefully studied the bankruptcy laws of New Zealand and gone into trade with little or no capital, he might have obtained extensive credit, bought very largely, put away some £2000 or £3000 in a secret way, and then filed his schedule, paying his creditors a shilling-iu the pound, and obtaining a full discharge from all his liabilities. Then he would have had a nice little capital of £2000 to start afresh, a. free and whitewashed man. It may be said that so large a I sum as £2000 could not be secreted by a bankrupt without discovery and criminal prosecution. We reply to this that an able and unscrupulous man, who Had determined to perpetrate a swindle of the kind, sufficiently long beforehand, and understood all about bills of sale, and the art of showing fictitious losses, could manage to become bankrupt for a large sum, and defraud bis customers of thousands. If he were very clever he would perpetrate .tho "fraud and escape scot free. If he blundered and got found out— what then? Why ho would be prosecuted for fraudulent bank- " ruptcy, and, if convicted, would get four, six, or nine months' imprisonment— these being the usual sentences awarded by Judges. The moral of all this is that if a man wants to defraud his fellow meu of £1500 he can do it easily and pleasantly under the protec-

tion of our mild bankruptcy laws, and escape all punishment, while, if he foolishly embezzles the money under tho Larceny Act, he will be sent to work on the roads for eight -years. There are sbme people in Wel,-, lington who are at liberty, ahd enjoying liJ.es to the full, possessing both money and c ted it, who have committed fratids under the protection of the bankruptcy laws, of far higher - amounts than that for which Thomas Chalmers Reid ta* been sent to the roada for eight years. That fashionable watering-place on the -south coast of England , Brighton, has just succeeded to a magnificent bequest, but the succession to it will be disputed, By a codicil to the will of the late Mr W. E Davies, knotvh ai) the " Leviathan Bookmaker," wbo recently died at Brighton, where he had resided over 20 years, a sum t)f £42,000 in railway stock has been leffc to the town, subject to certain legacies, for the benefit ofits public institutions. The widow is left penniless, and she has decided to dispute the codicil, while the Cotincil have instructed the Town Clerk to take the necessary steps to defend the town. It is no uncommon thing for the laboring classes to strike a light for their pipe on their trousers, but this practice is fraught with great danger. A man named Henry Wilson, of Shields, was returning by the ferry to his home at the close of his day's work, and he struck a match in the way' mentioned, when all of a momeut he was enveloped in flames. In little more than a minute all the clothing he had upon him was reduced to ashes, and he was dreadfully burnt. With the assistance of other passengers he was dressed and taken to his lodgings, where he lies in a precarious state. His clothes seemed to have become saturated with chemicals while following his employment. As showing tbe large that railway companies are liable to through collisions, tbe case of the London and South Western Railway Companies v. Phillips, decided on the 18th November, is a striking illustration. The plaintiff was a doctor in the enjoyment of a large practice in the West End of London, and while travelling on the defendants' line sustained a severe injury to the spinal cord, causing a partial paralysis of the muscles of tbe chest; which . made it impossible tbat the plaintiff would ever be able to resume his practice. The case had been previously been tried before Mr Justice Field, in April last, and £7000 damages was obtained by the plaintiff, but that sum not being considered sufficient heappealed, and the case was argued before Lord Coleridge and a special jury and a verdict given for the plaintiff, with damages amounting to £16,000.. Some four or five years ago, almost immediately after Gainsborough's famous " Duchess of Devonshire " picture disappeared from Mr Agriew's Gallery in Bondstreet—.Lady Dudley's jewels were Btolen. The thief was not detected or eveu suspected. Recently a former servant of Lord Dudley's was charged on his own confession wifch the theft. He declared, on being: brought before the magistrate, that he was drunk. Neverthless, the magistrate remanded him. There is probabilityof F.urope and Africa being connected by land, a project for a tunnel beneath the Straits of Gibraltar being discussed.

5?>., Ay|ragedy has been brought to -light in £\*9Pa_is-* ..A !■ woman named^__.vy; in walking S|alOng the Boavelard de la Ghapelle, observed %jj» £ man in a blouse^ with .waxed moustaches, ;f : f)efeptying out of a- basket pieces of what to^;her to be fresh meat, aud kickft^ingthemintoa sewer. When ho observed ;;vth.ather curiosity was aroused, be took to YJj_fligbti;;thr6wing down the basket. She apy ; prbaichfed thasewer's mouth, when, perceiviDg Sva.huiiian.arm^ she fainted. . A crowd im:?.;._nediat'ely and a commissary of f^jiblico; was fetched. The pieces were coliE^.ected^and'put together by. a surgeon, who the contents of the basket to bo r?:*a human corpse. The head alone of all the A- jmembers was missing. An inquiry was set E^onTfoot, and the woman l>evy was sent for S>by the com___B_ary. Oil entering his office sf^she knocked against an agent in -uniform, jTgwhich led her to turn round to look at g;:liim.in order to apologise. She suddenly |rfcried -.out, "There's ' the assassin." The -". Syho were with . her thought gflhe.r'mad from emotion, but -were astounded =!.^heh she repealed the accusation, to sco policeman grow pale, tremble, and out of the room. He was aires'. ed 'o^n^rihe. stairs 'and" brought back, when on his knees he avowed tbe H^crime - The murdered man was a traveller |y4pra Paris jeweller, and had several boxes of ??_jje^els whicli he was to" have takeu to tho llSprpvinces as specimens. The murderer, one tlsPrevost, inveigled him, uuder pretext of to buy a watch chain, to his lodging. a glass of wine, and the two were hobnobbing, suddenly him with a hammer on the forehead, .killed him instantaneously. He proto cat up the body on .the spot, and #'next mornitig be went to the La- Chapelle *.:?^iewer to liide the evidences of the murder. hfA It was his intention, by boiling the head, to -identification impossible. _