INVERCARGILL.

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 402, 24 January 1872, Page 6

INVERCARGILL.

(7rom Uur Own Correspondent.)

"We are without any very material improvement in the weather. A day or two of fine and warm weather has been succeeded by cold storms, aud to-day quite a g-ile is blowing although not altogether as rough as during the late storm. . . jjunng the last few days we have had more of unpleasant inculen's than often falls to the lot of Invercargili. The Bench Clerk, who also holds the office of Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, and Registrar of the Supreme Court, lias been brought before the magistrate charged with embt-zz ement, to the extent of between sixty and seventy pounds. The deficiency is undoubted and undenied, and the defence set up is generally supposed to be that the accused imagined himself entitled to retain the fees in his office of Registrar of Marriages as salary. This defence may be assumed by the hint given by the counsel for the accused on the hearing before the magistrate. He was, however, committed for trial, bail being allowed, which has not as yet been offered. In this case the defalcation, or (as T suppose I have no right at this stage to assume the term defalcation, so will say) irregularity, has undoubtedly been the result of drink Another incident in the drink category occurred yesterday. A cabinet-maker, a long resident in the town, in. a fit of delirium tremens, brought on by excessive and long continued drinking, cut his throat with a chisel, inflicting a serious but not fatal wound. He was taken to the Invercargili Hospital and attended to ; and having seen the mavi to-day, I am able to say he is going on favorably, and will probably recover. On a previous occasion, some two or three years since, the same man made an attempt on his I life of a similar character.

There has been some excitement in Riverton during the past week. A native chief, JELoromanu Patu, has been committed to prison on a judgment debt in the Resident Magistrate's Court, for a Bum of forty pounds or thereabouts, the cost of a survey made, as was alleged by the surveyor, on behalf of and at the request of Patu. The case is removed out of the calendar of ordinary debt cases by its circumstances being tlnis : — Patu, or as he is commonly called, Solomon, being in want of ten acres; of land at Mason's Bay, applied to have that area marked off for him, and was told, as he alleges, that hewould have to pay the costs of the snrvey, to which he assented. . Some time after the completion of the work, he received a bill from the surveyor amounting to over forty pounds, including not only the survey of the ten acres referred to, but that of 83 acres at Marone Bay, and also of an island marked by the surveyor as ",Solomon!s. Island." The surveyor alleges that.Solomon instructed him t6 surveyboth of these last mentioned lots, and promised to payfor the survey. [This Solomon denies,- and whoever is : right, the > case : is an-; illustration of .the folly :of; ' doing .business o with natives ■ who can : only, speak English : imperfectlyi except through an interpreter. r'The.. case was, however, brought abefore- ,the; rR.M.-y- and judgment given for plaintiff:;executi()n.foll(>vviug. .with the.-; result- of? nidldebona, , which jjin. its tu^n, produced- execution, against theperson ; ;the plaintiff, mr all -probability, : believing 'that this process, would? bring forth the cash, i As y,eb itihasvnot jioiie' s()j ■ .for. defendant has. been -loidgedain u gaol,; ; .bu't ..previous; to ; his ; departureoa;.demonstration ..of -sympathy on ;his<behalf«wasr;.made>by.4^ andnative.:residents of ißiyerton,f:and a^peti.-..

tion was prepared,; accompanied ..by. a stateof facts ior presentation to his Excelleucy, which has ,been extensively signed. ,' ' : '"' The Rev/ Mt';lsitty from- your neigTiborhood, has here- at the Wesleyan 'Church, on the' past Sabbath; and is intending to" remain for a few, days longer. ; I believe, although I have not attended His ministrations, the Wesley.an community here • have been much pleased. with him — the congregations have been' Very large. : : At the first committee meeting of the Educational Committee for -this year, it was decided to call for tenders for -the erection of a grammar school tin \ lnvercargill. The building to be. of brick and slated. ... .. '