NEWS & NOTES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXI, Issue 159, 29 June 1895, Page 1

NEWS & NOTES.

A cnse of i-.: tercet io shareholders and speculators was recently decided m Auckland, when Mr Northcroft, S.M., fiied n vendor, who bed mide atraDSfer iv blank, £20 and Co3ts. In the cue of the purshaser, judgment was reserved. Evidence of Nurse Mcßobie at Cbristchurch hospital inquiry ; " lhe doctor once suggested to me that it would be an effectual plan with screaming childien to tqnirt a little water into their faces. I did not do it. I laughed but said nothing. Never before have I had such a eugje s'ion made to me." Retiring allowances ara to be granted to Civil Servants as follows:— John H. Tovfcy, Post and Telegraph Department, £77 10j per annum, from lit of April last ; Spencer W. von Stunner, Justice Department, £288 Is lid, from Ist prox. ; Edward F. Norris, Begis-trar-General's Department, £88 17s 9d, from Ist October next. The Nelson Colonist has the following very pessimistic paragrnph :— " It is fsared that the New Plymouth oil springs are not likely to add much to the world's supply of oil. They will most probably turn out to be quite as disappointing as the Gisborne venture ; and we have heard that £150,000 was wasted over that undertaking. The saltwater appears to have got into the well at New Plymouth, thus forming one of Nature's bUnfa thit no company would care about. A series of untoward incidents recently occurred on the trip of the Miowera from Sydney to Vancouver. The second day out from Sydney the chief baker, nemed Johnson, committed suicide by junping overboard while m a state of temporary insanity, oatued through excessive drinking. When halfway batwein Honolulu and Vancouver, the high-pressure fi3<oa broke, and the vessel had to steam at half ' Speed, curing only the compound engiaes, A quarter* maittr broke bis leg by a fall m lough weather, while a Baloon passenger became insane soon after leaving the Hawaiian Islands, and had to be pro« p9rly lcoked aftar for the remainder of the voyage. The sum of £36 his boen lyiog m th» Bank of New Zealand, Wellington, for the 1-iRt 550 years to the credit of " George Hunter, Lancashire Belief Fund." The executor of the late Mr Hunter has now decided to band over the money to the loo&l benevolent institution. Rumour bas it that several K&ikottr* farmers purpose going m extensively— that is, extensively icon a local point of view— for wheat growing this year* Far be it from us to dissuade them m such a matter if they are satisfied that it will pay them to di so. But can they be so assured P— Btar, The Nelson Bugby Union's representative team will be despatched to the West Coast to meet the letter's representatives during the coming month. The team will leave Nelson on Tuesday, tho 16- h of July, this being a werk later than was m the first case intended. The Government have under considertion the question of reforming the judiciary, with especial regard to Dig. tiict Judgis It is stated as probable that District Judges will ba merged into Circuit Judges with Supreme Court jurisdiction, but without appeal jurisdiction. That would be reserved for the present Supreme Court Judges, who would then be confined to permanent Courts m ths centres, leaving the new Judges to dc all the provincial work. The Minister for Mines his declined Mr S. M. Smith's invitation to send an expert lo report on the petroleum bores, as a guide to investors. Me Cadman thinks it would ba very uuwiee for a Government to be responsible for any information with reference to the formation of companies. He has, however, askeJ tho Commissioner of Crown Lands to take soms oil from a bore himself, and scad it for analysis, A police party at Wyndham with two Chinamen recently went to View Hill, Western Australia, to exhume the remaiDS of a Chinaman who shot himsalf eight years ago. The body was dug out of the marah mud, and wan found to ba fossilled. The skin and flesh were perfect, the former beiu? strong enough to allow of boat-hooks being stuch through it to lift the body out of the grave. Attempts to cut it wfth a spado proved futile, the skin being as hard as a dried bullock hide. The body was burned with the usual Chinese ceremonies. The Havelock State School had a very narrow escape of being destroyei by flre on Thursday eveniDg. Two passers-by noticed a bright glare m the building, >nd aftr watching for a moment they saw that it was on fire and fl jm.es were running up the eastern wall. An entrance was at once effected, when it was seen that a numb it of maps, etc., which wera standing m a corner ne-»r the fire place, had by some meaus become iemtid, and the fire had spread to the wall. An alarm was at once given, but the fire was put out before a9sistince arrival. The origin of the fire is a complete mystery. Btferenca to the eisa of Minnie Dean was made by the Bishop of 8t Paul's Cathedrol (Wellington) on Sunday. His Lordship said this murderess of a helpless iufant had ben brought to her presaut position by the adulterers and adulteresses of tha time. If his voice ctu'd reach those peraoan, he would atk each one of them to sty of Mrs Deau *. " I am, m purr, the cause of that woman's crime and of hur doom.'* They might escape the penalty of a cumbrous law of mm, but they could not escape tbe righteous judgment of God.