TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5713, 22 July 1879, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

(PER PRESS AGENCY.) Nelson, Monday. Ernest Dorant, telegraphist, charged with stealing money from a brother operator, was acquitted in the District Court to-day. Port Chalmers, Monday. Mr. W. Murray was elected Mayor, polling 176 votes to 121 recorded in favor of his opponent, Mr. W. Innes. Dunedin, Monday. The police at Miller's Flat have arrested Kenneth Mackie, charged with forging a bill of exchange for £286 in Victoria. An old resident of Otago, named William Cross, met' with a fatal accident on Sunday morning, through the brake of the crane at the railway goods shed swinging round and crushing him against the framework. Death was instantaneous. The remains of the late Captain McKinnon were interred with full Masonic honors in the Port Chalmers Cemetery yesterday afternoon, the deceased having been one of the founders •of the Port Ghalmers Lodge, No. 942, E.O. At St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church yesterday morning, Bishop Moran referred to Pastor Chiniquy as one of the false prophets who the Bible predicted would arise. He asked the Roman Catholics of the city not to act like those in Hobarton, but to pay no attention to what Pastor Chiniquy said, as he was a misled man, and the only thing they could do was to pray for him. The railway authorities are amending the arrangements for transferring the sub-pay-masters at Dunedin and Invercargill to Christchurch. It is stated that a legal firm in this city has received instructions to stop the performance of “ H.M.S. Pinafore ” in New Zealand, as the copyright is alleged to belong to a Mr. Williamson, at present residing in Melbourne. Invercargill, Monday. Mr. Goodwillie was elected Mayor by a majority of five votes, the result of the polling showing 314 votes for him and 309 for his opponent, Mr.‘ I. W. Bain. The train to Kingston was delayed two hours to-day in consequence of the heavy fall of snow, three to five feet having fallen in some places along the line. Tisiaeu, Monday. At the Police Court to-day, O. W. Wood, arrested at Wellington on a charge of wife desertion, was ordered to find sureties by 11 o’clock on Wednesday, or go to gaol for six months. Christchurch, Monday. The snow-storms experienced during the past few days have been the most severe in this part of the country for the last nine years,

especially the storms of Saturday night and Sunday. There has been an interruption of railway traffic. Mrs. Walter Hill’s benefit on the first night was a great success. There was a very large attendance, and the performance went very satisfactorily. Mr. H. Lance, an old Canterbury resident, returned from England on Friday in the ship Hawarden Castle, after an absence of 13 years. Donald McGregor, recently admitted to the hospital, suffering from gangrene, occasioned by exposure in the late severe weather, died on Saturday from tetanus. At a meeting of the Sydenham Borough Council this evening a resolution was passed affirming the principle that representation should be on the basis of population, and the mode of adjusting this was ordered to be sent to the representatives of Christchurch in Parliament, with a request that they would bring the matter before the Assembly. Ashburton, Monday.

A remarkable schism has arisen in the Episcopal Church here. Offence has been taken at a gilt cross erected over the communion table, and a petition has been signed requesting the incumbent to remove it. The Rev. W. T. Page declines, and a parish meeting ostensibly to consider finances, but really to discuss the objectionable embellishment, has been convened. On Sunday evening the pastor anticipated the controversy, by preaching a vigorous sermon from Isaiah, in which he defended the cross, and exhorted its assailants in a fatherly manner. On Saturday a passenger in the up train named Henry Williamson, behaved himself in an extraordinary maaner. After passing Timaru he delayed and tried to humbug the ticket collector; and shortly afterwards the guard's attention was attracted by the screams of a Chinaman, who said that his mate was being killed. A Chinaman was found bleeding profusely from a cut near hia nose, and at the Resident Magistrate's Court today both men swore that Williamson inflicted it with a pocket knife, after threatening to out the Chinaman’s head off. Williamson, whose luggage has gone on to Christchurch, made a most abject appeal for leniency, as be had barely money enough to carry him to his destination—Wellington. He was fined seven pounds altogether, or one month's imprisonment.

Mr. Ballance has written to the Ashburton Mail denying that he deserted the Atkinson party in a dishonorable manner, and enclosing correspondence with Major Atkinson on the subject.