Wednesday, February 13.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XX, 16 February 1861, Page 3

Wednesday, February 13.

A udcraon «. Stewart, for £20, for wages as a domestic si'nant. Jeasie Anderson, being sworn, said : I am the plaintiff. The defendant owed me the sum of £3 for services rendered, as per agreement, in England, from the latter end of February until last July. I left , England with defendant and his wife some lime in j lust July, and he hired rac as a general attendant on I his wife for six months after my arrival in Nelson. I I was to have the hig4i«3t rate of colonial wages. No ' amount was stated. I was simply engaged to act as a general servant ; that was early in December. I was j hired for six months certain ; but a week after I had J arrived here, defendant one evening called in a policeman, and had me turned out of his house. He therefore broke his agreement, and I now claim for tho mx months. Defendant said I hud been insolent ; but the fact was he interfered with my duties, and I told him I would not allow him to do so. His sole reason for discharging me was because I had been insolent. Mr. Maiben knows that the money is clue to me. The Resident Magistrate : AVhy did you not subpeena Mr. Maiben as a witness. Plaintiff: I did not know that I ought to do so. Will you allow the case to stand over, and I dare say I can fetch him. John Henry Stewai"t, being sworn, said : I am the defendant, and Ido not owe the plaintiff any thing. I produce an account, showing that I do not owe her the amount she has claimed. She has had that account, but will not agree to its correctness. My agreement with her was a verbal one. I was to pay her passage out, and, in return, she was to attend to the wants of my wife on board ship, and on landing here was to act as my general servant the same as she had done iv London, and I was to pay her colonial wages. A short time after I had landed in Nelson I took a house, and wished her to go there and do her usual work, but instead of doing so she remained with my wife at a lodging-house, and for that I had to pay her bill. AVhen she did, however, come to the house with my wife, she was so insolent that I told her she must get another place. The Resident Magistrate: If you hired the plaintiff as servant to your wife, I cannot say that she was not justified in obeying your wife's directions, and slaying at the hotel with her. At the same time the plaintiff, by not having her witness here, has failed to prove her case, and I will therefore nonsuit her. The case was subsequently settled by the payment of £15. James Simson, of AVaimea-road, was summoned by the Inspector of Weights and Measures for having, on AVednesday, the 13th instant, sold certain goods by steelyard weights, contrary to the provisions of the AVeights and Measures Ordinance. Defendant admitted the offence, and was fined £2 and costs. Oxford v. AVilliams, for £7 13s. Defendant did not appear. Judgment for plaintiff, with cobls, payable half in three weeks and half in six weeks. Bush v. Watson, for £1 55., for a bedstead supplied eight months since. Defendant did not appear. Judgment for plaintiff, with costs. Levien and Co. v. Parker, for £10, the amount of an overdue acceptance, drawn and endorsed by the defendant. Defendant did not appear. Judgment for plaintiffs, with costs. AVinterburn v. Sandres, for £10 Is. 6d., for rent of a cottage from June, 1860. Defendant did not appear. Thomas Bush, who appeared for the plaintiff, being sworn, said : I let the cottage to Sandres, and the rent is still due. I have frequently asked for it. Judgment for the plaintiff, with costs, payable half in month, and half in two montli3. Bush v. Downs, for £2 45., the amount of a dishonoured promissory note. Defendant did not appear. Judgment for the plaintiff, with costs. New Bridge over tue Maitai. — A new bridge has just been completed over the Maitai, at Nilestreet. It occupies the po&ition of the former bridge, which was washed away some months since, duriug a heavy freshet of the river. The present bridge is much higher than the former one, and the cost of its erection has been defrayed partly by residents in the immediate neighbourhood, and partly by the Board of Works. Tue Bridge-street Culvert. — The Board of AVorks have continued a railing from the bridge across the salt water culvert, along the very dangerous bend in the road near the Victoria hotel, so that persons driving that way at night need no longer be afraid of being precipitated into the water. Heu Majesty's Steam-sloop Fawn. — It is expected that this vessel, which has been at Picton since the sth of this mouth, will visit Nelson about the time of the expected arrival of the English mail, so that she may convey the Taranaki portion of it with her on her return to New Plymouth. Illegal AVeights and Measures.— Some liino since we called attention to the Act which requires that all persons engaged in trade shall use properly stamped weights and measures. Three persons have already been fined for not complying with its provisions, and on AVednesday last a fourth was fined £2, for having sold goods by steelyard weight. As it may not be generally known, we would caution traders that steelyards, according to the Weights and Measures Ordinance, are illegal.