STAR TELEGRAMS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1956, 12 April 1875, Page 2

STAR TELEGRAMS.

PER PRESS AGENCY. Auckland, This day. In the District Court, Mr Siddons got judgment against Mr..— — for; expenses for loss of time through nontransmission to the General Government of money paid by plaintiff for land at Poverty Bay. .«*,.. The case of James Norton v Eichard Onyon for £70, promissory note, was adjourned in order that defendant might come from the Thames. In the Police Court, a youth named Eobert Barnes was sentenced to ;nine month's imprisonment on three charges of larceny from a drunken man. Master Stewart has been found among the natives at Orakei. Wellingrojs, This day. The exports from tins port for the last quarter amounted to £265,000. There was no phormium exported to England during the quarter, and only three little lots, about a thousand pounds declared value, to Melbourne. The writ for Rangitikei election has been issued. Nomination next Monday. Polling on the 24th. • Christchuech, Saturday. At a meeting of the promoters of the Funeral Eeform Association yesterday, the sub-committee made the following recommendation-:— 1. That an association be formed to be called the Christchurch Funeral Eeform Association. 2. That all persons may become members by payment of an anuual sKbscription of 2s 6d, and by signing a declaration to the under mentioned effect:—; That at all funerals over which they may have control they will adopt a plain and inexpensive style of coffin j* and that they will discontinue the employment of mutes, the use of falls, mourning coaches, scarves, hat-bands and providing gloves ; that hearses, if employed, shall not carry plumes, and the horses should bear neither plumes, clothes nor trappings of any kind. 3. That a further declaration be signed by those who desire to do so to the followy ing effect:—That we will discontinue, and encourage the discontinuance by others of unnecessary and expensive mourning. 4. That a committee be formed for the purpose of collectisg information on the subject of funeral and mourning reform, for watching the progress of the movement in other places, conferring with undertakers and the like, and that they be requested- to report to a general meeting of members of the association.

A loßg discussion ensued as to inserting a declaration to entirely discontinue wearing mourning, but the matter was ultimately adjourned until it was known what is the opinion of a "-committee of ladies which has been formed to consider the question. - . The meeting then adjourned till April 30th.

The trial of Mercer for murder was continued this morning. Tho case for the Grown, which is exceedingly strong, has just closed. No witnesses will be called for the defence. Evening. The Lyttelton murder cane was completed to-day. The following is a digest of the case:—On the day in. question the murdered girl, who resided in Dampier's Bay with her parents, came into Lyttelton to get a ticket at the Colonists' Hall for the school picnic. Shortly after five in the evening the prisoner Was seen with a girl by tiro persons who were standing at the Albion Hotel. He then spoke to a person standing there, leaving the girl to go oa by herself. A fterwards he warn seen to overtake the girl and proceed with her towards Oxford street. The prisoner was nextseencoming from a gorse hedgewhere the body was afterwards found— with marks of blood on him, and he was seen brushing his clothes, apparently to get rid of some dust. The next trace found of him was just before the starting of the train for Ghristchurch, when he was noticed to have blood on him, and also in the train, where those in the carriage remarked about his getting in in that state, when he said he had been killing a sheep. This was about 6 p.m., and after the train had gone the body of the murdered girl was found by two boys ia a hole in a gorse fence, in the locality towards which prisoner and the girl were seen going. The blood on the prisoner's clothes was microscopically examined, and found to be the blood of some animal which suckled its young, but could not "be sworn to as human bloody j_,-Affcer prisoner's arrest a number of spots were found on his legs. The prisoner, on being questioned, said they were only pimples, and that no gorse prickles would be found on him, but on medical examination being made, a number of gorse prickles were found where the skin was marked. The prisoner, when arrested, denied having had a knife on the day of the murder, but two witnesses swore to having seen a pocket knife in his posession that day, and identified the knife found in a coal tub on the vessel where prisoner was arrested as the knife they saw; The Grown Prosecutor made an able address to the jury. Mr Joyiiit, prisoner's counsel, in addressing the jury, argued that the girl seen in the prisoner's company just before the murder was committed was not satisfactorily identified as the deceased girl, and that the identification of prisoner with the man seen coming from the scene of the murder soon, after the time the murder must have been committed was not sufficiently clear, to justify the jury in taking away prisoner's life. The knife was not perfectly identified, and there was a discrepancy in the evidence as to prisoner's clothes. He himself was not proved te have been thoroughly recognised as the man who came from the paddock where the girl wai afterward! found. His Honor bar-

ing summed up, the jury retired for twelve minutes, and returning to the Court, announced a verdict of guilty. His Honor assumed the black cap, and passed sentence of death on the prisoner, who was unmoved.