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Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 82, 8 July 1867, Page 159

Evening News. —The above is the title of a small paper just published at Auckland. We beg to acknowledge receipt of the first four numbers, all of which have a good show of advertisements. We wish our new contemporary every success.

Stub ob Living-. The home papers tell the following strange j- a l e . ct rpha Central Criminal Court, at its la9t sittings, disposed of a cause celebre which has excited much interest in commercial, legal, and general circles. Mr Wilkinson, the late manager of the' Joint Stock Discount Company, was sentenced to fire years’ penal servitude for paying a private debt with the funds of his company and representing the transation in their books as a loan to their creditors. So thin are the partitions just at this point which divide civil from criminal liabilities, and so adverse are courts of justice to conclude fraudulent intent except on the clearest evidence, that there was very even betting, even to the last among the gentlemen of the bar that Mr Wilkinson would escape altogether. But what most attracted public attention to the case was the extraordinary stories whieh have been afloat as to Mr Wilkinson’s style of living, for he seemed to model himself on the times o the French Regency when Law and his assistant financiers outdid in reckless extravagance the fastest of the dukes and marquises of the court. Mr Wilkinson’s salary was £3OOO a year; he received £25,000 down for the goodwill of his business, and his wife bad a handsome fortune; but there is no nobleman of 100,000 within the range of our knowledge who ventured to do the princely things this ‘city gent.” was in the daily habit of indulging his tastes in. Latterly he had two houses —one in a northern suburb, where they kept thirty servants, and another at Brighton; and when he gave a party at his marine residence there was usually a special train in waiting to carry his London guests to and and fro. For his own convenience, too, when detained in town by business or pleasure beyond his usual “express,” he would think nothing of engaging a * special' all to himself rather than wait for the late train. At hie d'ahoing parties there was usually h»d out in one of the ante-rooms an unlimited supply of gloves, mouehoira, fans, bouquets, perfumery, &c., to which his lady visitors were invited to help themselves as their needs required ; and at hi suppers a favorite delicacy was a York ham boiled in champagne. On the death of one of his children wo. are told that over £7OO, was spent i'a mourning rings alone.. These stories, though they may not be absolutely true in all their details, help us to understand how the income of a Cabinet Minister was insufficient for,the housekeeping of a modern financier. Mr Wilkinson is expia-. ting his offences at Tentonville, but what about those who werefaet over him, whose servant he was, and whose negligent supervision made impossible forsuch frauds on the innocent and unsuspecting shareholders to be