CONTEMPORARY NEWS.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 175, 9 December 1892, Page 2

CONTEMPORARY NEWS.

At the Supreme Court sitting in Auckland, Taki Hoterine Kauhiii was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment with hard labour for cattie stealing. The man P, well, who was sentenced to ten years penal servitude, was formerly a sergeant in the Armed Constabulary and once had command of a redoubt in the Waikato- Afterwards he became headmaster of a country school, and was made a Justice of the Peace, which commission he subsequently resigned. After giviug up school teaching he started business as a chemist in Auckland, In the Wellington murder trial Finlay was found guilty of manslaughter and the jury recommended the Judge to inflict the severest punishment allowed for manslaughter. Finlay was sentenced to ten years with hard labour. The first Gisborne wool sales were held on Friday last. There was a large attendance of local and English buyers, and competition was keen, especially for good lines of fleece wool. Prices ranged from 7d for strong well-conditioned Lincoln, to 8-J-d for clean half-bred. Bidding was spirited throughout and the result highly satisfactory to sellers. At an early hour on November 26th, the Melbourne Russel-street police received information from the Hawthorn police of a strange discovery in that suburb. A bag was found lying on thefootpath at the corner of Manning Tree Road and Coward-street, to which was pinned a piece of paper with the words, - ‘ Lot No. 1. J. Ripper,’ daubed on it. The discoverer opened the bag, and was horrified to find that the contents consisted of two human legs, from which hlood was still running. No clue has yet been found as to the remainder of the body, or the cause of death. The jury appointed to enquire into the Thirsk railway disaster have brought a verdict of manslaughter against the sleepy signalman, who was the direct-cause of the disaster. Taking into consideration, the fact that the directors of the company refused the holiday after watching all night at his dying infant’s bedside, they consider them equally to blame. They did not, however, bring in a manslaughter verdict against them, as they were fully entitled to do. The jury likewise condemned the excessive hours of labour worked on the various railways. Things are a little better in America, where a man was given a holiday when his child was dying but given notice ‘ that he would be sacked if he had any more b children to die.