The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1880.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 76, 30 March 1880, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1880.

We learn, on what appears to be undoubted authority, that a warrant .has been issued for the apprehension of Mr W. Carter Webb, who has held the position of local manager of the New Zealand Insurance Company. The crime charged is that of embezzling a small amount--, £6 17s, we understand, from the Company, of which he was connected. As Mr Webb left Nelson for Lyttelton by the s.a. Maori yesterday morning, the warrant is said to have been forwarded to the latter port that it may be executed there. At the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, before L. Broad, Esq., R.M., notwithstanding the fact of the Court having only juat opened after the Easier holidays, there was hut one case to be disposed of, and that was a civil action Fell v. Walker, in which plaintiff claimed £31 13s for rent due and amount of principal 3nd interest on a promissory note. Since the action had been brought the defendant had paid £6 13s, and accordingly judgment was given for the balance— £25 — and costs £1 14s. An inquest was held at the Hospital yesterday by the District Judge touching the . death of Clara l'almer, a young woman who die! on the .previous-, day at . tha^Xiunaiic,. Asylum, of which institution sWhad" been an inmate for some short lime. It will be remembered that not long since whilst at the Hospital she attempted to strangle herself, aud since then she appears to have been continually suffering from suicidal mania. Two or three weeks ago whilst the attendants were engaged for a second, she, watching the opportunity thus afforded, rau from the dining room, and before she could be caught jumped into a copper of boiling water, from which she was at once removed. Her death was not caused by the injuries she then received, but was due to the exhaustion resulting- from this suicidal mania, and the jury having heard the evidence, stated this in their verdict as the cause of death, adding a rider to the effect that in their opinion the female attendants at the Lunatic Asylnm were not sufficiently numerous, It is amusing to see the manner in which certain unscrupulous journalists rather than offend the susceptibilities of those of their readers ou whom they depend for^their living, change the Dame of a locality in which the event they are relating actually occurred. In the subjoined paragraph, however, it is apparent, on the face of it, that the '• go'ak" occurred in the " City of Oatmeal.'' The Dunedin Evening Star should be more truthful : — " Thrift. — A good ' goak ' comes from • Sleepy Hollow.' It is told of a theatrical manager who recently ran a show there that, to save expense, ho took the money himself —or rather he was in the box to take it. In one of those intervals which frequently occur in Nelson between the advent of patrons, a young man, with the sigus of twenty-one on bis upper lip, walked boldly up to the window, and, producing two threepenny pieces and six coppers, asked for als ticket. The manager rose, and, grasping the hand of the youth to his astonishment, said : — ' Glad to meet you ; you heard about this show a long time ago ? ' The youth, blushing and si mmering, inquired 'Why?' On which the manager replied, ' Because you appear to have been saving up for a few months ; you are one of Nature's noblemen, and a true patron of the theatres.' Pass in a dead head, and my blessing be with you." It is alike noteworthy aud satisfactory | thnt the whole of the Easter holidays should have passed over without a solitary charge of drunkenness being laid at the Police Court. But whilst we in Nelson are, compnratively speaking, so free from this vice, it does not appear to be dying out in other New Zealand centres. Many of our exchanges contain most painful particulars regarding the effects of drink. Not the least painful of these, clipped from the Wellington Post of Thursday reads as follows: — 'Anyone who was passing by the Panama Hotel at noon to-day might have witnessed a painful , but too common spectacle. Two drunken women — one with an infant in her arm9 — were trying to help up from the gutter a third, who was too far gone to walk alone, while a poor little girl of five or six years of age was lending her small assistance, with piteous lamentations. The whole presented an edifying group to the gaze of a crowd of school-boys just loose from school Where does the money come from ?" Who suffers ? That such a sad occurrence should be a " painful but too common spectacle " is a disgrace to the City in which it can be said. Mnny of our readers will be glad to notice that the D'Urville Island Copper Mining Company contemplate again starting work in their mine. We are informed that the last consignment, of ore sent to Newcastle for smelting yielded 20£ per cent of copper. The company is to be congratulated in hay-

ing taken second prize for copper ore at the Sydney Exhibition.— Post. The Evening Post of Thursday last says: A meeLing of creditors of Neville Thornton, scenic artist, was convened for yesterday afternoon, but fell through for lack of attendance on the part of creditors. The liabilities are stated at £129 16s G-J-d, and the assets at £57. The residents in Taranaki-street last night about ten o'clock heard a great sound as of the beatiug of tin-kettles. They imagined a neighbor had been married, and that his friends were snlutiug him with rough music. It turned out that the noise was made by the volunteers, who;were returning from the drill shed, where they had been supplied with " billies " and tin dishes for the Easter encampment. — Post.