PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 119, 28 June 1866, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

j ? ! YESTERDAY, i The Speaker took the chair at 5 o'clock. The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. Messrs. Borlase, I-lickson, Dransfield, and Pearce took their seats on the Treasury Benches. The SPEAKER then read messages No. 3, 4, and 5, from the Superintendent, which were received and ordered to be printed. Messages 3 and 4 were placing several special votes on the Estimates, and No. 5 signifiuil his Honor's assent to the repeal of " Officer's and Contractor's Act" so far as it affected the Executive. Mr. BORLASE said that before proceeding with the ordinary business, he wished to remark that he and his colleagues wore not in opposition to the late government. They | had assumed the reins of ufßoe with the full intention of serving the province to the best of their ability, and with no idea of ulturing any resolutions the Council bad agreed to. These would be looked upon as finally settled. The Council had determined that 30,000 acres should be set aside in the Munawatu, and though he had, when the matter was discussed, moved amendments relative to the size of the block and its occupation, he had been defeated on a division, and should not again reagitate the question. Looking to the past actions of thu Council, he did not think that any great question of principle could arise, and he concluded by reiterating that it would bo the earnest desire of himself and colleagues to carry out the business before them for the benefit of the province, and while doing so, all they could say was, that they had always believed in, and supported, to the best of their ability, the constitutional principles which they should now endeavor to carry out. , It was resolved that the petition of certain electors, inhabitants of tho city, with reference to the formation of a cricket ground be J considered by the Council. , A copy of the agreement entered into by ' the Superintendent, for the purchase of the, Wesleyan Reserve was ordered to be laid on the table. The Bill to amend the Scab Act was read a second time. The report of the Board of Works Bill \ Committee was then brought up and read. The third reading of the Wairarapa Race Course Bill was made an order of the day for | this evening. The House then went into committee on the Licensing Bill, mid after passim* a lew clauses adjourned until 5 o'clock this evening. __

Newspaper Privileges.— In the course of i an aetioh for libel against the Slioffleld and llotherham independent, Avhich has been ' tried at the West hiding Assizes at Leeds, ' the question was raised whether reports in newspapers of proceedings in Bankruptcy | Courts were privileged. Mr. Justice Keat- ', ing said it was undoubtedly the law that the j fair and correct publication of legal proceed- ' ings without malice was protected by law; , and he should direct the jury that the occasion when the execution took place was an

occasion on which a fair report would be privileged. If they were of opinion, fcheretherefore, that the report was a correct one, and that ie was published without malice, the defendant would be entUed to a verdict. The case terminated in a verdict for the defendants. A London Volunteer Charged with Sedition.— The voluntepr review at Brighton was the last place in ihe United Kingdom at which the exhibition of Femamsin could have been expected, and yet Patrick Butler, a private in the London Irish oorps, was taken into custody on the field and charged with sedition. While in a state of intoxication on the night previous to the review, he tftld his comrades that he intended to shoot the Prince of Wales the next day, and this being reported to his commanding of&Ver it was at first thought to be nothing more than a drunken boast, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing. When the cifrps I was drawn up the following day on the review ground he was interrogated, and having denied that he had any ball-cartridge about him, he was searched, and 10 rounds found in his pockets. He was taken on Easter Monday before the local magistrates but the witnesses being in London, the investigation was adjourned until Wednesday. On its being shown that the prisoner made the threats complained of when he was drunk, and that he had made no secret of his possession of the cartridges, which he had bought for some private shooting, he was discharged. The delight of his comrades, of whom there was a numerous attendance, at this result was expressed by much cheering. [Mr. Butler has since been struck off the roll of the regiment.] Among' the recent arrivals in Rome is the Russian gentleman who discovered the codex on Mount Sinai, alleged by him to be older than the Codex Vaticanus. He is sent to Rome by his Government to examine the latter and compare it with the one lately found. The Emperor of Russia has appointed his nephew the Prince of Leuch ten berg to be president of the Russian Universal Exhibition of 1867. The prince is cousin of Napoleon 111., inasmuch as his father was son of Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy, and whose mother was Empress Josephine.