TELEGRAPHIC BRIEFS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1880, 2 December 1887, Page 21

TELEGRAPHIC BRIEFS.

The mail bag fromTe Kopuru to Auckland has been opened and a letter containing £56 in notes stolen. The bag was on the steamer and railway train, bub there is no clue as to where the robbery was committed. The experiment of lighting Wellington by electricity, carried out by Mr Walter Prince, of Dunedin, was tried last week and proved very successful. A coroner's inquiry was held at Christchurch on Friday into the fire at St. Albans, when the cottage occupied by W. J. Culver was destroyed. Culver's furniture and effects were insured for £50 in the Standard and £50 in the Colonial. Among the goods was a large number of books. No remains of books were found among the debris. The evidence showed the house to have been rather poorly furnished. There was no evidence to show the cause of the fire, and the jury returned a verdict accordingly, with a rider that insurance companies should exercise more care in effecting and inspecting risks. At the R.M. Court, Christchurch, on Saturday, Thomas Oarmody and James Mitchell, arrested on a charge of swindling by the confidence trick in Melbourne, were identified by Detective Lomaine, of the Victorian police, and remanded to Melbourne under the Fugitive Offenders Act. At. Auckland on Friday night Mr P. M'Arthur, M.P. for Cornwall and a member of Mr Gladstone's party in the House of Commons, addressed a crowded meeting in favour of Home Rule for Ireland. He spoke for over an hour and a-half, and was frequently applauded. At the termination of the address a resolution was carried expressing confidence in the leader of the English party, and especially Mr Gladstone, and protesting against the treatment of Mr O'Brien. Cheers were given for Mr Gladstone and Mr M'Arthur. A fairly attended public meeting at Christchurch passed a resolution adopting a petition to Parliament in favour of the prohibition of totalisators and sweepstakes on racecourses. An inquest was held at New Plymouth on the body of John Power, who was killed on Friday by a bullock dray passing over his body. It appeared that he was coming out of a cutting, the dray being heavily loaded, when he slipped, and the wheel went over him, fracturing the ribs and bursting thn luags and heart. A verdict of " Accidental death " was returned. The Bluff Harbour Board have practically adopted the recommendation of the Chamber of Commerce that they should increase port charges on goods in and out in preference to raising the shipping dues.