TELEGRAPHIC NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 879, 4 January 1889, Page 33

TELEGRAPHIC NOTES.

(PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Auckland, December 27. The shareholders of the New Zealand Frozen Meat and Storage Company held their annual meeting to-day. The balancesheet for the year ending 30th of June, showed a debit balance of £7850 13s lOd, including £IB7O brought forward from the previous year. The report and balance Bheet were adopted, and Sir F. Whitaker and A. Bull were re-elected Directors. The store of Bloxsome Bros, at Whitianga was burned on Tuesday. The premises were insured for £7OO in the Colonial office. H.M.S. Egeria sailed to-day for Hobart. A little girl named Ardhurst, about three years of age, was scalded with boiling water in the Domain yesterday and died to-day. Christchurch, December 28. There is a great improvement in the building trade here. It is estimated that £70,000 will be spent within the next few months, consequent on the large repairs made necessary by the fire at the Belfast Freezing Works and the Sunnyside Asylum, as well as new buildings projected in the centre of Christchurch. In the second round of the Chess Championship Tourney, Hookham beat Sexton, Ollivier, Brown, Benbow, and Mouat. In the third round Brown meets Benbow, Mouat, Sexton, Hookham, and Ollivier. Mr George Gould offers £IOO toward the fund for the representation of Canterbury at the New Zealand Exhibition. This is the second £IOO promised here. In the chess tourney to-day Benbow beat Brown, Olliver beat Hookham, Mouatt beat Sexton. Mr John Ollivier, the candidate for Lincoln, received a vote of thanks at Prebbleton to-night. He announced himself an opponent of the present Government, bat in favour of Protection. At the Lyttelton Resident Magistrate’s \ Court to-day, George Foster, who was di3-

charged from Lyttelton Gaol on Wednesday, was charged with planting tobacco, newspapers, &c., on the works at Sticking Point, so that they would fall into the hands of the prisoners. The man had been arrested by Sergeant O’Malley and Constable Drake on the previous evening, and from the evidence of these officers it ap. peared they had watched him going toward the works with a parcel undei his arm. Th)B aroused suspicion, and they followed him up and caught him in the act of planting the articles. A bundle of letters written by prisoners in the gaol was also found close by. He was fined £5, or in default one month's imprisonment. Mr HeDry Carson, formerly manager of the Grossmere Station, was fatally' injured on Wednesday last by a fall from his horse iu Porter’s Pass. He died this morning. Two slight shocks of earthquake were felt at Hanmer Plains, and one slight shock at Leslie Hills, Tekoa, and Culverden, at about 9.28 p.m. yesterday. Mr Joy, the second offioer of the Coptic, which arrived in port this morning, states that he was on deck at 9.30 p.m. yesterday when, off Kaikoura, be observed three distinct flashes of lightning, which appeared to come from well in shore abreast of the Kaikoura range, and resembled the flash of a gun. There was a strong northerly wind blowing at the time. No unusual vibrations were felt, but Mr Joy remarked to one of the other officers that he was of opinion there had been an earthquake, and that the flashes had something to do with it. Auckland, December 28. A meeting of the creditors of J. Buchanan, a well-known merchant, was held to-day, when it was intimated that a petition in bankruptcy would be filed, as the Bank of New Zealand, which claims against the estate for £30,360, would not accept a compromise. News has been received to day of the death of Mr E. Harker, a well known mem ber of the Auckland Choral Society for 20 years past, who died on board the steamship Oceania on a trip to Ceylon. Advices from Tonga state that a murder was committed on the evening of the 2Stb ult., near the English Consulate, when a Tongan in a fit of jealousy killed a young girl to whom he had recently been married. The Minister of Lands inspected the village settlement at Hukerenui in the Bay of islands yesterday, and also visited the quicksilver deposits at Ohaeawai. Mr Richardson intends to proceed to the Northern settlements. New Plymouth, December 28. Charles- Gallagher, of Te Aroha, Thames, appeared at the Police Court this morning charged with using threatening language against hiß wife. According to Mrs Gallagher’s evidence, her husband and self were on a visit to Father Cassidy, there being in the priest’s house at the same time Father Costello, of Auckland, and Father O’Donnell. On Monday Mrs Gallagher, against her husband’s wishes, went for a drive to YVaitara with Father O’Donnell. On their return Gallagher wanted his wife to pack np and clear out of the house. She refused, and Gallagher threatened to strike her. A fight between Gallagher and the priest ensued, Father Costello telling the priest to give Gallagher a good hammering. Defendant w»s dreadfully beaten, and his face muoh disfigured, but he was bound over to keep the peace in sureties of £IOO each and himself in £2OO.