The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 1897.

Evening Star, Issue 10394, 16 August 1897, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 1897.

The Otago Central line will be opened to Kokonga for goods traffic in a few days, and for passenger traffic about the end of September.

The evidence at the inquest on the imbecile girl Welt, held afc the Maori Pah, Wakapuaka, showed that the deceased (who was twenty-five years of age) had been blind about nine years. The post mortem revealed the facts that there were evidence of chronic brain disease and that the girl was pregnant. Questioned as to whether she had any idea as to who was the cause of her daughter's trouble, Mrs Welt said she had not the slightest, adding: " But it will leak out sooner or later. It is nothing less than murder, whoever it is." The coroner said that obviously a dastardly crime had been committed on a blind and imbecile girl, and vit would be the duty of the police to try and ascertain who the criminal was, which drew -from "Sergeant Cnllen the retort that he •" would travel day and night, throughout -the length find breadth of the land, if he .fiould bring the Render to justice."

Additional subscriptions for the Victoria Children's Ward :—Mr W. Patrick, £2 2b.

At the Port Chalmers Police Court this forenoon' William Drew, for drunkenness, was convicted and discharged. Mr A. Thomson, J.P., presided. The Wellington correspondent -of the ' Lyttelton Times' hears from a reliable source that in all probability Parliament will be called together for the despatch of business not later than September 30, and possibly on September 24. Before the Lake County Council proceeded with the election of a member to represent them on the Bluff Harbor Board, a legal opinion from Messrs Smith, Chapman, and Sinclair was read stating that the Hon. J. G. Ward was qualified to be elected, and, if elected, to take his seat.

At the Police Court this morning, before Mr A. Mercer, J.P., Lily Clisby and James King were each fined 5s for drunkenness, in default twenty-four hours' imprisonment. Elizabeth Smythe, who was similarly charged, was fined 10s or forty-eight hours, and a first offender was dealt with in the usual way. A curious blunder appears in the London ' Graphic' special record reign number, dated June 28. In the course of its references to New Zealand, the following sentence appears :—" Mr Seddon's stay here has been terribly saddened by the loss of his wife some weeks before the Jubilee Day. Mrs Seddon and her daughter had accompanied Mr Seddon to this country." A correction appeared in the next issue of the 'Graphic'

A literal translation of the choice Latin spoken when the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon was presented at Cambridge University on June 17 was as follows:—" New Zealand, a group of islands of almost the same extent as our own country, has sent us her Prime Minister, a man who, endowed with a truly liberal spirit, and thinking that nothing should be excluded from the ranks of his party, was the first of all Ministers of the British Empire to grant the right of voting to the sex to which the Goddess of Learning and the Muses belong. I present to you a man well worthy of honor, Richard John Seddon." And so, wearing a scarlet stuff gown with pink silk facings, and his Doctor of Laws bonnet, Mr Seddon received the hand-clasp of the Vice-Chancellor and became an honorary LL.D. of Cambridge.

Passengers for Loudon by the Gothic leave Port Chalmers by the Westralia to-morrow afternoon.

At to-morrow's meeting of • the Caversham Presbyterian Literary and Debating Society a mock trial by jury will be held.