TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1305, 19 February 1885, Page 3

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

At 6.30 am. on Tuesday, during the voyage of the steamer Grafton from Westport to Wellington.she touched twice slightly while of Kauranga Point, ninety miles from Westport. The pumps were sounded, but no water was made. On examination at Wellington the only d image found was one of the propeller blades broken off. She goes on the slip for further examination.

At 2 a.in. on yesterday a five-roomed house and shoemakei’s shop in Selwyn street, Christchurch, bsdonging to Philip Williamson, was burned down. It was insured in the United Office for £IOO. Incendiarism is suspected. The Kingites having presented Mr Ashbury, late M.P. for Brighton, with a number of curiosities, Mr Ashbury on returning thanks, pointedly referred to the grievances of the Maoris and their certainty of receiving redress from the British Parliament, telling them they had done well to send their chiefs to England, and that no doubt their case would ultimately receive full justice and consideration from the British Parliament whatever Government might be in office. He told them he himself had once been in Parliament, and might be so again, and would further their case in every possible way. It was.his intention, he said, on his return to give a lecture on New Zealand and the Ring natives, to tell the people of England how great was the esteem of the King and his people for them. He would send the papers containing reports of .his lecture to the natives. The Union Company’s nevy boat, the Teknpo. formerly tlie Cape Clear, arrived on Monday at Wellington from Home, after a passage of sixty-one days. One passenger, mimed Kilpatrick, died on the voyage of consumption,

Walter Saunders, aged five years, fell into Calliope dock, Auckland, on Tuesday, while fishing and was drowned. The shops of W. Pacey and A. Dagg, butcher and bootmaker at Lnmsden, near Invercargill, were burned down yesterday morning. Pacey’s stock was insured for £IOO in the Fire and Marine office, and Dagg’s for £2OO in the Hanseatic office. The buildings were insured for £3OO in the Norwich Union.

A deputation from Akaroa waited on the Minister for Public Works at Christchurch on Monday requesting that the Little Elver railway might be extended for a mile and a.half towards Akaroa, suggesting that the sale of one or two reserves would provide the funds. Mr Richardson replied tliat a survey of the extension would be made and the platelaying on the portion already made would be gone on with. The next examinations of candidates for the legal profession takes place on the third Monday in March at Christchurch. There are four candidates for the Bar and 32 as solicitors. Mr J. S. Weston and District Judge S. Smith will conduct the examination.

The body of a young woman, named Helen Sage, was found on Sunday at West Oxford, near Christchurch, near the farm of Mrs Perham, where she had been staying, and had left on January 16th. She was of weak intellect. On being missed a search party scoured the country without success for several days. At the inquest a verdict was returned of ” Death from exposure.* The Government have received official intimation of the approaching visit of a deputation of chiefs from the Samoan Parliament in regard to the proposed annexation of Samoa. They will be received in Wellington by His Excellency the Governor, and the Premier and the Colonial Treasurer will also meet them.

The Education Board of Hawkes Bay decided at its last meeting—“ That unless Government will provide necessary funds for necessary buildings, the Board will refuse to act, and leave the Government to administer educational matters in this district.” The schools are dreadfully overcrowded, in one instance 2700 children attending a school built for the accommodation of 170 H.

In the Licensing Committee Elections in Wellington the publicans have so far had things their own way, and returned all their candidates.

J. W. Crabtree, a prisoner who is undergoing a sentence of 13 years in Lyttelton Gaol for horse-stealing and larceny, made a determined attempt to escape on Tuesday afternoon. He was with a gang of prisoners working on the reclamation works at Sticking Point, when an accident occurred to a man named Higgins, whesa leg was injured by some stones falling on it. While the warders were attending to Higgins, Crabtree took off his boots and ran up the hills. He was fired at by Warder Gilchrist, and missed, and stripping off his clothes as he ran Crabtree gave his pursuers a hot chase tor about a mile. Eventually he was captured close to the water’s edge at the foot of a twenty-feet precipice, down which he had diopped. He was very much exhausted when taken.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand opened at Christchurch on Tuesday night. The Rev. Jas. Treadwell, of Wanganui, was elected Moderator. In his opening address he laid special stress on the necessity for increased activity in Church work, expressing an opinion that the number of elders in congregations should be largely increased, and their sphere of usefulness made more general.

The Christchurch Board of Health have decided to urge on Government the necessity for an infectious disease hospital there, of vaccination of children in public schools, and taking proper meteorological observations in Christchurch. At the Dunedin Police Court on Tuesday, Robert Boenicks, a lad, was fined 10s and costs for causing to ba inserted a false notice of birth in the Daily Times. This is the first information under the Act of 1884.