AMONG OUR EXCHANGES.

Northern Advocate, 7 May 1887, Page 2

AMONG OUR EXCHANGES.

At Whanganui on Saturday morning Drill - Instructor Henry committed suicide by shooting himself with a carbine. The deceased had been somewhat depressed for some days, owing to the fact that the Defence Department had given him notice that he would have to be transferred, fie had been reported by Colonel Stapp for some trifling irregularities, and there had i>een for some time continual misunderstandings between them. Last night he was about town as usual, and got home about one o'clock. Between that hour and two he maintained intelligent conversation with his wife and family, then went into the sitting-room and shot himself. At the Thames Charles Henry Wight, a powerfully built young man, who appeared in Court with his head bandaged up, and his hand in a sling, was charged with, committing a rape on Hariata Marikai, at Komata, on Saturday morning. Mr Humphreys defended the prisoner. The evidence for the prosecution was to the effect that the complainant, apparently a middle-aged Maori woman, had left her husband ana three other natives shortly before the offence was committed — they having gone to look for a pig. Accused was on horseback in a tea-tree bush, close to the main road. He beckoned to her, but not taking notice, he dismounted, knocked her down, and forced his hat into her mouth, and committed the offence Previous to this she had screamed, and her husband, fearing she was being gored by a bull, hurried to the scene, in time to find them in the position stated. The husband then thrashed accused severely with a stick on the hands and body, and both husband and Wife mal-treated him in an indescribable manner. She also put mnd in his eves and mouth. The husband of the woman said : " I then turned him round and told him I would kill him for assaulting my wife. Having dropped my stick I gave him a blow in the face, and told him I would cut off his ear for assaulting my wife. I drew a pocket knife out of my pocket, put the blade between my teeth, and opened the knife He said, ' Don't cut my ear off and I will give you £50.' I replied. ' Where is it ; give it to me now.' Accused said, 'It is in the house.' I knew this was a falsehood, and so I cut his ear off." The accused was then committed to the Supreme Court, bail being allowed himself in £100, and two sureties in £50 each. The complainant deposed that she had twelve children, and was a grandmother. The Rcctfted's friends make light '%t<*titechaxg«, and say it is a conspiracy, originating from ill-feeling and they can. easily controvert it by overwhelming evidence. The Official Assignee announces a dividend of 20s in the £ in the estate of Patrick Gordon, settler Whangarei. The children in a school in Hawke's Bay have been tormented by bird lice introduced in» to the school by sparrows. The goods train ran into a landslip on Saturday on the Hutt line. The engine and three trucks were derailed, and the former was serionsly damaged. Ithasbeen suggested that the flre in the Post Office was caused by the practice of keeping a pot of sealing wax for closing the mailbags over a gas jet. This pot hung close to the lift which spread the flames upwards quickly. The theory is that the gas may not have been turned out, that the wax boiled over, caught fire, and so set fire to the lift. Just about where the pot was placed a large hole has been burned completely through the flooring, which is not the case anywhere else, and this fact would seem to support the probability of the fire having started in some such way as described. Some time ago by an accident at the Beaumout ferry, a carrier lost his wagon horses and a quantity of goods. His sued the Tuepeka County Council and got judgment for a few hundred pounds and costs. The costs the Council had to pay foot up to £655 which is exactly what the plaintiff asked for as compensation before suing. It seems victoria has no to compel well to do people to support their aged and indigent parents. At the Brunswick Court the other dny an old couple both ever 80 had to be sent to gaol for twelve months as vagrants though they have two sons each earning 11s a day.