TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5653, 13 May 1879, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

(PBB PBEBS AGENCY.) Auckland, Monday.

A gardener named Priestley, employed by Dr. Wright, being missing to-night, the doctor went in search of him in the garden with a lantern, and discovered him lying dead in a bed of tomatoes. Priestley was in good health all day. Mr. Clark, C. 8., has sent in hie report on drainage to the City Council. It is very voluminous, and is accompanied by diagrams. The charge for the report is £3OO. One hundred and twenty tons of Waikato coal were taken by the steamer Wellington for her Southern voyage. The Governor is expected here on the last day of the present month. A sub-committee has been appointed to carry out the arrangements for the reception. A bazaar, in aid of St. James’ Presbyterian Church Schoolroom, realised £266.

In a long disputed point between the City Council and the Harbor Board as to who should make roads on the land reclaimed by the Harbor Board, both bodies agreed to pay half. Mr. Henry Keesing, a very old Hebrew settler, has died in his 89th year. Napieb, Monday.

Last Saturday a sailing boat containing two men was capsized in the inner harbor. One of the men swam ashore, but the other was drowned. The latter was a seaman recently discharged from the schooner Saxon, and was only known by the name of- Charley. Wanganui, Monday.

An inquest was held to-day on Hugh McMahon, who died at the Bed Lion Hotel, The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against a native named Tawana. McMahon had beeu drinking heavily, and the medical testimony showed that to be the primary cause of death, possibly accelerated by the blow struck.

Oamabd, Monday,

A gentleman named Elliots, residing at Bay View, missed one of his sons, a boy about eight years' old, yesterday, and no trace could be found. This morning he was found drowned in a concrete tank at the rear of the house. He is supposed to have lifted the lid, and looking in lost his balance and fell into the tank. Christchurch, Monday.

A trotting match is coming off on the 17th instant, for £2OO aside, 15 miles, on the Eic-cartou-road, between Milner’s Black Boy and Evans', Millie, from Rangitikei, Wellington. A great deal of money has been laid on the result.

An inquest was held on Dr. Mark’s body this morning, but nothing new transpired. The jury brought in a verdict that the deceased died from the effects of poison, administered by himself. J. Harding, a billiard-marker at the Central Hotel, was charged to-day with stealing a watch, valued at £lO, and was committed for trial. Bail was allowed—prisoner in £IOO, and two sureties at £SO each. A man named William Reid had his leg broken at Oxford by the overturning of a dray. There are complaints here of the insulators on the telegraph poles being destroyed by larrikins. Other instances of carelessness on the part of persons moving machines about the country, and carrying away or damaging wire, are not unfrequeht. To-day a man named George Simpson was fined at the Resident Magistrate’s Court for damaging wire while moving a house. ■ The long - expected steeplechaser, Lone Hand, left Port Phillip Heads by the Tararua on Saturday last. ’ Eeefton, Monday.

Mr. Reeves, M.H.R., Grey Valley district,' addressed his Reef ton constituents on Saturday night He approved the action and policy of the present Government, which was the only people’s Ministry the colony had yet had. The native difficulty, so called, had not arisen through the present Ministry, but was a legacy handed down by the previous Government. At the close of his address Mr. Reeves received a unanimous vote of confidence. Tjkartj, Monday.’ r

A man named Patrick Rodney was brought up atthe'K.M. Court this morning charged with violently resisting the removal of grain from a farm near the Blue Cliffs station. It appeared that Rodney was employed by a man named Jones, who a few days ago filed a declaration of insolvency. A firm in town who held a lieu on the bankrupt’s crop were moving some oats from the farm, when Rodney resisted, stating that Jones owed him £69, and that he was legally advised not to allow oats to be taken until he was paid in full. The information charged him with violently resisting J. Hunter Wildle, but as the prosecutor did not substantiate the charge he was dismissed. Much sympathy is felt for the unfortunate Rodney, who spent a whole year working for the bankrupt , and has nothing to get for it. Even prosecutor was very glad that he was not imprisoned. A young , man named Henry Stringer was to-day fined 40s. for jumping on the train while in motion. A man named Little died very suddenly yesterday. He had been in Timaru for the last week drinking very hard. He went bn last Saturday as far as Albury, on his way home to the Mackenzie Country, where he was employed on a station. He was discovered in a dying state in a shed at Albury yesterday morning, and died immediately after. The body was brought by train into town to-day, and at the inquest held this evening a verdict of death from natural causes was returned. Invercargill, Monday. ■

. A meeting of the Kaitangata Relief Conimittee was held this afternoon to finally dispose of the accounts. The total of subscriptions was announced at £6/6 12s. 9d. It was resolved to remit this, leas £lB for the necessary expenses to the Central Committee at Dunedin. The Mayor, who presided, was instructed to this effect, and also to convey to the Central Committee a suggestion from the Local Committee as to the disposal of the fund ; that it would be advisable, if practicable, to invest the total amount of the subscription fund from all sources as a mining accident relief fund for the whole colony, and only devote the interest to the relief of the

Kaitangata sufferers, contingent upon the interest being ample for their requirements. The adjourned inquiry into the charge of incendiarism against the McMenamans was held to-day at the gaol. After a good deal of evidence had been taken without much further light being thrown on the subject the inquiry was further adjourned for eight days. Dunedin, Monday. The ship James Nichol Fleming has been re-named the Napier. Mr. Calcutt, of the Public Works, has made large purchases of land on the Lower Taieri Plains for the interior railway. The Civil servants salaries were paid at the end of last week.

From 150 to 200 immigrants will be sent from the Clyde by the Napier this month. It has been found that the Otago land fax returns are incomplete. All extra hands were dismissed two weeks ago, but have been taken back.

A movement has been initiated for erecting a public monument to Sir J. Richardson.

The weather throughout the province lately has been very fine for farming purposes. Ploughing, potato-digging, and threshing are going on actively.

Re Union Steamship Company’s vessels, the Penguine will arrive in two months from date. The Claud Hamilton having broken her crankshaft, is under repair at Melbourne, and will be under repair for a month. In the meantime the Wellington and West Coast goods and passengers will arrive via Bluff and Dunedin, and will be transshipped. The Rotomahana will leave the Clyde in the middle of July, and London on the sth August. The Te Anau will arrive here by Christmas from London.

Paragraphs in the northern papers re state of trade in Canterbury and Wellington are condemned by merchants here, who look upon them as tending to intensify whatever evil may exist.

Of the 1800 citizens on the electoral roll for Dunedin, 900 have been objected to, nearly all by the returning officers. The objections were legally published in a way that few of those objected to saw them. People are now finding it out, and great indignation is felt. Hundreds of people objected to own property within the city,' though not the property which was set opposite their names on the roll. A draper was fined to-day for a nominal breach of the Factories Act, keeping girls a few minutes after time on Saturday afternoon. Four children, the youngest seven, and the oldest twelve, were sent to the Industrial School to-day for long terms for theft.

The Primitive Methodists second church was opened by the Rev. Mr. C. Ward. A large congregation was present. The Caledonian Evening Classes open »n Thursday, and will probably have a very large attendance.

A man named Garner got a couple of pretty severe scalp wounds in a family quarrel yesterday. A man named Richard Patton, about 55 years of age, whilst standing in the Provincial Yards on Saturday afternoon, was knocked over by a horse, and removed to the hospital in an insensible condition, where he lingered until 10 o’clock last night, when he died. The deceased was for many years a constant habitue at the saleyards, and was well known.