NEW ZEALAND ITEMS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 166, 30 April 1874, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND ITEMS.

(FROM THE ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN PRESS AGENCY) ♦ AUCKLAND. April 24. Mr. Kirton, late manager of the P.overty Bay Bank, who was fined £5O for contempt of Court, by Judge Johnston, and failed to appeal, paid the money at Auckland yesterday. The Dorette immigrants have been released from quarantine, and will be landed at Auckland to-morrow. The Whaling Company has resolved to repair their vessel, appoint fresh officers, and send her to sea again. They have made a call of 50s per share. An inquest on the late fire has been held ; King, the chemist, deposed to his accidentally knocking over a bottle of spirits of turpentine, which struck against another bottle, breaking both, and spilling the contents, which blazed up and set fire to the premises. A verdict that the fire was caused by accident was returned bv the jury. The Star of the South, from Fiji, brings particulars of a devastating hurricane in the Yassawas group. Nearly all the plantations suffered srverely, and many buildings were blown down. GREYMOUTH. April 23. The Licensing Bench has been sitting two day». On hundred and twenty applications hare been made for the town and country, and 89 were granted, including 15 wholesale and bottle licenses. Twenty-one were refused and eleven adjourned. The" Bench intimated that no more new licenses would be granted.

NEW PLYMOUTH. April 25. The Census of the population, published in the Herald this morning, shows the increase of population for the three years to be one thousand. No bottle licenses have been granted in this district. DUNEDIN. April 23. The Licensing Court has adjourned for a week. A great many bottle licenses have been refused. Several houses in town have been refused licenses. The bar at the theatre has been abolished. The license has been taken away from the Buffet, “ free and easy.” ’lhe Court distinctly laid down that no publichouse must have more than one bar. April 25. The Guardian has published a leader, commenting strongly on the order of Judge Chapman directing that the officer in charge of the Telegraph Department should place all telegrams at the disposal of the plaintiff, in the libel case brought by Mr. Macassey, barrister, against the proprietor of the Evening Star. It asserts that the order conferred an unfair advantage on Macassey. He was also enabled to get the mass of the defendant’s evidence in the case beforehand. Mr. Macassey has sent a letter to the Guardian directors, stating that if they do not cause an enquiry to be made into the unprecedented course pursued, a ruls nisi will be moved at the next Banco sitting, to attach the company for contempt of Court in permitting the publication of unbridled comment upon a matter which is sub judice.