SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

Evening Star, Issue 7093, 23 December 1886, Page 1

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

NAPIER, December 21. At a meeting of the creditors in the estate of D. H. Newman, draper, the liabilities were stated to be L 2,386, with no secured creditors, and the assets L 2,430. The debtor waf thrust into bankruptcy through the pressure of one creditor. Debtor offered 7s in the £, which the meeting accepted, there being but one dissentient. The Deputy Assignee complimented the debtor on the excellent manner in which his books had been kept. The business will be carried on by Newman under supervision till the arrangement is confirmed. At a meeting of the Committee of the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club a letter was read from the Poverty Bay Turf Club stating that as all their interests were in Hawke’s Bay they desired to sever their connection with the Auckland Racing Club, The meeting resolved that, if the Auckland Club assented to that arrangement, the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club would alter their rules so as to include Cook County. The Committee also agreed to add an extra race to the March programme, giving the commission on the totafisator of that event to the hospital funds.

CHRISTCHURCH, December 21. “ The king is dead, long live the king,” etc. The funeral of the late member for Heathcote (Mr L. Coster) took place yesterday, and this morning the first address appeared from a candidate for the vacancy in the person of Mr Frederick Jones. This gentleman, whose profession is commission agency, of a quiet nature, bases his claim on services in various capacities, he haying served long terms on the Drainage,.Rbiad, River, Charitable Aid and Hospital Boards, doing thoroughly good work in all cases. He is a level-headed man, with a good grasp of district finance, and presumably would support the present Government. The Mayor of Christchurch (Mr Ayers) is sJso a candidate, and is already most sanguine of success. I have reason to believe that he has been quietly in training for some time past, and has made himself popular with the working and artisan classes, who are largely represented in the Heathcote constituency, presiding anywhere and everywhere he is asked, whether over Roman Catholics, temperance meetings, or Salvation Army. He is captain of the newly-organised Heathcote Rifles, and if elected, will be a firm supporter of Sir Jiulius Vogel. Mr Wynn-Williams, who formerly represented the district, would like to stand, but probably fears another such defeat as he sustained when Mr Coster was elected. At present he is banging back, waiting' for a sufficiently good'requisition. Mr C. P. Hulbert, ex-Mayorof Christchurch, is also mentioned as a possible candidate. The adventures of a watch were curiously told at the Resident Magistrate’s Court to-day. A pretty dressmaker named Elizabeth Clark had a gold geneva watch given to her by an admiring bootmaker named Scull. The dressmaker goes out during the day, her back door being fastened on the principle adopted by Red Riding-hood’s grandmother you “ pull the string and enter.” A sneaking thief did enter, ransacked her box, and got away with the dressmaker’s trinkets, and sold them, in a by no means uncommon way, to a barman at the Hereford Hotel. This man traded the watch away to a waiter at the same hotel, and eventually a pawnbroker got hold of it, having bought it from a Waiter at the Canterbury Club. The girl had #nly been in possession of the watch about a fortnight, and was not at all sure as to its identity. The giver was in the same fix ; but the jeweller was not, and he had an entry of its number. The sneaking thief said he bought the watch from another fellow, but, as he could not find him, he coolly said he might as well plead guilty. He was committed for trial.

In the case in which Albert Payne was committed for trial for burglary, an entrance to the shop of Button, painter and glazier, had been effected by removing a pane of glass from a window in a right-of-way. In a tin under the cottage where prisoner lived fifteen pawn tickets were found, and these enabled the articles stolen to be easily traced.

The Acclimatisation Society have made a virtue of necessity by removing the restriction on killing hares, which had become an intolerable nuisance up country—so much that garden cultivation is only possible with the use of wire netting and a variety of protective dodges.

AUCKLAND, December 22. Fritz Kriiger, a passenger by the lonic, brings 1,000 canaries, besides nightingales, robins, piping bullfinches, etc. Mrs A. Robertson, of the Lake House Hotel at Rotorua, who has had lengthy litigations in connection with it, has issued a notice to the Native owners of the property on which the hotel stands claiming L 7,000 damages for being kept from what she considers her rightful possession. The Resident Magistrate gave judgment to-day in the case against Edward Denzie for driving a cart on the wrong side of the Onehunga road when a bicycle ridden by Shawley Hunter was approaching. His Worship said he was satisfied from the evidence that defendant was on the wrong side of the road, and the only doubt in the matter was whether a bicyle was included in the term vehicle. After citing numerous authorities, His Worship held that a bicycle was included in the term vehicle, and fined defendant 5s and costs. This decision will be of interest to wheelmen and teach them that they are entitled to the privileges and bound by the duties of the rule of the road. WANGANUI, December 22. The Education Board are beginning to open their eyes to the fact that Inspector Bindon, like Inspector Gammell, of Southland, is being overworked, and a committee has been appointed to investigate the matter, with the view of making some alteration in the staff. I believe that for nearly six months out of the year Mr Bindon works fourteen hours a-day on an average. A meeting of the local shareholders of the Wellington Meat Export Company was held

to-day to consider the advisability of the proposed increase of the capital by LIO,OOO. Though resolutions affirmingthiswerepassed, I do not believe much is likely to be done till the shareholders and graziers here can be convinced that they are treated as well as the Wairarapa shareholders. The general impression at present is that Wairarapa influence controls the shipping space, to the exclusion of outsiders, Mr Buchanan, chair* man of directors, denied that this was so, but several shareholders stated that they would take no more shares till the directors passed a resolution that all space should be given to those who applied for it, in order to prevent any partiality. Till something of that sort is done by the directorate I feel sure that very little progress will be made in the allotment of new shares here. INVERCARGILL, December 23. It will be remembered that some time ago the Bluff Harbor Board’s tug, under instructions from the Minister of Marine, was despatched to the Snares, where a fire had been seen by the Waikato, and which was supposed to be caused by castaways. The tug found no trace of people on the island; but some people now offer as a solution of the affair the suggestion that the fire was lighted by a scaling party from an American whaler, who thought that the Waikato was their own vessel. Regarding illicit sealing, another story, for the correctness of which I cannot vouch, is current to the effect that a cargo of 300 sealskins was lately brought to a Southern port, and a difficulty being found in disposing of them, they were passed through the Customs as hides and shipped to Tasmania. 1 Six friendly societies in town, which haver for some time had a united dispensary, have gone a step further in the way of combination, and after the New Year the members will have a right every quarter to select one pf three medical men who were formerly attached to separate societies. The wider ratfge of choice thus given is much appreciated by the members.