AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 29

AUCKLAND.

At a meeting of the committee of the Throe Kings Methodist Native Training Institution the principal intimated that a legacy, probably amounting to about £300, had been left to the institution under the will of the late Miss Jane E. Richardson.

For being in possession of 61b of smuggled tobacco, Allan Norton, an Auckland hairdresser and tobacconist, was fined £100 today, the penalty beiiug mitigated to £25 and costs. The Crown Prosecutor said that extensive smuggling was going on, requiring the Customs to take drastic measures.

Mr lan Simson, district valuer at Gisborne, has resigned through friction with his departmental head. During his six years' term of service Mr Simson has raised the value in three local counties by over two millions, and, notwithstanding that fact, eight leading settlers, representing £700,000 worth of property, spontaneously wrote to the member for the district urging that his resignation should not be accepted. Another iron^and venture 1a in the air, a Melbourne compan3', trading as the Melbourne Iron, Steel, and Metal Manufacturing Companj*, having applied to the Auckland Crown Lands Board for a lease of somo foreshore land on the Manukau Harbour, with the object of utilising the ironsand. The company has been experimenting in Melbourne with an electrical process by which they hope to be able to separate the metal. The Crown Lands Commissioner has forwarded the application to the Warden for the district, with a recommendation that "it be approved on the following terms : Lease of 100 acres for 66 years ; royalty, Is per ton of steel on iron produced : rent, 2s per acre, the rent to merge in the royalty; nine months to be granted for preparing for erection of furnaces and other buildings ; and the whole of the works, involving an expenditure of at lea=>t £15,000, to be completed and in full working order within two years from the date of the lease, the outpui of steel and iron beginning from January 1, 1906, to be as follows: — First year 6000 tons, second year 12,000 tons, third year 24,000 tons, and for each s\iceeeding year not less than 36,000 tons. If the works are not erected in the time stipulated, or the output of steel and iron is stopped for a period exceeding six months, the Government to have the right either to cancel the lease or impose a special rental not exceeding £100 p^er month.

At Wirth's circus at Whangarei a fight took place between the panthers, the mal© killing and ha]f-eating the female.

The Supreme Court dealt with a charge against Walter Bracewell of attempting to murder one James Scanlon at Auckland on December 31, and also with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm by discharging a loaded revolver at him. Accused pleaded "Not gtiilty." It was elicited in evidence from Scanlan that he was standing near the Britomart Hotel on the day in _question, when the prisoner, coming out of the hotel, observed to' a person standing, " What do you think of that thing there?" (indicating Scanlan). Without further ado Bracewell rushed up, and, pointing a revolver in direct line of his cheek, fired a shot, which went through Scanlan's month Witness had never before spoken to prisoner, whom he thought mubt have been out of his mind at the time. George Hyde, who had known the prisoner for 13 years, said prisoner's peculiarity was known to be due to a shipwreck in which he had had a rough experience. His Honor, in summing up, referred to the absence of motive. The facts of the case certainly suggested a disordered mind. The jury found prisoner was a lunatic at the time of the commission of the offence. His Honor ordered prisoner to be kept in custody until the pleasure of the Colonial Secretary was known. An old-age pensioner had his pension cancelled at Gisborne on tho 3rd on the grounds of insobriety. A strong gale from the north-east and heavy rain accompanied the highest tide known at Whangarei for 20 years. The water on the 4th inst. was level with the top of the towi wharf, and was flooding the lower part of Whangarei. The wate-i wae almost level with the- Auckland 1 wharves. The Dcvonport wharves were inches under water. No damage is reported

Some exceptionally big catches of fish, principally of schnapper and flounder, have been made in the gulf. Some of the flounders were of enormous size.

Thomas Ramsay, alias Pender, alias Phillips, now serving 12 years at Motuit Eden Gaol for robbery with violence at Dunedin last year, and who recently attempted to escape from his cell at night, waa sentenced to a further term of three months on Saturday for his latest offence. Thego\ernor of tin* gaol described Ramsay as a dangerous criminal, who hacl escaped from Wellington and attempted to break out of the Dunedin and Lyttolton Gaols. Bludgeons •weighted, with lead were discovered in another cell, and in the corr'dor outside Ramsay's cell at Mount Eden, pointing to the fact that other prisoners were connected with tho present attempt. He considers that what would have been a serious outrage has been, nipped in the bud. Waimangu Geyser displayed three shots on Friday. One was 1000 ft in height. All the geysers are active. There was a slight earthquake shock at Rotorua about the time of the Waimangu eruption.