TELEGRAPHIC NEWS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5688, 23 June 1879, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS

(per press agency.) Wanganui, Saturday.

The steamer Patea went ashore on the Spit to-day, but it is thought she will get off without injury. The cutter Annie, which also went ashore, has become a total wreck.

Auckland, Sunday.

The Hinemoa is expected to leave at seven o'clock to-night for the Thames, with the Hon. Mr. Sheehan.

Johnston and King, who were injured at Piake, have died at the hospital. At an inquest on the body of Joseph Davis yesterday, a verdict of death from natural causes was returned.

Chaplin and Rose Osborne are expected per Hero with a new Opera Company for DeLias. Waipu is forming a volunteer cavalry corps, which is expected to muster 100 men. Want of labor is complained of at Whangarei.

At the Police Court yesterday, Henry Keane and Isaac Hunt were charged with evading the Customs duties on thirty-six gallons of spirits. The prisoners pleaded not guilty. The evidence showed that several quarter-casks of rum were placed on the schooner Madonna. Detective Jeffery deposed to having arrested the prisoners landing a cask of rum at St. George’s Bay. Constable Stratern deposed that a cart was in waiting, but the driver made ■ off when the men were arrested. Henry Parker, tide-waiter, identified the cask as one of those placed aboard the Madonna. The prisoners were fined £SO, and costs, or to be imprisoned until the money was paid. The prisoners were removed to gaol subsequently, one of the men’s sons offered to pay half the fine on his account, but the Bench declined to receive anything less than the whole amount. Mr. W. Norrie is sending exhibits of New Zealand wood to the Sydney Exhibition. The most singular item in the collection is a slab of fern-leaf mottled kauri. One side is a rough corrugated trunk, just as if stripped of the bark and varnished, and a peculiar fact in connection with it is, that at regular intervals over the surface there are deep indentations of the exact size and perfect shape of the leaf. On the reverse, and polished side, these leaves are most distinctly defined, looking just as if they had been parted. The whole trunk from which the specimens have been taken was marked in precisely the same manner. So interested are savants with it that a number of the pieces have been eagerly purchased. Sir George Grey carefully inspected it, and intends trying to produce similar arboriferous phenomenon by implanting a leaf in a young sapling. Charleston, Saturday.

Charles Broad, Esq., Resident Magistrate and Warden, paid his last visit to Charleston before leaving for Greymouth on Thursday last. He was entertained at a farewell banquet that evening, and numerous regrets were expressed at his severance from this district. The legal profession was represented by Mr. W. R. Haselden, who responded to that toast in a very able manner. The banquet was one of the best ever held here, which must have been highly gratifying to the worthy guest, as acquainting him with the fact that his administration of justice has been so well appreciated by the Charleston people. Christchurch, Saturday.

A prisoner named Brown, committed for three months for vagrancy, was found dead in. bed this morning in gaol. At the inquest held to-day at the gaol upon the body of a prisoner named Charles Brown, who was under a sentence of three months for vagrancy, a verdict of “ Died from congestion of the lungs, hastened by intemperance,” was returned. •

S. Davis has been summoned for having bought at auction a horse which he himself had impounded. The information was laid under the Cattle Trespass Ordinance. The defence was that the offence was done unwittingly, the provisions of the Act being little known. This was the first case of the kind ever brought into Court. It was also alleged that the complainant, who had been outbidden at the sale, and hoped to get half the penalty, was actuated by interested motives. The case was dismissed, the defendant paying costs. O AMARU, Saturday.

A fire broke out at 1.30 this morning in Wansbeck-street, in the premises occupied by McSweeney, bootmaker. The shop was burned down, also one adjoining occupied by a Chinaman. The building was insured for £250 in the New Zealand office, and McSweeny’s stock for £l2O in the same office. The Chinaman’s stock was not insured.

The Frauklyn Belle, which came ashore last night, is insured in the National for £4OO.

Dunedin, Sunday.

There is good authority for stating that within the past few weeks tens of thousands of marbles have been purchased privately in Dunedin and shipped to the North, the inference being that they are intended to be sold by the consignees to the disaffected natives, and used by them as bullets in the event of hostilities breaking out. At the Police Court yesterday Catherine White, seven years of age, was charged with stealing a toy perambulator of the value of 7s. 6<L, the property of Samuel Rayson, of King-street. The prosecutor said he did not wish .to press the charge, but Inspector Mallard insisted on its being heard. He said the girl had a mania for stealing perambulators, and that this, was the third time she had done ■so, but no action had been taken against her previously. If something were not done the girl would probably grow up a confirmed criminal, •and then the police would' be blamed for not having taken action in the matter. He wanted her committed to the Industrial School. It . having been proved that the girl had taken the perambulator from the verandah of a house in King-street, the Resident Magistrate sentenced her to three hours' imprisonment, after which she was to be committed to theJEefonnatory . for seven years. It is stated that a guaranteed offer of sixteen shillings in the £ will be offered in a certain commission agent’s estate here. It is thought that the gentleman in question is not the only person in the swim.