TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1330, 21 April 1885, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

A man named Dan James was drowned at Ormond on Sunday. He tried to swim the river when drunk. The Blenheim carpenters have decided to give three months notice to employers that working hours will be reduced from 48 to 46 per week. They have also decided to form a branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners. James Russell, a laborer, was found dead in Findlay’s timber yard, Dunedin, on Sunday. Ho had been drinking heavily lately, and at the inquest a verdict of died from heart disease was returned.

Port Chalmers, by a small majority, decided against the increase of licenses. In the Wellington Divorce Court a decree nisi was granted in the case Waller v. Waller (Wanganui), and also in the case Smith v. Smith and Strike (Wanganui). In the latter case the jury awarded £SO damages against the corespondent. The latter’s solicitor obtained leave to move for reversing the verdict on the grounds that there was not sufficient evidence to prove the co-respondent knew Mrs Smith was a married woman.

The Westport Coal Company intend recommencing work in their tnine on Monday next. Sixty new miners have been engaged in other parts of the colony to take the place of the men who struck work in December last. The first instalment of new hands arrived on Friday. The Supreme Court criminal sessions concluded in Christchurch on Friday, when the adjourned case against Nicholas Bassi, accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Antonio Jarvis, was gone into. The prisoner was convicted and sentenced to two years’ hard labor. The Hon. George McLean acted as Governor at the opening of the Dunedin Mimic Parliament on Friday night. [n the Divorce Court, Dunedin, on Friday, Judge Williams granted the petition for' a judicial separation by Catherine Hagan against Robert Hagan, of Waikouaiti, the grounds being cruelly. The alimony allowed to petitioner was 15s per week. The parties were married in 1869, and the illtreatment began eight years ago. A boy named McQeown was hanging behind a dray in Timanx on Friday, when one of his legs caught in the wheel and was broken.

At an inquest on Clarke, the Queensland squatter who died at the Star Hote l , Auckland, from narcotic poisoning, a verdict was returned of “ Death by taking an overdose of chlorodyne.” Four of the big guns are now in position on the North Head, Auckland. The local option poll for the Thorndon (Wellington) Licensing District resulted in power being given to increase the number of houses. There was only a majority of one. Lambton Ward has followed suit.

In the Divorce Court, Wellington, in the case of Monkton v. Monkton, His Honor refused, with regret, to grant a decree nisi. His Honor considered the case one of an unprecedented nature, but the present law gave him no option, cruelty, in the eyes of the law, not having been proved. He expressed a hope that the case would be the means of amending the Deceased Wife’s Sister Act, which deprived the woman of a remedy in such a case as the present one. A heavy gale set in at Wellington last Saturday night, and about four o’clock on Sunday morning half the Exhibition building (which is in course of erection) was blown down. The contractors estimate the damage at between £4OO and £SOO. Mr D. McGuinness’s properties wer# put up to auction at Christchurch by Messrs R. Wilkin and Co. on Saturday. Some sections at New Brighton were sold at from £l6 to £2B. The Forester’s Hotel was passed in at £4OOO, and the lease of the Britannia Hotel did not elicit a bid. A crack four inches long has been discovered in me of the seven-ton guns recently sent to Dunedin for defence purposes. The Otago Early History Society held a highly successful conversazione on Friday night. Among the many interesting exhibits was Tasman’s chart of New Zealand, 230 years old, obtained by Dr Hocken on a recent visit to Europe, Te Aro House, Wellington, the property of Mr Jas. Smith, was burned down on Saturday night. The fire was caused by one of the assistants accidentally setting fire to some fabrics in one of the show windows. The fire brigade was powerless to save the building and both it and the contents were destroyed. Insurances amounted to £16,000. A fire occurred in Wellington on Saturday morning at four o’clock in a shed belonging to the Tramway Company containing chaff cutting machinery. The property was completely destroyed. The damage is between £4OO and £SOO. There was no insurance, and the cause is unknown, but the circumstances aro suspicious. At Auckland on Saturday morning Detective Hushes and Mounted-Constable Kelly, who had been hunting for McKelvie (who had attempted to murder Stuart) ever since the deed was perpetrated on Sunday they got on bis track and pursued him to the vicinity of an old block house about eight miles from Auckland. When they were within 150 yards of him he disappeared into some scrub, and immediately after they heard a shot fired. They subsequently found him quite dead with a bullet wound in his head. His body was brought to town by Detective Hughes and Trooper Kelly to wait an inquest. The deceased’s son told the Police before going out in pursuit that his father would never be taken alive.

An autopsy of the bcdy of Vaughan (not Horn) at Auckland, shows that he died from arsenical poisoning. The Hinemoa arrived at Auckland on Sunday night with the torpedo boat in tow, after a passage which Captain Fairchild describes as one of the worst he ever experienced in coming across the Bay of Plenty. The torpedo boat towed well, and the manner in which she rode the heavy seas was a matter for surprise to all on board the Hinemoa. For the safety of the torpedo boat it was necessary on Thursday in a fierce N.E. gale to take shelter under Cape Runaway, on the East Coast, on Friday under the lee of Mayor Island, and on Saturday to run for Port Charles, which she left on Sunday morning, arriving as above. Charles Strong, a waterman, fell over the wharf at Auckland on Sunday night and was drowned. Before the Coptic sailed from London George Townshend, a fraudulent bankrupt, was arrested. His wife and family came off the vessel under assumed names. From instructions received from Wellington the police, on the strength of a cablegram from Home, boarded the Coptic, and discovered a woman on board as a steerage passenger, and succeeded iu getting her to disgorge £llOO, made up of eleven £IOO Bank of England notes. The revenue accounts for the year are not finally made up, but it is probable that there will be a surplus between revenue and expenditure of from £25,000 to £30,000. The revenue collected for the year was about £20,000 below the estimate, and the expenditure was also considerably less. Both the Railway and Stamp Departments show a deficiency for the year, while the item Miscellaneous and Customs’ Department show a surplus. In all the other branches the amounts collected were pretty near the estimate. Experiments iu manufacturing guncotton in Auckland have proved most satisfactory. Seventeen prisoners were charged at the Dunedin Police Court on Wednesday with misconduct and insubordination in refusing to work at the Heads. Vickers, a ringleader, was sentenced to eight days on bread and water, and to forfeit 50 marks, and the others got five days on bread and water. The Royal Humane Society of Australasia has bestowed a silver medal on Wm, Potiki, the Maori lad who made such brave exertions to save the Rev. Mr Morice at Port Molyneux.