CREDULITY AND CRIME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 143, 1 May 1862, Page 3

CREDULITY AND CRIME.

(From the Illustrated Lotulon News.)

A case tif fortune-tolling is under investigation at the Waudsworth Police .Court,, the prisoner. being1 a young gipsy womnn, named iSclina Smith; She is charged by Mr King, a person living at Wimbledon, with obtaining a dress and 2s from his wife, and Is from one of the servants, oh prcteuce oi" telling fortunes. Credulity, or something worse, was shown by both mistress anil servants. The woman ciime with mats to the dobr, and got Is from the cook, Emma Pole, whom sheto.d she" had a lucky countenance, and would get a'gentleman for a husband. Then, after telling the housemaid's fortune, she wan sent up to the mistress. The servants reported to the magistrate what passed. The cook said:—l heard the prisoner say my master wonld not live longer than a month. I heard my mistress say she would not mind a sovereign if she could bring her something to do her good. The prisoner, said that_if three drops were mixed with his tea he would die in a month. On .Friday the prisoner came again and brought a powder in paper. She mixed the powder in coid water, and said three drops of it were to bo given in every cup of tea. " Was it to give your master ? I suppose it was to Sill him at- the end of the month". When the prisoner said my uuislcr would die at. the end of the month my mistress saw me looking, and said she was afraid to trust anybody. I said I would not tell. Pi iscilln Webher Jollings, the fellow servant of the last witness, said:—! heard the prisoner tell my mistress she would be married again in twelve months, and that she would be a happy woman, mid have one child. She said master would die in a month. Mistress said; "Do you think so ; 1 am not quite sure." The prisoner said, " Do as 1 tell you, and you can."' Prisoner: I say, dear, did you not say I ,was to ask the lad}- to give you £5 to go down to the gentleman's friends? Witness: My mistress asked me if I ■would go to master's friends; and' ,1 told the prisoner to tell her to give me £5, and that it would not be lucky to go under £j. My.iuistre.ss told me I could go, and she did not mind wfeat money she gave me. That was after the' fortune was told. Prisoner: She said I was to tell the lady about her :iot living happily-witli her husband. Witness: I said so. The magistrate remanded the prisoner for a week, and directed that, the stuff should be analysed.

ERHOnS IN ENGLAND RESPECTING NEW ZEALANP. • ■ We tnke the following from the London New Zealand Examiner of Fotariary 17, th":—:

False telegrams respecting New Zealand continue to come and to' obtain circulation in respectable journals. A message of this nature .found its way into.the Daily Ncics on rucsiiay, and we are glad to. give--here a letter which Mr. Hidgway, the Agent to the Provincial Government of Auckland, wrote to the editor of that journal respecting it. There is no better authority on the suhject of the conditon of New Zealand than Mr. Ridgway. It will be gratifying to our readers to know that there is not a shadow of apprehension of a native war, nor any cause for alarm in the Province of Auckland, or any other part of New Zealand :— '.■■■•■■■ In your paper of this date, under the head of Australia, it is mentioned, " The news from New Zealand reports that the prospects of the colony are not regarded with confidence.' I beg to.state that this telegram comes.from Melbourne, and shpuld not be taken as applicable to all the provinces of New Zealanp; in fact, as far as the Province of Auckland is concerned, there can be no foundation for such an assertion. A letter I received by the last mail, dated November 6, states that, " You will see from the New Zealander that Sir George Grey" has gone northward. He has, in .fact, so devised and adapted as to have formed a complete _ system of s government for the natives. He t is. gone north to form the first native district, and to set up the first machinery of the new rule. It will work, I think, perfectly well, under his hands. Ine natives have such unbounded confidence in him, that they will allow allow him to do things -which,' would be permitted to no other Governor. There is no shadow of apprehension of a native war, nor any cause for apprehension here in Auckland." I think you will see by this extract of a letter, addressed to me by an officer high in the Goyernnient at Auckland,, that the prospects of the colony are regarded with the greatest confidence. I think your telegram must refer to the prospects of the trade of Melbourne with . the Province of Otago, which is many hundred miles distant from Auckland, and in the Middle Island. — lam, &c, ALEX. UIDGWAY, ■ General Agent to the Provincial Government of Auckland. 40, Leicester-square, W.C. Feb. 11.