LAST NIGHT’S WIRES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1350, 1 September 1883, Page 2

LAST NIGHT’S WIRES.

(FROM OUR OWN COBBBSPONDBNT). HAWERA. Josephine Green was yesterday brought up aud remanded on the charge of child murder. The Rev. Williams, Wesleyan Minister, to whom the girl said she had given the child, deposed that be had only spoken to her once. He knew nothing of the child. The baby’s dress and flannels were much soiled, and found in a hedge down in a gully near there. Mrs Hughes, midwife, said she made the flannels, and the child was wearing them when the mother took her away. Ilie theory of the defence is that the child was given to Geo, Williams, a married man. The father of the child is sapposed to be living in the Forty Mile Bush. Every effort is to be made to discover him, a special man being sent to trace him.

A very large meeting of sheepfarmers was held yesterday to receive the reports of the Committee appointed by the settlers of Hawke’s Bay and Waipawa counties, in reference to the approachiug invasion of the rabbit plague. The report stated there was rabbits on the immediate boundary of the province, northward of the Akiteo river, and recommended the erection of a rabbit-proof fence from the coast, running inland fifteen miles towards Woodville iu the Seventy Mile Bush. Ano..ier report recotn. mended the erection of a fence, and condemned the line of the artificial boundary between Wellington and Hawke’s Bay province. The estimated cost of the fence is £3OOO. Sheep-farmers, representing a million and a quarter sheep, agreed to defray the cost, and all sheep owners in the district will be asked to contribute. The Hawke’s Bay members have been requested to communicate with Government with a view to secure assistance. AUCKLAND. A notorious woman, named Ann Vesey, was charged with using abusive language. While the principal witness, a woman, was giving evidence, the prisoner drew a lancet from the folds of her dress, struck the witness twice on the head, covering her with blood. The Court sentenced prisoner to two month’s imprisonment. At Te Kopuru, Kaipara, the planing sheds and three million feet of timber were burnt during the night.

It was raining all night. The whole station And large sawmills escaped almost miraculously. The loss is estimated at fifteen to twenty thdusand pounds. At the enquiry into the wreck Of the barquentine Alma, held to-day before Mr Seth Smith, R.M., and Captain Fraser, Nautical Assessed, John Patterson, master of the deposed the value of the vessel was £lBOO, and the cargo £650. It was his flret trip in the vessel, Which wM not swung prior to sailing, and hid no deviation card for the compais. She struck on Elizabeth Reef at 12.80 a.m. op. August 3, the weather being calm but very dark. He stated that the mate was in charge when the vessel struck, but Alex. Shaw, the mate, said he bad gone below to call the Captain, and was not on deck for j 15 minutes before the striking. Th«J crew were all sober. Only two me J were on deck when she struck. A J hands were saved in the boats. Tlfl Court deferred judgment, and its dH cision will probably be given to-m<fl row. W A railway guard named whilst engaged in shunting, had his head jammed between a waggon aud a piece of timber. He was removed to the hospital, his head being badly crushed. CHRISTCHURCH. The movement of the tides at Lyttelton is still very irregular. At 8 , p.m. the tide orse x'ft Ilin, or two feed more than high water; it then fell four feet within an hour, and again rose six inches. The water in the harbor is thick and muddy. GREYMOUTH. An accident occurred at Ahaura by which John Thomas -wras nearly buried through the bank on which he was standing giving way, precipitating him sixty feet almost perpendicularly. His companion, William Rees, escaped uninjured, and obtained assis* tance. Thomas is severely injured, his head and neck being much crushedWANGANUI. Mr Rochfort, a Government surveyor, engaged in surveying the central railway |route across the Murimotu Plains, has been stopped by the Natives and turned back. Hie party were surrounded, and the instruments were seized by the Natives After being kept prisoners for several daysRochfort and his party were released; and threatened that if they they would be shot. It is stated the affair arose from a misunderstanding, the Natives not recognising the authority of Major Kemp, from whom Rochfort took a letter, authorising him to pass through the county. Rochfort had only eight miles mors to do to finish the survey. OPUNAKE. At the inquest to day on the body of the publican Clark, who shot himsrlf on Wednesday, the jury returned a verdict that deceased shot himself while of unsound mind.