RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 20, 23 January 1880, Page 2

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT

[Before L. Bkpad, Esq., R.M.] Antonio Wett, a fisherman, waa charged with deserting his wife and three children on the 19th December. It appeared that he went away to Auckland on that day, and the police being telegraphed to, he was brought down on a warrant in the Taiaroa this morning. Defendant pleaded not guilty. Filisted Wett, his wife, stated that he left his house on the 19th instant, and went away in the steamer to the North. She thought he had gone off in a fit of temper and would - soon return, but as he did not do so she laid an information. He had left her entirely ! without means. Defendant said he had written to the pariah priest asking him to look after the children, and promising to pay for their support. The fact was that he could not live at home as his wife misconducted herself with other men, kept low company, neglected her duties, and altogether made his house so miserable that he could not live in it. He was quite willing to take his children and keep them, but could not live with his wife His Worship said that domestic difficulties were na reason why he should leave his wife to be supported by the public. He had full control over his children, and could remove them and place them wherever he

pleased. The order would not be, as it might, that he be locked up, but that he pay 10s a week to the support of his wife and 5s for each of his children, and the costs of the case. Farmers are in good spirita generally this season. All round Masterton (says the local paper) the crops are looking about as well as they can, and a heavy yield is pretty certain. We saw the other day 250 acres on the Opaki, which has been cropped for the first time this season by the Messrs Chamberlain Bros, and Welch Bros., and which is a picture as well a little fortune. All over the block both wheat and oats are looking remarkably well. One patch of the former, belonging to Messrs Chamberlain Bros., and measuring 50 I acres, is simply magnificent. It would be difficult to beat it either in New Zealand or Great Britain, and when we mention that it is expected to run over 50 bushels to the acre an idea may be formed of its value. Mr M. Price, formerly Warden and Resident Magistrate in Westland, has been appointed Resident Magistrate at Gisborne, and left this city yesterday to resume office. He has recently returned" from Melbourne, where he .underwent a second operation at the bands of an oculist, and, we are glad to say, with material benefit. Hia eyesight is pJUOb iraprQY§<3. Mr WbUefOQrd, R,M,j wh,Q

. has been stationed at Gisborne for some months past, will return to his own district — Kaiapoi.— JNew JZe/ilandler. Chiarini, the circus proprietor, has offered a benefit at Dunedin „ for the Irish Famine Relief Fund. An Auckland telegram says : — Mr Lundon, M H.R., iv a speech delivered at Kawaknwa, stated that the Government were far.tfiore liberal than he expected, and placed £150,000 (?) more than he asked for on the Estimates for North Auckland. He thanked Mr Oliver, the Minister for Public Works, and had come to the conclusion that he (Lundon) was the biggest fool in the House for having voted against the Government. Electric fire indicators have now been fixed throughout Dunedin, and connected with the Central Fire Brigade stations. They work very well. A Wellington paper says : — People seem to be tired of attending meetings of creditors. There is so little advantage to be gained as a rule that it is hardly to be wondered at that business men decline to lose time, in addition to losing money, over an affair of this kind. The greatest difficulty was experienced in getting three creditors to attend the meeting of Mr W. .7. Roberts this morning, while in the case of Dr Kesteven the attempt to obtain a quorum utterly failed. The Wanganui handicaps (says the Pott) have been received by the racing men at present in Wellington with great disgust, and not without some reason. The example set by the Armed Constabulary at Waihi, whose rate of pay it is pretty generally kaown is not veiy large, in subscribing the handsome sum of £41 in so short a time towards the Irish Distress Fund, is one worthy of extensive emulation, and their conduct does them the greatest credit. We feel sure that the generous conduct of our gallant troops at " the Front " will be very widely appreciated. — Pott. The Patea correspondent of the Wanganui Herald writes, under date 14th January :— " Katene, a chief generally supposed to have some influence with his tribe, and a knowledge of the native mind,, has written to the hon. John Bryce from the settlement to which he belongs, saying that there will be no difficulty in taking possession of the Waimate Plains now. That the natives are not numerous who cling to Te Whiti, they are not of the Waimate, but belong to Parihaka, where all the trouble lies. He says, " Go to the root of all evil and destroy it," and when you again occupy the Plains it will cause the hearts of the people to be glad. It will make the women and children and tribes rejoice when they see these things settled. I have been talking to my tribe, and doa't you listen to the voice of thunder which is at Parihaka. They will not be able to hold to the land. You must not listen to the voice of the big thunderer, nor look to the big cloud, for the Maori influence is dying out and the power of the white man is increasing, because tbe natives will not listen to the voice of Government. Come on to the laud, no evil will result from it. T«ke Hiroki, for such evils must be removed." Te \» hiti has sent to all the tribes to inform them that they must be very careful as the Government are going to put soldiers back on the Plains. The above, adds the correspondent, is only a portion of the contents of the letter, and roughly interpreted, but there appears from the general tone of it a desiro on the part of the natives to come to a settlement with the Government. The fastest trains now run at the following speeds on the lines named :— Great Western 53J miles, Great Northern 51 miles, London and Brighton 47 i miles, London and North Western 47£- miles, Midland 46 miles, London, Chatham, and Dover 45 miles, South Eastern 45 miles, Great Eastern 44 miles, London and South Western 44 miles per hour. Iv a New Englaud State, the local newspaper of Somerset County announces that "hugging sociables" are to be held in various parts of that country for church and . other purposes. It is proposed to charge 10c to bug any young lady between 15 and 20; 15c. for anyone between 20 and 30; 25c. for young widows ; Idol, to hug another man's wife ; old maids, two for a cent ; while female lecturers are free, with a chrorno thrown in. There is a great deal of quaint humor about this which one cannot help enjoying, and the beauty of it is that " hugging sociables " are just wbat they pretend to be, and not the " holy fairs," or religious camp-meetingfl, whose love-feasts partake less of fun than of reality. At the recent inquest on the body of Donald the marker who was shot at tbe Kaiwarra butts Captain Thompson iv bis evidence said :— On Saturday afternoon a portion of the -corps, consisting of six men, were at practice at the butts. I was in charge of the party, and two other officers were also present. I bad finished firing, and was coming away with Lieutenant Cameron. Lewis Cbemus and David Bruce, two members of the corps, were firing at the 400 yards range. David Bruce fired a shot, aud tbe deceased came from the hut and marked it out, and then signalled with the danger flag that all was right for the next shot. He then retired as usual . Chemus was the next to fire, and he lay down and took bis aim. I then turned round to speak to some one, and I heard the word " danger " called out by Sub-Lieut. Overend. who was sitting next to me. As he spoke the word I heard the shot, and immediately Sub-Lieut. Overend again called out, "Oh ! Donald 13 shot." I then looked towards the butts, and saw the marker lying on the ground. We all rushed up, and when I arrived at the spot I found the deceased lying on the ground with a wound through his head and quite dead. The danger flag was lying under the body. It is not the rule for a marker to carry out the danger flag; he should show it first.

Some of tho business men in Auckland raise objections to the mail steamers anticipating.their contract dates for arrival, as upsetting 1 their business arrangements; add hurrying their outward correspondence for Sydney. The new Cook Strait Cable to be laid, between Wangnnui Heads and Wakapuaka is expected to arrive at Wellington in the s.s. Kangaroo about the middle of February next. There are 120 kuots on board, of which tfafe shore end goes about 12 tons to the knot. When last heard of the Kangaroo was at the Cape, but she is supposed to have left there some weeks ago. — Potit. In. reference to imprisonment for drunkennees, Sub-Inspector tardy, of Auckland, e?"TiB to think it is the begt thing that could happen to a confirmed drunkard. At a recent trial, he said seclusion in the gaols proved a blessing rather than a punishment to such gentry. They got regular meals, and moderate exercise, wbicb, together with enforced temperance, completely set up their dissipated frames and made them robust again. In fact, some of them were so much improved physically by their stay there that when they came out, at the expiry of their sentence, their friends hardly knew them. A lady, well known In Wellington benerolent circles, has sent us (Post) the following interesting letter ;— " Please order my advertisement to be removed at once, as, though I paid for three insertions, the first bus produced ten such desirable applicants that I greatly fpar adding to my perplexity in choosing where so many nice girls, all with thoroughly good references, are to be selected from. I mention this, as it points to a fact new in the history of the colony, i.e., the overstocking of the domestic servant market, which may interest your readers. A friend had 22 applications lately." The aoti-Chinese movement has spread to Kangitikei, according to the local paper, which states : — " An hotelkeeper in that district was recently 'served with a notice' by his employes that having taken into hit service, through assuming the proprietorship of another hotel in the same township, a Chinese^ cook, they were all compelled to leare his" service. We believe that they were told iv simple language that their employer had no objection to tbeir doing bo forthwith." An enormous shoal of fish seemingly entirely new to Hawke's Bay, entered that harbor on the 24th Dec. The fish varied from three to six inches in length, and so numerous were they that buckets lowered from the breastwork brought up large numbers. Nearly every craft in harbor had a boil or a broil of the little strangers, and the flavor was said to be remarkably good. A Justice of the Peace in Dunedin a few days ago, observing two men thrashing • dog, told them to desist, and, in reply was recommended to mind his own business. In the Police Court subsequently they were informed that a Justice of the Peace had all the powers of a constable, and that this particular one wa? minding his own business on the occasion in question. Writing of the bushrangers who were executed last Tuesday, ihe Sydney correspondent of a southern paper says : — The decision as to their fate was communicated to Scott and Rogan on Christmas Ere. What a mockery the seasonable phraie, "A Merry Christmas" must have seemed to thoße unhappy creatures during the following day. Scott received the tidings with apparent callousness. He said he had anticipated that such would be their nature. Since then, he has evidently been feeling the terrible narrowness of his time — the end coming momentarily nearer— aud tins 'been passing his hours in writing voluminously. He evidently mcaua to speak to the public after he is dead. But, presumably, thero will be an official censorship exercised over these posthumous works, ilogan, on the other hand, appeared smitten with stupefaction when ho learned that he was cast for death. This man's organism would appear to have been of a low order, and his imagination deficient. He had not, apparently, fully realised his position. Hanging, until the sentence became an absolute , one, appeared to have had only an abstract meaning for him But when the sentence was confirmed, and the day (January 20th) definitely fixed, he broke down. A coward in combat, he showed no more moral than he had displayed physical courage. Medical men say that a good cigar will steady the nerves of a man on the gallows. Try it once.