Local Intelligence.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIII, Issue 958, 2 September 1856, Page 2

Local Intelligence.

Mechanics' Institute.— Many will have observed with pleasure the progress that is being made in the addition to the present building of the Mechanics' Institute. The new hall, the frame of which is now up, will be ajoom of sixty feet in length, thirty in brendth, and twenty in height. Its roof will be of a Gothic character, and will be constructed on the most improved principles, as regards the transmission of sound. It will certainly make an excellent lecture room, and will likewise be well adapted to other purposes, such, for instance, as public mcc tings, bazaars, floral exhibitions, choral entertainments, cheap weekly conceits, &c, some of which, we believe, the Committee have in view. Nor is the vexed question of access to the present site likely to be again raised. During the approaching summer, no difficulty of access will be experienced, and there is little doubt that, before next winter, the thoroughfare in which it stands will be placed in a state of proper repair. As most of our readers are aware, the old hall, or the principal part of it, will be adapted to the purposes of a reading room, the English journals and periodicals for the supply of which have been already ordered, and are shoitly expected, — to which will be added the leading journals of the Colonies. It is evidently the desire of the Committee to advance the Institute entrusted to their care (not certainly before it is wanted)— to make it not merely a place in which solid instruction may be cheaply obtained, but a place of comfort and recreation, one in which the young men of Auckland will feel pleasure in spending their vacant evenings. We learn that, to enable the Committee to carry out their views, a further sum of £200 will be requued. The want of this sum would probably interfere with their present intentions as regaids the reading room, which would be matter of very deep regret. We trust, therefore, that the appeal fo the public the Committee are about to make will be responded to in such a manner a,s to enable them to complete the undertaking, and to set the machinery in full operation before the close of 1856.

Assault and Battery. — At the court of the Resident Magistrate, on Saturday morning, details of assault and battery were the order of the day. The first case was that of Ellen Mattick against John and Honora Fowler, the evidence in which went to show that, on Thursday last, the female defendant was ill-treating the daughter of the complainant. Complainant — she having at the time a baby in her arms— on going to her daughter's as - sistance, was struck on the head and knocked down by the male defendant. The female defendant afterwards tore her cap and apron. The court held the charge to be proved, and fined the defendants 30s. each and c< sts, or, in default, one month's imprisonment with I ard labour. And, their conduct having been very violent, they were each ordered to find sureties for their good behaviour. — The next case was that of Mrs. Elliot, daughter of Mrs. Mattick, also against Mrs. Fowler. This was the assault in which the other originated. The witness deposed to her finger having been bitten to the bone, and to her hair, an immense handful of which s>e produced in court, having been torn from the roots by the defendant. In this case, the court ordered a fine of £3 and costs, or, in default, imprisonment with hard labour fof six weeks. A counter charge, arising out of the same circumstances— Mrs. Fowler having laid an information against Mrs. Mattick— was next heard, and dismissed by the court.

Samuel Jones Smith.— A letter has been received in town from New PI >-mouth which states, with reference to the escape from justice ef this worthy, that, on Saturday, the 9th August, three strangers arrived in New Plymouth from Auckland, by the coast. They remained that night at the Henui, a village one mile from Taranaki, and there joined a'man named O'Keife, who had lately arrived from Auckland, and who seemed to know them. One was a blacksmith ; the other a carpenter ; and the third supposed to be Samuel Jones Smith. The latter did not enter the town, but was sent by O'Keife about three miles into the bush, to live there with a friend of his, a sawyer. He went by the name of Jones Only, and would not see a white man except the sawyer, with whom he was working. This strange conduct excited suspicion, and hence the communication to which we refer. The matter has been in the hands of the police here, and they have doubtless done what was necessary for the ends of justice. The overland mail having started last evening, no injury can result from the publicity we now give to the circumstances.

Lecture. — We beg to call attention to a lecture upon the subject of temperance, to be delivered, this evening, in the Odd Fellows' Hall, by Mr. George McCaul, who has recently arrived in the colony, and who has the reputation of being a lecturer of some experience.

New Impounding Acr. — By a proclamation in yesterday's 'Provincial Government Gazette,' the Settlement of Qnehunga is brought within the operation of the new Impounding Act. The limits of the village, for the purposes of such Act, are thus defined :—": — " All that part of" the said settlement situated and lying between and being bounded on the north by the Mount Smart Road, on the east by the Springs Road, on the south by the Manakau Harbour, and on the west by the Epsom and Onehunga road."

New City Pound. — In a 'Provincial Government Gazette/ published yesterday, his Honor the Superintendent appointed " all the enclosure situated on Allotments Nos. 3 and 4, of Sec. 15, City of Auckland, to be and to be used as a public pound for the purposes of the Impounding Act,lBs6,and Edward Leary to be keeper thereof." The delay -which has occurred in completing and proclaiming this pound will not, therefore, be any longer a source of consolation to proprietors of horses, cattle, and goats. The police are already, or will be very shortly, on the gui vive for animals roaming about the City, and will lose no opportunity of bringing the 13th clause of the new act to bear upon offenders.