TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5661, 22 May 1879, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

(PER PRESS AGENCY.)

Auckland, Wednesday. The Pakuranga Hunt Club will commence its season by a meet on Saturday next. Assistant Pilot James has been censured by the Harbor Board for carelessness in bringing the barquentine Falcon into the harbor, and allowing her to touch on a sand bank. The contractors for raising the Taupo have obtained the use of some heavy blocks belonging to the dock, and will make another attempt in a few days. The Auckland Harbor Board has decided in favor of raising a loan of £SOOO. The funeral of Sergeant-Major Tolly took place this afternoon, and was attended by all the members of the police force stationed in Auckland and the suburbs. > Grahamstown, Wednesday. The special wire system will be extended to Grahamstown on the 9th of next month, as the additional wire from Auckland via Thames and Tauranga will then be completed. A Home for Destitute Children and Old Men’s Refuge is about to be erected here under the auspices of the Borough Council. Wanganui, Wednesday. A boy about eight years of age, named Joseph Traynor, whose parents reside at Feilding, was drowned in the river this.afternoon. He had been paddling with two other boys in a canoe and accidentally fell overboard. Otaki, Wednesday. The schooner Colleen Bawn, which was wrecked here a little while ago, was successfully launched in the Otaki River yesterday under the supervision of James Cootes. Patei, Wednesday. The two test cases to decide the dispute between certain natives and S. Taplin, as to the purchase of a quantity of grass seed from Waimate Maoris, were heard at Hawera yesterday before Mr. Wray, R.M. One case was given against Taplin, affecting only a few unimportant claims ; the other case, which decides the remainder of the claims, was given in Tapliu’s favor. Westport, Wednesday. At the inquest on the body of Mrs. Crawford, her husband said she got up to come to Mr. Sheehan’s for him at half-past three in the morning. They went home together and had ho words. She was unusually sober. She afterwards went out the back door. The medical testimony went to show that death was not caused by drowning. Deceased’s shawl was tied round her neck, covering her head. A verdict of “ Death from suffocation” was returned, the jury adding, that there was no evidence as to how such suffocation was caused. Christchurch, Wednesday. A deputation of the unemployed waited upon Mr. March, relieving officer, who consented to lay the matter before the Government. The following -reply was received to-day ;—“ As the men are not newly-arrived immigrants, the Government of the colony cannot undertake to provide them with work. They should apply to the local authorities, viz., Mayor, chairman of county, chairman of drainage, chairman of Harbor Board, &c.” A special meeting of the City Council is called for Friday to confer with the Sydenham Council “as to the advisability of urging upon the Government to subsidise the respective bodies for the purpose of enabling them to find work for men out of employment.” An inquest on the infant child of Mrs. Henham, found dead in bed on Tuesday morning, has been held. The evidence showed that the child had been accidentally smothered by its mother, and a verdict was returned accordingly. It is proposed to form a new Odd Fellows’ lodge in Christchurch, to be called the Loyal Pbillipstown Lodge. The Native Commission which has been sitting at-Kaiapoi has adjourned to Wellington to obtain the Akaroa deed.' The remainder of the Maori evidence will be taken at Akaroa. William Barnard, who was arrested on Saturday on a charge of stealing 266 sheep, the property of a settler at Oust, and waa ! admitted to bail, has absconded. A meeting of persons in favor of granting no more licenses in Sydnenham was to have taken place at half-past seven o’clock to-night in the public schoolroom, but by seven o’ clock the room was packed by another meeting to consider the whole question of licensing, and the last comers could not obtain admission. The meeting in the school lasted about half-an-hour, when, in consequence of the crowded state of the room, it was decided to adjourn outside, where it was swelled by several hundred more. The confusion was then so great that after a few minutes the Mayor of Sydenham, who was in the chair, abruptly adjourned the meeting, which was by far the rowdiest ever held in this borough, which now contains some 8000 inhabitants. : Tdiaru, Wednesday.

At a meeting of the creditors of Mr. John King, auctioneer, held to-day, the liabilities were stated to be—£15,945 10s. 9d. secured, and £11,323 unsecured ; assets, £26,951. Among the assets are 2500. acres of land, valued at £7OOO, and £I4OO book debts. William Rogers was brought up to-day on a charge of obtaining goods on false pretences. It appears that he went to storekeepers and represented that a large number of boarders were staying at his house, on the strength of which ho obtained goods to the yalue of £66.

A few days after he sold out and absconded. He was remanded till Friday. An inquest will be held to-morrow on the fire by which a threshing machine was lately burned at Winchester. The first meeting of the South Canterbury Coursing Club commenced on Tuesday and concluded to-day. Owing to the meeting being held at Mount Peel there was a small attendance. Hares were very plentiful, but the beating bad. The following are the results of the first course :—Mr. Thompson's Balmoral beat Mr. Charter’s Liviugstone Maid ; Mr, Mitchell’s Spring ran a bye ; Mr. Derong’s Smoker beat Mr. Guineas’ Old Smoker ; Mr. Kennedy’s Bess beat Mr. Turnbull’s Coronet; Mr. Thompson’s Ternuka beat Mr. Royes’ Kathleen ; Mr. Thompson’s Richmond beat Mr. Burrow's Manchester ; Mr. Thompson’s Jowley heat Mr. Macpherson’s Chance ; Mr. Thompson's Speculation ran a bye First ties. —Balmoral beat Spring-, Bess' beat Smoker, Richmond beat Jowley, Speculation. . Second ties.—Balmoral beat Bess. As the three dogs left in tile stakes were the property of Mr. Thompson, he sent Richmond to run a bje so that be might divide the first and second money with .Balmoral. The money altogether amounted to £2l. Speculation and Bess, the third and fourth dogs, took £2 10s, each. The Consolation Btakes of £5 was won by BurrowA Manchester.

Dunedin, Wednesday. The body of a man, name unknown, who bad been found drowned near Jewitt's Hotel, was brought to the hospital to-day by the constable stationed at Henderson’s B vy. Travellers by the No. S traiu from Oamaru yesterday afternoon were very much annoyed by the terrible stench which preceded the carriages. It appears that attached to the engine, and in front of the passengers’ carriages, ■were three trucks full of pigs, which had been there for two days. One very large pig was dead, and was much swollen up, and must have died shortly after it had been put iu. The stench was something terrible. Several of the passengers at Blueskiu endeavored to lift the dead pig out of the truck, but it was too heavy. The passengers complained loudly about the management allowing truck loads of pigs preceding the passenger carriages, or even being on the same train.

The Tuapcka Times learns from a correspondent that a resident of Roxburgh named Mr, J, A. Harris has recently succeeded, through the death of a friend, to a fortune of £60,000 in cash, besides a valuable landed estate and personal property, situated in one of the eastern counties of England.

The committee of the Choral Society at their meeting last evening arranged the following programme for the ensuing season :—Mendelsohn’s “Athalie,” and Mozart’s “Twelfth Mass,” “ Paradise and the Peri,” and Spohr’s “God, thou art great,” the “ Messiah,” Haydn’s “Third Imperial Mass,” and Goode’s cantata “ The Crusaders.”

The Waitahuna School Committee by a majority decided to recommend an alteration of the Education Act so as to admit of the reintroduction of the Bible into the schools. The Bruce Herald has been resuscitated in a reduced shape. Donald McDonald, the absconding butcher, has been committed for trial on a charge of false representations. A suburban publican to-day was fined 40s. and costs for selling beer on Sunday.

It is understood that the officials at various railway stations have received instructions from headquarters, Christchurch, to give no information concerning railway matters to the Press. To-night’s Star says :—“The Press Association has now the meanness to send out our special cable messages to its country constituents and to take credit for them as being its own.” Invercargill, Wednesday. A serious accident happened to-day to a man named Nock, at Otaraatea. He was working in a cutting, when a fall of earth came down, burying him. He was brought into the hospital with a broken thigh and other injuries. An unfortunate drunken creature named Evans attempted to commit suicide by hanging herself this evening. She was observed in time. At the District Court to-day J. H. Black was sentenced to six mouths for larceny ; A. Kidd and J. Olson were acquitted on the charge of assaulting Constable Coffey at Oampbelltou; the evidence was strongly against them, and the jury’s verdict occasioned much surprise. The adjourned application of W. H. Bennett, a bankrupt, for an order of discharge, was further adjourned for another month, pending other proceedings being instituted in the District Court. Judge Harvey passed some severe strictures upon the bankrupt's conduct.