INTERPROVINCIAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 13, 15 January 1880, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL.

A - . [Press Association. j •~.L. WsnaiiNGToif; Thursday. '. The half yearly meeting of the Working . r Men's Club was held last night, when the report and balance sheet showed a satis--2 factory result.

Colonel Scratchley inspects the who'e of the^ Wellington Volunteers to-night. t The ship Zealandia cleared for London this morning with a cargo Valued at £71,391, Auckland, Wednesday. A man ? named Henry . Dargon attempted suicide this morning while drunk. With a clasp knife be sawed at his throat and abdomen, and inflicted several slight cuts on his wind pipe and abdomen, on which thirty marks are now visible though none are fatal. He was given in charge by two men, and wae» brought up at the Police Court and remanded for eight days. At the Harbor Board yesterday the report of the Committee on Pilot James recommended his dismissal. It was alleged by members of the Board 1 that several other pilots had been to blame, and the report Was referred back to the Committee for full enquiry into the whole question of the conduct of the pilot service. Attention was also drawn to the silting up of the harbor from the unprotected reclamation works by the gale on Tuesday morning. DfeEDiN, Wednesday. It is raining heavily and floods are feared. A Coroner's jury returned a verdict of incendiarism by persons unknowu in respect of the fire which destroyed Mr Arthur O'Neil's dwelh'ngat Mopeka East last month. Uhmstchurck, Thursday. At the request of the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce the closing the Suez mail has been extended to admit of answers being sent via Suez to the Frisco letters received this morning. The Union Steam Company has been requested to postpone the Ringarooma's departure from the Bluff until i Saturday. For the post of Clerk to 'the MoUnt Somers* Koad Board ninety two applications haVe been received. Capt. Slater of the Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry haa resigned owing to the Defence Office declining to take acy notice of his repeated applications for a drill instructor for the Corps. . ■ At a meeting of the members of the New Zealand Rifle Association last evening Major Lean, who was in the chair, said that as the first meeting at Nelson was bo great a success it would be a pity if Canterbury did not contribute to the success 'of the second meeting in the same degree as it had to the other. During the evening the Engineer and Artillery Companies promised £5 5s each, and eveutually a committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions in aid of the March meeting. The session of the Primitive Methodist district meeting closed yesterday. The following appointments of Ministers were made for the ensuing year : — New Plymouth, Rev. 3. Sharp $ Wellington, Revs. D. Dutton and W. S. Potter ; Auckland, Revs. E. j Long, and J. Nixon; Inyercargill, Rev. CE. Ward; Timaru, Rev. JvDumbell ; Thames, Rev. J. W. % Adamson ; Dunedin, ReVs. J. Ward, D. & Ford, and G. Smith ; Greendale, Rev. J. Grey ; Christchurch, Rev. J. Oliver ; Manawatu, Revs. P. W. Jones, and J. H. Luke ; Ashburton, Rev. A. J. Smith j Geraldine, Rev. T. Sadler ; Oamaru, Rev. C. E. Barley j Students examiners, Revs. D. Dutton, and C. E. Barley. The next district session will ' be held at Dunedin in Jauuary 1881. ' The weather is warm this morning. The recent 36 hours rain has laid many of the tall crops in the northern district. It is hoped that a few days sunshine will put matters right, though the reaping machines in any case will have a heavy task in dealing with the majority of. the crops in thte Ashley County. TnrAKCr, Thursday. A man last night walked into the Police Station enquiring for the Post Office. He was locked up for being drunk, and fined five shillings this morning. Mr Guinness, the Resident Magistrate at Temuka, has announced his determination . to fine owners of cattle trespassing on the railway in the maximum of £5. His brother Magistrate at Waimate is content with a penalty of five shillings. A singular case of supposed suicide was reported this morning. William Willis, farm and station laborer, arrived in Timaru from Albury last Friday, and took up his quarters in the old Bank Hotel. Early on Monday evening, after drinking a glass of gin and bitters, he retired to his room, apparently in excellent spirits. Nothing more was seen of him, and the landlord supposed he bad left the house, till last evening about midnight, when the landlord went to the room to get a bed for a lodger and found the door locked. The servant girl then stated that she had .been unable to get into the room for two days. The police were sent for, and the door burst open, and Willis was found dead resting on his knees and leaning on the bed. An empty two ounce bottle of chlorodyne was on the floor beside him. The offensive smell showed that decomposition had set in. The deceased was about 38 years of age, very temperate in his habits and industrious, and it is supposed that he committed suicide through some love . affair. Geahamstown, Thursday. A two roomed cottage occupied by a miner named John French, his mother and a young brother, was destroyed by fire last night. When the bouse waa first seen it was all in flames and before anything could be saved the house and its contents were burnt to cinders. It is' believed that fire occurred through a candle being left burning. Oamvktj, Thursday. The heavy rain of yesterday has done a considerable amount of damage to the crops, which in many cases are beaten down to such an extent as to render harvesting difficult. The weather is still unsettled.