FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 169, 13 August 1879, Page 2

FROM OUR EXCHANGES.

In December last, a clerk named Richard King, who had been for many years in the service of the Yentnor branch of the Capital and Counties, formerly the old Hampshire Bank, absconded from his employment, after having misappropriated over £15,000, the money of the bank. A warrant was granted for the apprehension of the defaulter, and this was placed in the hands of Detective Sergeant Green, of the City Police, for execution. He discovered that King had gone to Paris, and at the end of February Green followed in pursuit. At Paris he found that the runaway had set out on a journey to Spain, via Bordeaux and Bayonne, and from thence by the Northern Railway to Madrid. Green obtained information relative to the fugitive at all these places, but owing to the interval that had elapsed the bird had flown in each instance before the arrival of the officer. The fugitive appeared to hove gone from Madrid to Seville, then to Malaga, and from : thence to Cadiz. He appears tothave. doubled back again to Madrid andl Seville, from thence again to Cadiz, and from this port he would seem to have made his way first to Gibraltar, and from thence to Ayres and Monte Video. Green was still in hot pursuit, being at times on the heels of the fugitive, and he arrived at Cadiz only a day or two after King had started for South America. The officer at once took a berth on board one of tbe Royal Mail steamers for Buenos Ayres,and from information be received there he proceeeed to a race meeting that took ■ place oneSnndayata place called Palamo, a few leagues from Buenos Ayres, and here he discovered the fugitive, and introduced himself to him, very much to the astonishment and surprise of the former. Having been thus far successful, a fresh difficulty , arose, as it app'-afed'Jhat the authorities would not permit the-t-officer to take his c ipt ve away ; and] pending the negotiations, Green, upon his own responsibility, took the fugitive to his hotel, and kept him there under charge, while he applied to the Hon, L. C. Ford, the British Minister at Buenos Ayres, and that gentlemen rendered all the assistance that was. j possible to the officer, who in the mc,ai< , . time telegraphed to London for further j instructions in the awkward | which he was placed. King during this i time had employed a lawyer to act for | him and he had actually obtained a | warrant in which the officer was charged 1 with the oft’-nee of kidnapping. In this dilemma the British Minister was again appealed to, and by his interference, an arrangement was come to by which it was agreed that so long as Green refrained from taking any steps to remove his prisoner from the country nothing should be done with respect to the charge of ; kidnapping, and so"matters remained while further negotiations took place with the South American authorities on the subject. The result was that, notwithstanding all the exertions of Mr Ford and the remonstrances that were made, the South. American authorities refused to sanction the removal of the prisoner, and at length | the officer was compelled to return to | England without him. He arrived in London a few days ago, after a fruitless i chase of many thousand miles. When the fugitive was discovered under the circumstances above narrated, it appears that he had only a sum of about £56 in his possession, the whole of the remainder of the amount he had misappropriated having been spent or disposed of in some ! way or other. f

The last piece of Kelly gossip at Ballarat, according to the ‘Star,’ is as follows: —“Some days ago a man who refused to state his name arrived in Ballarat and took up temporary quarters at an hotel in the western portion of Sturt street. In the course of conversation with the landlord the traveller stated that he bad recently been in the Mansfield district, and that his business had during May last necessitated a journey in the neighbourhood of the Strathbogie Ranges. While on the track he, on May 11, fell in with four well-armed men, who promptly, and in characteristic fashion, introduced themselves as the Mansefield murderers: The relater of the story states that the formalities of an introduction were not requsite, as he had not the slightest difficulty in recognising from their portraits two of the gang, one being the younger Kelly. The gang made him divest himself of every particle of his clothings and went through the form of measuring his height, and generally taking a mind’s-eye , photograph of him. Having satisfied themselves that he was in no way connected with any of the police, or other search parties, the gang made merry at his expense, and chatted freely with him for some time. They threatened that if he gave any information with reference to his' having seen thcap,” his life would not he worth an hour’s purchase. After allowing him time to reclothe himself, they presented him with a serviceable pocket-knife, and, much to Id’s astonishment, with 10 sovereigns in addition, bidding him to continue his way hold-Mis tpngue.^s. Sheridan’s power of repartee his name bright for many a generation yet. On one occasion, when he had been snubbed by the Chief Justice, he sat in dogged silence listening to the judges charge to the ’jury. All st once an ass began to bray. Sheridan rose in his stateliest manner, and, addressing the , j court, s nl - : lordship, '■ A did you not ho-'r a remarkable echo in the court-room 1” j

It is stated that the Guvr'/ement hare called on Mr E. Williams, R.M., M-S-ml. ■who was principally concerned m pm Bay of Islands Roll Commission, to resign. The official registry of mortgages in New Zealand discloses that nearly threefourths of the agricultural holdings are subjected to liens, bearing interest at rates of from 10 to 15 per cent. A lake has been discovered at W lute Island which contains a solution of hydrochloric acid, while a small stream which runs into it is strongly impregnated with sulphuric acid. T , cn The Hon. R. Campbell has soul fetation Peak run, containing 33,000 acres of freehold land, 48,000 acres of leasehold and 40.000 sheep, for LIOO,OOO, to Mr John Douglas, of Mount Royal. The degree of M.A. has been publicly conferred on Mr Tisdall (AucHand), and that of B. A. on Messrs F. Eitcliett, Ja»«:s Hay (Canterbury), F. A. Barclay, ad . Montgomery (Otago). < James Sandison, one of the pioneers of the Martin’s Bay settlement, caed very suddenly at Cromwell on the 18th ult Deceased, who was sixty-three years of ao-e, was fully 6ft 4iu in height. - the Benares mishap the Port Chalmers people are agitating ior the transference of the control of the pilot staff at the Heads and of the chief harbormaster from the Otago Harbor Board to the Government. Amongst the number of those peisons who have filed their schedules lately in Zealand few have alleged the cause oftheir default in the same fashion as Mr John Freer, of Newcastle, New South Wales. He gives the following reason why lie was forced to become insolvent;— “ I am and have become insolvent owing to tradespeople giving me too much credit, whereby I have contracted more than 1 can It is proposed, to build another theatre, Wellington, in place of the Opera House which was destroyed by fire some short time since. In this Colony there are s o,idi bachelors, aged twenty years and upwards ; and 28.071 spinsters, aged fifteen vears and upwards, leaving an excess of 25.666 bachelors over spinsters. There are 63 424 husbands and 62,609 wives,, the excess of husbands over wives being 515. At least the census says so.

. The total population of the Colony is 414 412, distributed as follows: —Auckland 82 661 ; Taranaki, 9,463 ; Wellington, 51,069 ; Hawkes Bay, 15,015 ; Marlborough, ■ 7-557 ; Nelson, 25,1-S ; M estiand| 16*932 ; Canterbury, 91,922 ' Otago, 114,409 ; Chatham Islands, 196. This is exclusive of Maoris.

This ‘ Sun’ makes the statement, which is very likely to be correct, tluit Iliscock find Hay in an pay Mr Lyster L;5,000 for every ' twenty-four performances, or L 9,000 for performances of Italian operas in Hew,. Zealand, commencing about the last week in December. A La “H.M.S. Pinafoue.”—Pap, did not you ever have or tiroa besides mother 1” 11 jSo, nevei, cxckimed the old man, furiously. ' 'V.wu, never?” repeated the liope.ui;

♦‘you should have .■'aid ‘ hardly cvei. Then the old man took him upstairs, ami for several minutes he danced suc.i a “Pinafore” hornpipe as Diflt Dea.de} e never dreamed of. A gentleman who buys largely the French cavalry maintains that it frem horse terribly to be groomed when hi ought in hot and dripping with sweat, and that he should he permitted to cat Ins ration in quietness. Instead of rubbing down he suggests a covering of straw, kept on with alight blanket, " This dries the coat without annoyance, and “ leaves the , animal twice us fresh as when subjected to the English process.” A couple not a hundred miles from Manchester carried on their courtship in rather a novel manner. A young man had fallen in love with the daughter of Ins employer ; hut from certain ideas of wealth, a match was opposed by the l ather. The consequence was that the young man was forbidden to visit his employers house. The old gentleman was in the habit of wearing a cloak, and the young 1$ couple made him the innocent hearer of ' their correspondence. The lady pinned a letter inside of the old mans coat eveiy day, and when the father came into lua counting house und threw off his- cloak, the lover took out the hifly s epistle, lead it, and sent the reply back in the same manner. Love and ingenuity were finally successful. There is a diorama showing at Stawell, Victoria, and the proprietor, is annoyed because the local paper did not notice a picture of Bethlehem. The editor says he omitted to do so out of kindness to the proprietor, for the picture is as much like Bethlehem as the fifth wheel of a coach is like the man who runs the show. -Sc says lie never saw angels equal to it in the oiorama.