Telegraphic.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3315, 21 September 1889, Page 2

Telegraphic.

PLENTY OF WOKK. New Plymouth, Saturday. There is great scarcity of labour in New .Plymouth district, and advertisements appear daily for buahmen (fifty wanted), farm hands, and for mills.

A Peculiar Mania-

Invbbcaroill, Septembor 20.

A niMi named Jamoa Watson, apprehended the other day for the theft of women's stockings from a clothes lino, was found to bo carrying a quantity of female underclothing in a damp state. Being brought

up ut tlio Police Court, his counsel submitted that Watson had at one tiuio suffered a sunstroke, and was not always responsible for his actious. Tho magistrate, however, sont biin to gaol for two months for the theft of the stockings, the other article not having been claimed, On being stripped at the gaol it was found that Watson had under his own garments two ombroidered chemises, two bodices and two pairs of women's drawers (calico and flannel) and women's singlets, The constable who was despatched to search the hut which the man had occupied at One Tree Point for two months found a further quantity of women's underclothing, It appears as if it were a case of monomania.

THE KOMTAU MYSTERY. Tlie Inquest An inquest was hold yesterday before Dr Spratt, Coroner, on the remains of tho lad Thompson, who went astray from Koltatau and was fovnd dead on Thursday last. Tho jury consisted of Messrs J. Moncrieff, senr,, (foreman), J, J. Walkerson, Albert Maunsell, Charles Parker and Jas, Moncrieff, junr. Evidence was given by the father, Frank Thompson, aud the grandfather, John Andrew, as to the circumstances of the child's, disappearance. Phillip Crowe detailed the experience of tho search party which found the body. Dr Smith, in his medical testimony, stated that decomposition and disfiguration were too far advanced to permit of a proper post mortem examination, but that tho surroundings of flio case and the observation that lie had been able to make distinctly pointed to a death from exhaustion and exposure. • A verdict was returned in accordance with the doctor's evidence.

COMPENSATION COURT. .FRIDAY. Judge Robinson presided; Mr W. Lowes assessor for claimants, Mr Lifferton assessor for the Government. Mr Beard was counsel for claimants, and Mr Gully represented defendants. Anders Andersen claimed from the Minister of Public Works £735 4s 2d and £BO 12s 6d for two blocks of land taken for railway purposes. The Court awarded £B4O 10s in the first claim and £4B in the second, Magnus Neilßen claimed £260, awarded £9O, Each side to pay their own costs in each case.