TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1854, 16 February 1889, Page 3

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

Robinson’s store at Wangarei Heads, Auckland, was destroyed by fire on Wednesday. It was caused by a spark from ♦be fire lodging in the shingles. The contents were all destroyed. The building was insured for £SO in the Norwich Union, and the stock for £2s®. Michael McDermott is being tried at the Police Court, Auckland, for the murder of Kate Kennedy. The accused is very feeble. He has lost his left eye from the self-inflicted wound. He is defended by Mr J. A. Tola. The Premier arrives at Napier on Tuesday. He has accepted an invitation from the Freemasons to attend the lodge and supper that night. A woman named Licoln was found dead in her bed at Taylorville, near Greymouth, 'on Thursday afternoon. She had only been in the district some three months, and was formerly a music teacher at Dunedin and Kumara. An inquest will be held. Telegrams from Auckland last week stated that the movement in favour of forming a United Grand Lodge for the colony emanated in Otago from the Board of General Pnrposes. Instead of this the movement was started by the W.M. of Lodge Otago, and though some of those comprising the board favour the movement, the board cannot make any recognition until the Grand Lodge is in existence. Circulars were sent to the Grand Lodges as a matter of courtesy, and not for discussion as appears to have been thought by the Grand Lodge, Auckland, which voted against the movement which is being carried out constitutionally, and with the consent of the highest Masonic authority in the district. John Hood, a baker at Te Aroha, is charged with seriously assaulting Frederick Hyde, an Australian visitor to the district. The parties disputed over a bet on Sunday night at the Hot Springs Hotel, when Hood turned rapidly and ran a small stick into Hyde’s face, near the eye, the stick breaking, leaving two inches in the wound. Hyde’s condition is still critical. Hood was arrested and remanded for a fortnight. A meeting of Justices of the Peace was held at Auckland on Wednesday to consider the question of juvenile crime and its punishment, when it was agreed to forward to Government a memorial drafted by Dr Giles, 8.M., recommending that whipping be ordered for the chastisement for offences now punished by fine or imprisonment ; that a special place of confinement be provided for children under a certain age to prevent contamination from prison associations. Penalties upon parents are also suggested. The Grown title was completed to 27,000 acres in the Wanganui district at the Native Land Court on Wednesday. The harbour works at Westport are suspended owing to a dispute about wages ; the contractors having taken over the works, all day labour men in the employ of the Government have been discharged. The contractors desire to reduce wages all round. The men declined to work at the reduced rates and all are now idle, the position.

At a meeting of the North Canterbury Charitable Aid Board it was reported that out-door relief had been granted during January to 495 cases, being 44 move than in January, 1888, but 13 less than in December. The Jubilee Memorial Home for the aged poor has been opened with 15 inmates.

The Gisborne Herald s Opetiki correspondent wires as follows ; —At 5 o’clock on Wednesday evening the Union Company’s steamer Australia got on the rooks in Waihou Bay, near the spot where the s.s Thomas Russell was wrecked three years sgo. She was steaming into the bay to land apart of the ship’s consignment of produce, when she struck on the rocks, seemingly amidships, and remained. It is expected she will be got off without serious injury.