NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 7924, 29 July 1886, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND.

[Per Press Association.J AUCKLAND, July 28. Tbe,Waitaki has been chartered to run in the coal trade out of Greymouth. The whaler Alaska has been detained by the Customs authorities at Russell. It is alleged that, whilst at the Chatham Islands, she landed a quantity of goods upon which duty had not been paid. Superintendent Thomson has instructed the police and the. patties searching for Oaffrey and Penn to return to town. Two men; run to earth at Waitakarei Falls, whom the settlers had declared to ‘ be Caffrey and Penn, proved to be two wandering gum diggers. An assistant Relieving officer has been appointed, out of a total of 170 applications, at a salary of The boy Humphreys, arrested on the

charge of rifling the letter boxes at the Post Office, has been discharged, on the ground that there was no proof of the , abstraction of letters, WELLINGTON, Juxr 28. ‘ The argument on a point of law, which...... was reserved at Gisborne in the murder" case, Eegina v. Rowlands, took place in the Court of Appeal to-day, before the - Chief Justice and Mr Justice EichmondThe Attorney-General appeared for the Crown, and Mr Willoughby Brassey, of Gisborne, was counsel for the prisoner. The question at issue was whether a written , statement made by, the deceased wasadmissible as evidence. Their Honors held" that the document was admissible, and upheld the conviction. -At the Supreme Court, to-day, the sentence which had been deferred in the caseof Richard Aldridge, for the larceny of 14s 3d from the person, was delivered, and the prisoner was sentenced to five years' hard t labour. In the House', to-day, the Minister of Justice stated that the medical officer had examined Te Whiti, who is in custody here, and he had reported that Te Whiti’s • was one of the soundest chests he had examined. DUNEDIN, July 28. The half-yearly meeting of the Colonial Bank was held to-day, when the report and balance-sheet (already telegraphed) were* adopted, and Mr John Roberts formally elected Director. The Chairman (the Hon G. M'Lean), in moving its adoption, said that the business was going ahead fairlyThey desired to keep along steadily, not spreading their wings too much. During ■the half-year, matters had mended very materially by the increase in the price of - wool; which, however, was not so great aemany supposed. He regretted that an advance in the rates of interest bn deposits had been forced on all the banks, through • this step having been taken in Australia. After dealing with the' figures in the balance-sheet, he said the shareholders should consider , the question of changing the half-yearly period, so as to give Christmas holidays to the employees. The change would bring the wool in one and the grain into the other half year. In giving his decision in the case which arose before the passing of the Married ' Women's Property Act, Mr Justice Williams held that a wife, having purchased furniture, and allowing it to go te a house which her husband rented, and there to be mixed with other furniture, his property, such furniture became the husband’s property, and was liable to seizure. Under the present law, he said, it would not follow that the same inference could be drawn from the same facts. At Lawrence a Chinaman, named Sing Lee, was fined .£lO and £l lss costs for permitting prostitutes to meet in his house in Chinese camp. The 1 ’ evidence disclosed . that the wife of accused was in the habit of decoying young women from. Dunedin .. by engaging them as servants and then informing them that they would have to - lead an immoral life. Mr EeveU, E.M., said that the evidence disclosed a disgusting state of affairs, the moral atmospherebeing something frightful.