LATEST TELEGRAMS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1226, 15 December 1882, Page 2

LATEST TELEGRAMS.

: [per united press association]. WELLINGTON, This Day. With regard to the destruction of the j bridge and tramway by natives at Takapau, ; Hawke’s Bay district, the following further particulars have been ascertained. At day break, on the 11th about 15 natives from Waipawa pah armed with guns and axes, proceeded to the land known as Takapau, and destroyed the bridge and a portion of the tramway constructed by Messrs Wilding and Bull, who were cutting Timber on the land. The damage was done before the Takapau natives knew what was going on. The Waipawas had returned to their pah, and a threat was given that they would return, and it was feared that if they did there would be a serious conflict. It appears that the Waipawa and Porangahau Natives have lately objected to timber cutting on this land, and they held several meetings on the subject and in they determined to destroy the bridge and tram. On the Government being informed of this they advised that the Natives should be informed that whatever their rights were they could not be permitted to take the law into their own hands, as they were now doing. The land in dispute has not been passed through the Native Lands Court and the Natives have been urged to allow everything to stand over until the title is decided. They were also told if further violence was resorted to the Government would interfere. When this was being urged on the Natives Messrs Wilding and Bull were sent for, and it was arranged that a week be allowed them to load what they had cut, after which neither party is to go on the ground for six weeks. In the meantime application is to be made to the Land Court to hear the case, and have the whole matter decided by law. The Takapau Natives who gave Wilding and Bull permission to cut timber have been in occupation for a number of years.

Information has been received from the Agent-General by the mail stating that he intended despatching the ship Halcione for Lyttelton on the 13th December with a full complement of immigrants. He mentions that he is advertising for experienced domestic servants who are willing to proceed to New Zealand.

With regard to appointments for the Auckland College and Waitaki High School, he says that a large number of applications have been received from professors for the Auckland College. There were 87 applications for the Chair of Classics and English, 61 for Mathematics, 34 for Chemistry, and 23 for Natural Science. For the Waitaki School 700 gentlemen applied for the necessary forms, of whom 230 sent in complete applications. Sir Dillon Bell expected to make final selection during November. At the inquest on the children drowned in the Upper Hutt river on Tuesday night a verdict of accidentally drowned was returned.

the 25ih .ianuary Is the day gazetted for the payment of the Property Tax. Mathew Michael Cleary, transferred from Hokitika, has been appointed Gaoler at Auckland rice James Caldwell, granted a year's leave of absence on his retiring from the service. An Order-in-Council ia published in the Gazett stating that the volunteer regulations of the 19th October, 1874, shall remain in force until the Ist day of January next, and that the new regulations shall not come into force until that date. Hawera won the return match with the Auckland second team, t>y one innings and 45 runs. NELSON, This Day. Auckland won the Cricket Match yesterday by three runs, There was the wildest excitement. AUCKLAND, This Day. A warrant is just issued for the arrest of Miriam Hamilton and Thomas Priestly, a Presbyterian student, charging them with the wilful murder of the formers husband, Hugh Aitken Hamilton, who, it was supposed, met his death on the night of the 28th ult., by falling head foremost on the leg of an iron bedstead, while in a state of drunkenness. The Coroner’s inquest resulted in the finding of a verdict “That deceased met his death by accidentally falling against an iron bedstead. This,* however, did not satisfy the deceased’s relatives, and at their instigation the police began to make further investigations, as in the meantime some ugly rumours were being circulated.

It was alleged that the widow (had been improperly intimate with a young theological student, who taught in the same Sunday school as deceased, and who lived next door in her mother’s house. The police saw both parties on Saturday, and each of them made contradictory statements. With great patience Superintendent Thompson and Detective Strathearn kept following up the trail, and yesterday having got all the outside testimony possible, they had the prisoners’ property and boxes searched, the result being the discovery of a pair of dark tweed trousers in Priestly’s box bearing traces of comparatively recent blood, and of an axe in the widow's house, which also shewed faint marks of blood as if there had been an attempt to wash them out. The affair causes great sensation. Priestly was a convert from Roman Catholicism, and Hamilton was Secretary of an Orange Lodge, while Mrs Hamilton was a Scotch Presbyterian. Owners of a cargo of tin ore brought from Lord Howe Island, have decided that 25 tons of the cargo should be shipped to London for the purpose of ascertaining the commercial value of the ore. A balance of 5 tons will be locally treated. Thomas Horton has been arrested for an attempt to murder Mary Jane Rayner, and was remanded. The trouble arose out of a dispute with Mr Rayner.

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The first cargo of frozen meat from Canterbury will be despatched in a steamer in March, which will take 10,000 carcases. The freight has been fixed at two pence per lb., and the Company's freezing, etc., is another half-penny. DUNEDIN, This Day. A public meeting will be called for*Fridav to arrange for a banquet to Sir Julius Vogel. Still another new gas producing patent is to be applied for by Dunedin manufacturers. The gas is to be made from any fatty substance at such cost that it can be supplied at 2s per thousand, and coal and wood gas can be used for its manufacture. Sir Julius Vogel's stay in the Colony will be brief. He will only remain a few days in Dunedin, and will probably only visit Christchurch and Wellington before leaving the Colony. SuioidoAs the train from Palmerston, which arrives at 9 p.m., was nearing the city last night, and just it had got to Castle street crossing, near the entrance to the Railway Yard, a man who was observed standing on the rail, suddenly threw himself in front of the engine across the rails. He was shockingly mangled, and death was instantaneous. The body has not yet been identified.

WANGANUI, This Day. The case of Francis Williamson sentenced to twelve months imprisonment at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, for perjury, a petition for an appeal to the Governor is being got up on the ground that the verdict of the jury is not justified. Prisoner swore in the recent civil case at the Supreme Court that a certain Native was alive in 1872, and a mass of Native evidence was called to prove that he died in 1860. A document is said to be in possession of the Bank of New Zealand alleged to be signed by the deceased Native in 1872, and it is said that other evidence can be brought forward. Great interest is taken here in the matter. The old soldiers at Wanganui sent home a petition to the Prince of Wales asking for assistance re land grants, and received a reply that His Royal Highness cannot interfere, hut had asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies to enquire into the matter. The heat is intense, and there have been numerous cases of sunstroke. ASHBURTON, This day. A well-known sheep dealer named John Meiklejohn was committed for trial on a charge of stealing 510 sheep, the property of Sir John Hall.

ONEHUNGA, This Day. A fire at Onehunga at 2.30 this morning destroyed eleven buildings. No water was available. It originated in a hayloft attached to the Hibernian Hotel, and there is reason for suspecting that a worthless fellow named Philip Pennell, who slept in the loft, caused the fire either by accident or design. The buildings destroyed and insurances thereon are—the Hibernian stable (Seccombe's), £5O, New Zealand ; Oats, bootmaker, £l7O, New Zealand ; Bullcraig’s dwelling and shops, £250, South British ; Pegler’s dwelling and workshops, £230, South British ; Blakey’s house and shop, £250, South British ; Clark’s dwelling, £25. New Zealand, Nicholl’s carpenter’s shop, £7O, New Zealand ; Yates's double shop, £2OO, Colonial; Good Templar Hall, £l5O, North British—£so, South British.

WELLINGTON, This day. In September last the Premier wrote to Mr Griffin, the U.S. Consul for New Zealand, who was proceeding to America, asking him if it would not inconvenience him to make inquiries into details of the meat pressing business which was carried on in Chicago, especially as to the cost of plant for making tins, and for compressing the meat as well as expenses connected with each branch of the work when a factory was in average operation. A reply, dated Nov. 11th, was received by the last mail from a large firm in Chicago, in which they state it would be difficult to give any detail of items of interest without specific questions ; however they could say in general that from their stand point the chief obstacle of making the business remunerative in New Zealend would be the difficulty of marketing cuts of fresh meat. Without this market to render it possible to dispose or ribs and loins they thought that a canning business would have to be carried on at a disadvantage, if the best cuts of beef could be marketed, canning business might be carried on profitably.