Local Intelligence.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVI, Issue 70, 28 November 1857, Page 2

Local Intelligence.

Death by Drowning. — On Wednesday last, a man named Donovan, who had been working for the Dun Mountain Company, lost his life, as is supposed, in attempting to cross the Maitai River, which had been considerably swollen through the recent heavy rains. An inquest on the body will be holden this day at one o'clock, at the Prince Albert Inn.

Fresh in the Maitai River. — On Wednesday last, the Maitai river was so swollen from the heavy rains that it overran the banks, and seemed to threaten a visit to the interior of some of the houses in Nelson. As it was, we hear of ladies and gentlemen unable to reach their homes, because their houses were completely surrounded by water. We believe the whole of the bridges, recently built by the parties working for the Dun Mountain Copper Mining Company, have been washed away, roads partially destroyed, and the works considerably retarded, if not stopped for the present. The unfortunate death by drowning of one of the returning miners we have noticed in another paragraph.

Wangapeka Gold Field. — We have seen a letter from a gentleman at the Wangapeka, wherein it is stated that Howell and his party are busy at work there, and that several other parties were on their way thither ; but that the quantity of water still in the rivers renders it undesirable for many diggers to proceed to that district for a week or two longer.

Hope Sunday School. — The fifth annual tea meeting of the friends of this institution was held at the School-house, on Thursday, the 26th instant, Mr. E. Dartnall presiding, supported by Messrs. Packer, T. R. Hodder, Henderson, E. Hodder, and Jessop. The meeting was not so numerous as on former occasions, but this may easily be accounted for from the swollen state of the Wairoa river.

Vagrancy, — We are happy to say that this town is not likely to be any longer troubled with the presence of the Dougherty family, their conduct having been so continuously disgraceful, and at last so openly disgusting, that the constables have felt it imperative on them to place both mother and daughter in durance vile, upon a charge of vagrancy ; and it now remains with our Resident Magistrate to take some steps for our purification from at least this portion of our black-book residents.

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Wednesday, November 25, 1857.

[Before John Potnteb, Esq., Resident Magistrate.]

Travers v. Maxwell, for the sum of 15s. 2d.; Travers v. Stone, for £2 45. ; Executors of the late F. Otterson v. J. Watts, for £A. None of these parties appearing, the cases were postponed until the next Court day. James C. Phillips v. Ball. This was a summons for the sum of £5, for goods supplied to defendant from November, 1855, up to December, 1856. As defendant, on being called, did not appear, and plaintiff being without his books, this case was also adjourned until the next Court day.

Thursday, November 26.

Jonathan Howard was charged with drunkenness and indecency, at the temporary residence of Mrs. Dougherty. The offence was proved by the Constable, who had been called by a party residing* in the neighbourhood of the Depot. Defendant, on being questioned by the Magistrate, said that, overcome by drunkenness, he was perfectly oblivious of all that had occurred until he found himself in a cell at the Police Station. Fined £\ and costs, and having no money he will serve a few hours in prison. John Bay, whose case had been adjourned from yesterday, on accouut of the non-attend-ance of complainant, was placed before the Magistrate, to answer the complaint of Mary Day, his wife, and to show cause why he did not contribute to the support of herself and family. Mary Day being sworn, said : My husband left me about four months since, and has only given to me, through other parties, the several sums of £2 155., £\ 155., and ss. I borrowed £ 1 from a friend to take my husband over to Massacre Bay, and he faithfully promised he would send that and more money to me. This he has not done, and lam obliged to appear here against him, that I may compel him to assist in supporting my young children. I have worked until eleven o'clock at night, that my young ones might not want, and had I not been also assisted by my kind neighbours, I do not know what I should have done. "When he first left me, he had working oxen, but these he sold at Massacre Bay. I am without any means of support, my eldest boy has a situation, and I want my husband to support the four remaining children — for myself I will manage to provide. Day said he had been uufortnnate while at Massacre Bay, that he had not earned 2s. 6d. a-day for the last four months, and that, in

fact, he had not been paid for work he had done with his oxen for parties residing there. The Magistrate said it was a very bad case for him thus to desert his wife and young family, and that he was the first man who had been summoned in Nelson for such an offence. His general character had been anything but that of a sober man, and he (the Magistrate) wanted to know what he would allow his wife for his maintenance.

Defendant said : Whatever I can.

The Magistrate: This will not do, and I shall order you to pay the sum of 1 Os. weekly for the space of sis months, and we shall then see how you go on.

Friday, November 27. [Before Jons Poynteb, Esq., Resident Magistrate; G-. White, Esq., and R. K. Newcome, Esq. Gilbert Davidson was charged with drunkenness on the evening of Thursday. Case admitted. Fined 10s. and costs. Stephen Poyntz was charged with having obtaiued goods from A. G. Betts, storekeeper, under ialse pretences. Mr. Travers appeared for the prosecution. He stated that he should produce before the Court such prima facie evidence as would justify him in asking for a remand until an answer was received from Auckland, respecting a letter of credit which had been produced by the prisoner, and upon which he had obtained goods from the prosecutor. The letter was to the following effect : — Auckland, October 4, 1857. Sir — I am directed by Messrs. Woodhouse and Buchanan to inform you that they have received a draft for £500 from Messrs. Burnett and Wynne, of Surrey-street, London, to be placed to your credit 1 ; and the same having been done, your draft or order on the above firm for the above amount will be duly honoured and paid on presentation. I have, &c., W. Tucker, Pro Woodhouse and Buchanan, Merchants, Auckland. To S. E. Poyntz, E3q., Nelson.

Mr. Travers drew the attention of the Court to the fact that the paper on which the letter of credit was written, and orders given by Poyntz in Nelson, were of the same substance and colour, and had identically the same water mark thereon, namely, "John Smith, Sunny Dale." Alfred George Betts sworn, said : The prisoner Poyntz applied to me for goods upon credit about the first of this month, and I have supplied them down almost to the present time ; but on Tuesday last, having some suspicion, I applied to him, and he showed me the letter written from Auckland, which is now produced. I had seen this letter before, but had not read it. I had, previously to this time, asked how he proposed paying me, and he said there were other gentlemen joining in the expedition, and I was to let him know as soon as I could what the amount of the expenses would be, so that each could contribute his share. In consequence of rumours, I subsequently saw him at Sullivan's hotel, and he then had the letter of credit before him, and seemed to be writing what I thought were drafts. I told him the work I had done, and the money I had laid out, and he said there was no fear of my losing my money, as he was about getting an advance from Messrs. Nicholson and Ridings upon his letter of credit. He said everything must be ready by the 20th ; but having my doubts I did no more. The first time I spoke of money was last Monday evening. I then asked him for some on account. I saw him at a house in the Waimearoad, having been hunting for him all the day. I called him out, and spoke to him about money. He then said he had abandoned the expedition, and the reason he did not then give me money was that Messrs. Nicholson and Ridings had none, but that they were going to have a sale on the following day, and would advance him some, and that then he would pay me. I saw him again on the Tuesday morning, and we looked through my account together. I then agreed to take back some of the things. While we were so engaged the boat's crew came past the window, and he went out to them. I went away, and in about an hour subsequently I saw him at Sullivan's. He then produced the letter which has been read, and I looked through it. He said I need have no fear, as he was sure to get the money from Mr. Ridings upon the credit of that letter. I left him and spoke to a merchant about my suspicions ; and in an hour I again went, and Poyntz then gave me the letter. I asked him for it, and he at once gave it to me, that I might skow it to my friend and convince him the money was quite safe. It was upon prisoner's representation that Messrs. Nicholson and Ridings would supply him with money upon the faith of the letter in question, that I gave him the last portion of the credit. He had previously received credit for 3s. 6d. ; and after my having seen his letter, and heard his representation about Messrs. Nicholson and Ridings, I let him have goods to the amount of 19s.

Cross-examined by Prisoner : Did I in any any way hesitate at giving you the letter when you asked for it on Tuesday morning ? — No. Did you not promise to bring it back in five minutes I—l1 — I did. „ Did you do so ? — No. By the Court : I did not ask for an order on Messrs. Nicholson and Ridings, because they said they knew nothing about him. By the Court: When did you first learn that Messrs. Nicholson and Ridings would not honour the prisoner's order ? The first time he mentioned their names I went and asked, and they laughed at the idea. The men had had the goods before this, or I should certainly then have stopped the credit.

William Akersten, sworn, said ; The three papers produced, were given to me by the prisoner. I saw him write two of the documents, and I have every reason to believe that he wrote the third j (these papers were bills of exchange, drawn upon Woodhouse and Buchanan). George Ridings, sworn, said ; lam partner in the firm of Nicholson and Ridings. The prisoner had no oredit with our house j he had no money at'all to receive from us ; I did not promise to supply him with any. I know Messrs. Woodhouse and Buchanan, of Auckland, and have seen the letter you produce, purporting to be from them; it was the prisoner who showed it to me, as a document on which he wished to draw upon our firm. He asked me to cash drafts upon Messrs,

Woodhouse and Buchanan, upon the strength of that letter, but I have not done so. lam in the habit of seeing many different kinds of writing, and think that the several documents here produced were written by the same person. By the Court : We correspond with the firm, but I do not know if they have such a person in their employ as Tucker. By the Prisoner : Did you not tell me you had a sale in a few days, and that then you would purchase my drafts? — I did not. I said I had goods on sale from Auckland, and that I might possibly purchase drafts ; but I did not say I would buy yours, for I did not think the document was a regular one ; in fact, I looked upon it as a thing with which we had better have nothing to do, although, certainly, I regarded the letter in a different light to that which I now do.

John Alfred Langford, sworn, said : lam a merchant, and reside at Auckland. I came here by the Spray, she left Auckland on the 21st October. I know Messrs. Woodhouse and Buchanan, of Auckland, perfectly well. lam in the habit of having frequent intercourse with them, and therefore know well the people in their employ. Certainty in the month of October last, when I left, the name of their chief clerk was King, and I knew no other. I know no one of the name of Tucker.

By the Court : I have frequently been to Messrs. Woodhouse and Buchanan, and never saw any clerk there save King. These documents are not written by King. There is but one man in Auckland within my knowledge who can write like this, and his name is Brown. 1 should think these documents are written by the same person, at least in my opinion they have every appearance of it. Mr. Travers here said : This was all the evidence he proposed giving at present, and he would therefore ask for a remand until it was possible to hear from Auckland. Prisoner remanded for 10 days.