AUCKLAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3542, 15 November 1882, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

November 15.

Wahanui, feeling the heavy responsibility which he has taken upon himself at the recent meeting when be assumed the whole burden of Kingism, and also the power and right to stop the fide of settlement if it so pleased him, has called a meeting of the most prominent chiefs who elected the first king Potatau. Potatau was elected by all the great chiefs of the southern portion of the North Island. Since the war a large number of tribes who concurred in the election have seceded and sold their h>nde, such as the Ngatiratikawa, the Taupo and Wanganni natives. Wahanui, however, has decided to bring together as many as possible of the chiefs and their representatives who took part in the election, and it is surmised he means to point out that they have deserted the King, and to say that, if an arrangement is to be made with the Europeans, it had better be done with the consent and at the instance of all those who concurred in the election of Potatau.

Yesternight information was given to the police that Henry Gedde9 Hunter, whose wife is a boarding-house keeper, attempted suicide by taking phosphorus. The police found the man lying on the verandah, phosphorus shining on his lips and fingers, while there was a severe gash at the top of the head. Emetics were applied, and the man vomited freely. Subsequently it transpired that Hunter had an altercation with his wife, who struck him over the head with a chair leg, and there is reason to believe that he smeared his face with phosphorus to make her believe that he committed suicide.

Mr J. T. Mackelvie, of London, who has already presented several thousand pounds worth of works of art to the Auckland Museum, purchased several art treasures at the Duke of Hamilton's sale, and has sent them to Auckland in the shicis Loch Urr and Loch Fleet. They comprise two pictures by Guido Rene and one by Stanfield, besides a collection of Roman glass, marble, and antique articles, found in recent explorations.

A rumor is current at Te Awamutu that George Savage, Mr Tole's servant, supposed to have been accidentally drowned in the Punui river on the sth instant, was murdered by a native named Pukekura. It appears that a native named Maniapoto stated in the hotel at Kihikihi on the 13th instant to a lad named Benjamin Ward that Pukekura had killed Savage and threw him into the river. The statement reached the ears of Constable Gillies (the man who arranged Winiata's arrest, and captured Pakara and Epiha), and he brought Ward and Maniapoto together, when the latter denied all knowledge. Pukekura is now in the native country, but the police believe the story deserves credence.

The prizes distributed at the Devenport regatta amounted to £320. Owing to the protest of the Waikatos the first prize for the war canoe race at the North Shore regatta was not given to the Ngapuhi canoe, but the second prize of £20, and the first to the Waikato canoe. The Ngapuhi canoe was not really a war canoe.

Sydney Taiwhanga and the other Maori delegates arrived by the Kingarooma yesterday. A meeting will be held on the Bth of December in the Waitangi Hall to receive Sydney's report of the Home trip. Intelligence has been received by the mail of the death of the Rev. Moses Elkin in London. He was for seventeen years the Jewish Kabbi in Auckland. In order to facilitate the coaling of steamers in the port, the Harbor Board will erect immediately a coaling T at the railway wharf at a cost of £2217.