INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1841, 17 January 1889, Page 4

INTERPROVINCIAL NEWS.

The Wellington Gas Company a dividend for the year is 15 per cent. The Christchurch city valuation is £211,773 or £13,000 Lsa than last year. A Queensland firm line purchased the whole of the output of the Malamata (Auckland) dairy factory for the season. An old man named William Johnson died suddenly »t Auckland on Monday night from rupture of the heart. So far as is known, deceased has no relatives in the colony. Robert Stevenson, an insolvent Auckland grocer, has been sentenced by Judge Gillies to four months’ imprisonment for not keeping books. Stevenson is a Justice ef the Peace, and one ot the official visitors to the asylum. Active recruiting is being carried on for all volunteer corps at Christchurch. Nearly alt are now above the minimum required by the regulations, and efforts are being made to raise them to the maximum strength. The fire brigades’ demonstration has been abandoned so far as Invercargill is concerned. The withdrawal of the Government subsidy of £250, lack of support by the banks, insurance companies, and mercantile firms, failure of the art union, etc., are the cause. A young man named Hugh McKean, a clerk at Wellington, was on Monday charged with stealing three flutes from Mr Hoffmann’s music warehouse. At first the magistrate sentenced prisoner to three months’ imprisonment, but at the request of counsel agreed to reconsider the decision, and prisoner was remanded to await the probation officer’s report. At the Supremo Court. Dunedin, on Monday, Alexander Michael claimed £2OO damages from D. Keid and Company, for Injuries received while loading his dray at defendants’ store with oats, which were being passed down a shoot. Plaintiff claimed that, owing to the negligence of defendant in constructing the shoot improperly and defectively ; also, owing to the negligence of defendant by his servant, one of the sacks fell against plaintiff and broke his leg ) that be was and is permanently injured, and likely to be for a Jong time, prevented from attending to his business, and has incurred medical and other expenses, and is o'herwise injured. The evidence showed that the shoot was of the usual construction, except that there is no bar across. The man loading stated that the defendant gave the word “right” before the sack was let go. The jury gave a verdict for £IOO.

In tlie Supremo Court, Dunedin, on Tuesday, Mrs Margaret Cairns sued James Stewan, a member of the Hussar Troop, for injuries sustained through being knocked down and run over in Rattray street on the occasion of the night alarm, and the jury awarded her £SO damages. In the divorce Revision, Thomas Henry Bix, a compositor, petitioned for a divorce from his wife, Mary Elizabeth Bix, John Livingston being the co-respondent. The husband and wife hud been living apart for some years, a deed of separation having been executed. The wife had gone to Melbourne in the To Anau, and it was proved that she and Livingston travelled as man and wife. A decree nisi was granted with ousts against corespondent. The often debated question of tendering travelling expenses to a defendant in judgment summons cases was argued in the Resident Magistrate’s Court at Invercargill on Tuesday, Defendant, who has been for years rabbit inspector, and has just finished the property tax valuation of a district, did not appear, and counsel assigned as a reason that he had not been tendered his expenses. Counsel for plaintiff urged that he could prove that defendant was in a position to pay his expenses to appear, and that the proviso about the tendering of expenses was not intended to shield those who had the means to pay. The Rssident Magistrate referred to the decision of Mr Justice Williams, which was in favour of defendant, but he evidently thought that there was something in counsel’s contention, as he reserved his decision for a day. During the tour of Hall’s party on the West Coast they found bird tracks recently made, which they believed to be those of the takahe (Nortons Mantdli). The footprints measure eight inches from tip to tip. [lho Notornis Mantdli (says an exchange) was popular'y supposed to bo extinct, though some ornithologists cherished ihe hope that a few specimens of the strange, rare bird might still be found in the wild regions from whence Hall’s party have just returned. It was first made known to science some thirty years ago, if we are not mistaken, by the Hon. W. B. D. Mantell, who obtained the skins of the few specimens still extant in Otago, and after whom it has been named. In appearance the Notornis is not unlike a giant swamphen, and so completely had it disappeared that stories of its existence had begun to read like “moa yarns.” If Hall’s party really came upon its tracks, there will be quite a flutter in the ornithological dovecotes.]