SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8149, 21 April 1887, Page 5

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[By Telegraph.] •* _____ [prom our own correspondent.] AUCKLAND, April 20. George Wallace, of Arch Hill, reported to the water police yesterday that, on the night of April 11, when Donald Grant is reported to have disappeared from the Old Men’s Befuge, he saw a man answering to the description near the Freezing Company’s works on the railway wharf. He says the old man wore the Befuge clothes, and was rather deaf. Wallace asked if he had lost his way, and the man replied, " No.” As Grant has not been seen since, it is feared that he may have fallen into the harbour and been drowned. In consequence of statements made by persons interested in the removal of the evils of the liquor traffic, the police authorities recently caused analyses to be made of samples of locally-made ginger wine. It has been found that this article contains a verylarge percentage of alcohol, and it is quite on the cards that a number of storekeepers in the North Auckland district who have sold ginger wine, will be shortly proceeded against for retailing spirituous liquors without being licensed so to do. NAPIEB, April 20. At the Harbour Board meeting the Engineer reported that the weather had greatly interfered with the diver in preparing the bottom for the foundation blocks. The foundation had been extended 145 ft and finished with the monolith coping 99ft. Mr W. E. Oarruthers, Eesident Engineer, is engaged in opening the mouth of the Ngaruroro river, the water in which is 1 banked up and threatens the safety of the railway line. NEW PLYMOUTH, April 20. John Gilmir, an old-established firm in New Plymouth, is declared bankrupt; liabilities .£3115, assets .£4202, leaving a surplus of assets, if they realise the value put on them, of JBIOBG. WANGANUI. April 20, At the Supreme Court yesterday, in the case of larceny from a dwelling, the two prisoners interested were undesirable looking acquisitions to the Colony, who had stowed away on board the Wakatipu, and so reached the Colony. They got fourteen days in Wellington, and as soon as they came out committed a felony, for which they got nine months each yesterday. At a public meeting it was decided to collect subscriptions for the erection of a band rotunda as a memento of the Queen’s Jubilee. The meeting also favoured the nreservation of the old block-house in the centre of the town, on account of its associations with perilous times in the past history of the district. At a meeting of the Local Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Committee lamented the want of interest taken by Christians in the progress of the movement, and recommended securing subscriptions with a view to twelve months’ colportage being engaged in, to place Bibles in homes where none are now to be found.