Interprovincial News.

Hastings Standard, Issue 139, 6 October 1896, Page 2

Interprovincial News.

Walter Woodcock, for maiming a horse, was committed for trial at Auckland yesterday. The animal was shot in several places. Messrs Huddart, Parker and Co. have offered to give a free passage to Mr Holmes, the expert mentioned in the petitions to the Government, asking to have him sent to Europe and America to develop the flax industry. Robert Elliott, a deputy in the Cardiff mine, Westport, died suddenly yesterday afternoon. He was assisting a lad to lift a tub of coal on the rails when he become ill and sat down. A few minutes afterwards he was seen lying on his face and was picked up dead. A meeting of Chrhtchurch railway employes discussed the Railway Classification Bill, and expressed a desire that it should pass this session subject to certain alterations in the schedule. The Christchurch Builders' Society have approved a recommendation of the Labor Bills Committee to strike out clauses 9 to 18 of the Wages Protection Bill. The Canterbury Trades and Labor Council resolved to support Mr William Cullen as Labor candidate for Christchurch. The public examination of J. Ryley, trading as R. Anderson and Co., millers, took place yesterday and was of great length. Mr Solomon, for the Assignee, said the inquiry might be the foundation for criminal proceedings. Ryley started business with a balance of assets over liabilities of about £SBOO and w r hen he filed he owed £45,000. Ryley 111 five years drew £30,000 from the business. They wanted him to show how he proposed to escape the clause which made him liable for trading on fictitious capital. The case was adjourned till Wednesday, when the bankrupt will be asked to sign depositions taken in shorthand. A miner named James M'Farlane, was killed by a fall of earth at Bluespur, Lawrence, yesterday afternoon. Affidavits were filed in the Christchurch Supreme Court yesterday in support of an application for the public examination of the directors and officers of the Colonial Bank. Mr V. M. Braund, in his affidavit, says he is desirous of investigating the material in a paragraph in an affidavit filed by him when the official liquidators were appointed and to refer to admissions made in evidence before the Court and before the Council's Banking Committee. The other affidavits are by Charles Fraser, of Wellington, one of the contributors, and Miss Barnicoat, who took notes of the evidence before the Council's Banking Committee. The remains of an old man named Duncan Ferguson, who has been missing for three weeks, were found near the road from Hedgehope to Mataura. He had been dead for a considerable time. A farmer named Peter Allan, whose disappearance some weeks back caused police inquiries to be made, returned to his home at Wairoa, Southland, on Saturday night on foot. He said he had been to Canterbury.

A startling affair happened at the Bank of New Zealand, Blenheim, yesterday morning shortly after 11. The teller (Mr H. Mitchell) had occasion to go to the strong i - oom, and struck a match to light the gas, when a terrific explosion occurred. The thick plate glass windows on the ground floor in the Market-street frontages were blown out in fragments, the Venetian blinds torn, and in one or two instances the window sashes broken. The papers, cheques, and notes in use were strewn all over the room in wild confusion. Mr Mitchell had a narrow escape. He was burnt about the and arms, and his hair was singeoT. The ledger-keeper was hurled from his desk into the manager's room. The rest of the staff escaped without harm. A few passers-by in the streets were slightly cut by the flying pieces _ of glass. The violence of the explosion caused the buildings in the vicinity to vibrate, and windows were broken in several instances. An examination of the strong room revealed a leak in the gaspipe over the door. The papers in the strong room caught fire, but were soon extinguished. The escape of the officials from serious injuries is regarded as miraculous.