TELEGRAPHIC BRIEFS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1943, 14 February 1889, Page 22

TELEGRAPHIC BRIEFS.

Copeland, an amateur sculler, was chased by a large shark when practising in tbe Wellington harbour on Thursday morning. The man M'Dermott, charged with the murder of his paramour at Auckland, is recovering from his self-inflicted injuries, and the con- j stables have been instructed to guard him. It is probable he will be ablo to appear at the ] Police Court in the course of a fortnight. The shareholders of the Ashburton Woollen Factory Company, which has been in operation < for the last three years, have resolved to go into liquidation. Shortness of capital impelled this step. The assets will more than cover liabilities. During a dispute in the bar of the Hot Springs Hotel, Te Aroha, on Mouday evening between two men, one of them, John Wood, drove a small titri stick into the face of the other, F. Derrick Hyde. The wood passed in by the eyeball and behind the nose, causing a serious wound, the bleeding being stopped with difficulty. Wood was arrested next day and remanded. The Government are about to offer the public for settlement, under the pastoral lease system, i two runs in the Auckland Islands, consisting of 138,000 acres ; also, under the small-farm settlement scheme, seven small grazing runs at the Kermaoleca, the runs varying in area from 930 to 1700 acres. In the Christcburch RM. Court, on Tuesday, Peter Sinclair brought an action for £100, damages, against Thomas Henley, who shot and wounded him at Spriugston some time ago, and received six months' imprisonment in consequence. Mr Whitefoord, R M., gave judgment for Sinclair for £32, and costs. The fifteenth annual meeting of the Canterbury Saleyards Company was held on Tuesday. A dividend of 4 per cent, for the half-year, making 10 per cent, for the year, was declared. During the year 363,000 sheep, 19,000 cattle, and 10,000 pigs passed through the yards. A young married man with a large family, who is employed in one of the largest of the Auckland gum stores, has very recently received information that he has fallen heir to a nice ljttle dot of £12,000 or £14,000 by the decease of an aunt whom he had never seen, but with whom he had maintained a regular correspondence in writing. Hitherto he has been receiving an ordinary salary, and having no other means his piece of luck was more than welcome. An extraordinary case of housebreaking occurred at Inglewood, Taranaki, on Saturday Alexander Lang, a leading settler, member of the Town Board, School Committee, &c, was caught coming out of the window of Marsh's f-tore at midnight. He had taken from the store 80 straw hats of the value of £10, 12 American oilcloths, a clock, tobacco, and a variety of other articles, worth over £20. He was arrested on Tuesday and brought to New Plymouth, where be will be charged with breaking and enterirg. He has a wife and large family, and is in good circumstances. He had apparently no motive for the crime.