CHRISTCHURCH.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 516, 22 May 1879, Page 2

CHRISTCHURCH.

21st May. An inquest on the infant child of Mrs. Henham, found dead in bed on Tuesday morning, has been held. The evidence showed that the child had been accidentally smothered by its mother, and a verdict was returned accordingly. The Native Commission which has been sitting at Kaiapoi has adjourned to Wellington to obtain the Akaroa deed. The remainder of the Maori evidence will be taken at Akaroa. William Barnard, who was arrested on Saturday on a charge of stealing 266 sheep, the property of a settler at Oust, and was admitted to bail, has absconded. A meeting of persons in favor of granting no more licenses in Sydenham was to have taken place at half-past seven o'clock to-night in the public schoolroom, but by seven o'clock the room was packed by another meeting to consider the whole question of licensing, and the last comers could not obtain admission. The meeting in the school lasted about half-an-hour, when, in consequence of the crowded state of the room, it was decided to adjourn outside, where it was swelled by several hundreds more. The confusion was then so groat that after a few minutes the Mayor of Sydenham, who was in the chair, abruptly adjourned the meeting, which was by far the rowdiest ever held in this borongh, which now contains some 8000 inhabitants.