TELEGRAPHIC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1405, 15 October 1885, Page 1

TELEGRAPHIC.

The Queen of Ruratonga is still awmtirg a communication from the Government, As she has political business to transac t she is desirous of meeting a Cabinet Minister

Mr Larnach, who has been suffering from inflammation of the lungs for tbe last three weeks, is steadily recovering. An enquiry was held at Wellington on Monday in regard to a house occupied by 0. J. Curry, destrojed by fire on the 30th September, A verdict was returned that tbe house was maliciously set. fire to* but by whom there was not sufficient evidence to show.

Regarding the Band contest decision, the Dunedin Garrison Band are of opinion they have not been well treated, and are prepared to challenge any band in the colony if Judge Fenton, of Auckland, whose knowledge of musical matters is known throughout the colony, will con* ent to act as judge.

In the Gamble v. Adair will case at Dnnodin on'iuesday, the Judge saw no sufficient reason to believe the will had been influenced by delusion, nor that it was not executed intelligently by the testatrix. Probate would bo granted to the plaintiff. [ln this case the wife had willed her property to her parents, ignoring her husband, and the latter contested the will an the ground that the wife was insane when she executed it.] Lieutenant Wilfred Powell, the newlyappointed English C' mul for the South Sea Islands, who arrived with his wife and family per Ihe Aotangi, will have charge of all the Islands, with his headquarters at Samoa. He is proceeding thither by the Janet Nicoll. He is instructed to endeavor to cultivate friendly relations with the German and American authorities and citizens in the Islands, and is entrusted with large and confidential powers by the Government, He will travel much among the Islands, and report at length to the Imperial authorities on all matters affecting their present condition and future prospects. Lieutenant Powell is author of “ Wanderings in a Wild Country ; or, Three Years \mong the Oinnibals of New Britain," having been there for a number of years, and made a survey for the Admiralty of ihe coasts of New Britain, and haring been long connected with the Foreign efface.

The s.B. Zealandia sailed from Auckland on Tuesday afternoon for San Francisco. She shipped at Sydney 30 boxes of sovereigns valued at £150,000, and 4 boxes of gold valued a' £24,467. Shipped at Auckland by the National Bsnk, gold 610,000, B«nk of New Zealand £48,208. Total, £230,675.

Mr McEweu, of the 6rm of McEwen, Brown and Kittn, Wellington, narrowly escaped death through coal ga*. On Monday evening Mr McEwen, owing to the arrival of eome friends, vacated bis bedroom in favor of the visitors, and occupied a bed on the sofa in the diningroom. On Tuesday morning at daybreak, Mrs McEwen intending to meet her mother, who was expected to arrive by the early sie met, went to the diningroom, where »he found her husband Iving n a comatose state, senseless, and all but dead. Investigation showed that the top • f the gasalier in the dining-room had been left open, and was the cause of what so nearly proved to be a fatality. The services of a mo deal man' Were availed of, and McEwen wadsoWnrestored to conscimisness.

At the Magistrate’s Court, Christchurch, on Tuesday, Dsvid Biair, Master of lh« School of Art, was charged with indecency. The case rested on the evidence of several children, whose sta aments were very contradictory an to the dress and appearance of the man they had seen commit the offence. One, little girl of nine years old thought at. the time that Blair was the man she 1 haw.- She told some others, and they were infected with the idea that it was Blair, A detective took the children to opposite i,he School of Art, and called 'heir attention to Blair as he paa ed by. '’They then concluded he waa n e man, but two days before three of them had pointed out another mm very different in appear* auce as the offender. The Bpnch considered the caae for the prosecution had completely broken down, and'that there had been a mistake as to the u»an’a identity. The oase was dismissed, *nd the decision of the Bench was received with applause.