TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1328, 16 April 1885, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

Steps are being taken to establish a Reserve corps in Lyttelton on the same basis as that formed in Christchurch,

Mr J. M. Dargaville, M.H.R., contemplates raising a contingent of 400 men from the gum-diggers and bushmen of Northern Wairoa.

Luring the eight days Mr R. T. Booth has been conducting his mission in Christchurch 2433 persons have donned the blue ribbon, 1398 of whom have taken the pledsre. A section in the Marketplace, Blenheim, has changed hands at £SO per foot, the largest price yet realised there. Four years ago the same section was bought for £8 per foot.

At the Supreme Court, Christchurch, on Tuesday, Lily Garland for having assaulted George Cram, a farmer, in a house of ill-farao, was sentenced to two years’ bard labor. J. Allora, a jockey, while riding Alaska on the Takapuna racecourse (Auckland), last week, training, got thrown, and died from concussion of the brain. At the inquest a verdict of accidental death was returned. Labor is so scarce in Auckland that the Government are unable to make much progress with the defence works there, and are seeking to make an arrangement with the Harbor Board whereby some of the men employed on the new dock shall be drafted off to assist in the work.

Bishop Redwood left by the steamer Ruapehu for England, en route for Europe., His sudden departure is somewhat of a surprise, and the nature of his visit has not been disclosed. The Rev. Father Macnamara has been appointed to the charge of the diocese during the Bishop’s absence. The Government on Tuesday afternoon received a telegram from Otaki stating that a large man-of-war was in sight off there.. She was standing east, evidently bound to Wellington. The vessel was believed to be the H.M.S. Espiegle, which left Australia under sealed orders a few days days ago.

At the Auckland criminal sessions of the Supreme Court, in the case of Robt. Prendergast, for wife murder at Pokeno, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation to mercy on the ground of previous insanity. Hie prisoner said nothing in defence save that he was sorry he did not kill the man (meaning Buchanan) of whom lie was jealous. At the Amateur Athletic Club’s sports at Auckland on Saturday 3000 were present. All the events were . well contested. The 10-mile championship race of New Zealand was won by A. J, Stewart, A. K. Llewellyn 2, J. Fitton 3 ; time, 40mins. 21secs. The 120 yards handicap, for which there were three heats, was won by J. R. George in 12secs. A protest arising out of the walking contest at Auckland has been decided by' the Judge awarding the match to McClure on the ground that Raynor broke when rounding a coiner of the track. Raynor immediately served a notice from his solicitors upon the stake-holder, warning him not to pay over the stakes (£100) and the balance of the door money until the matter was decided in Court. At the Police Court, Dunedin, on Tuesday, the charges against a batch of prisoners for insubordination and making untrue statements against the warders on the works at the Heads were gone info. One who made a false complaint that a warder had gone to sleep on duty had forty marks forfeited, and Stewart McCombe, who had falsely charged three carders with ill-treating him so as to render him insensible, got a week on bread and water. Ernest Rowland Davis alias Ernest A. E. Reade alias Olliver, was committed for trial at Christchurch, on Monday, under Section 11 of the Friendly Societies Act, 1842, charged with having given to James Parish, at Templeton, a copy of the rules of the National Sick and Burial tAssocia- ; tion, which he represented was registered as a Friendly Society, whereas no such society was registered under the Act. In October last the accused had been agent in Dunedin for the National Sick and Burial Association, and he then went by the name of Reade. Ho appears to have given considerable dissatisfaction there, and left for Canterbury, taking the name of Davis last month. After his connection with the “National” ceased he started a “ National” Sick and Burial Association on his own account. He gave out that ha was a medical man, and examined those persons whom he induced to join the new Society. He collected the subscriptions, and could not explain to the subscribers’ satisfaction what had become of the money. He carried on this sort of thing in the Templeton district for about a month before suspicions were aroused, and then Parish gave information to the police. For the defence Davis urged that he had acted in a bona fide manner throughout. Ho denied that he had represented the Society was registered. There is another similar charge pending against him.