YESTERDAY’S TELEGRAMS.

Patea Mail, Volume XI, Issue 133, 26 February 1886, Page 2

YESTERDAY’S TELEGRAMS.

INTERCOLONIAL. [iIEUTEtl —COrYKIGIIT.] Adelaide, Feby. 21. The Commercial Bank of South Australia closed its doors this morning-. The stoppage of payment is attributed to the refusal of the Association Banks to render assistance to the Commercial Bank to tide over a critical period. The losses of the Commercial Bank are roundly stated at £300,000. It is announced that the depositors and noteholders are perfectly safe, as the uncalled capital amounts to £ 100,000, and a further sum of half a million is obtainable in the event of liquidation. A special meeting of the shareholders of the hank has been called for to-morrow to consider the position. LVTEii PROVINCIAL. On: if rifKss association) Wellington, Feby. 21. Cardinal Moran left for Wairarapa to-day, en route for Napier, where lie makes a brief stay, and then proceeds to Auckland. At a meeting of the Wellington Meat Preserving and Refrigerating Company, the balance-sheet, which showed the loss to bo nearly £9OOO, was adopted, and it i

was decided to carry on tho business with tlie understanding that understanding that the shareholders are to be again called together in May to consider the company’s progress between the present timeand that date. . Feb. 25. ' J The Alameda left ’Frisco for laud on the 14th instant, one with the English mails of the January, and the Mariposa arrived at fian Francisco on the 22nd inst, time table date, with the colonial mailsfof 2nd February. Government are taking proceedings against some farmers in the Northern. Wairarapa District to compel them to clear their runs of the rabbit pest. The Government have received a telegram slating that the New Plymouth District is clean of scab. The only infected run in Few Zealand is the Clarence run, which has been taken possession of by the Government for the purpose of cleaning it. Auckland, Feby. 24. A requisition to Major Atkinson ask- - ing him to address a public* meeting in Auckland is being signed. Four hundred signatures have already been appended. Sir George Grey is in town, and is expected to address a public meeting on Friday. —4 A cablegram has been received stating that the barque Caberfedh, which arrived at Melbourne from Manukau, had lost a man named Sullivan, who was washed overboard on the passage. Christchurch, Feby. 23. The difficulty with refernce to the rejected material in connection with Scott Bros.’ locomotive contract, has been settled on terms which is said to be satisfactory to both the Government and the contracting firm. The nature of (he arrangem nt bas not transpired. The work in connection with the contract, which has been suspended for the past three weeks, was resumed this morning ; and will be pushed on viger-

on sly. At about 11.30 to-day John Taylor, plumber of the firm of Taylor and . Oakley, got into a dispute with his next door neighbour, John Midgley, about a fence which the latter wished erected between their premises, and which ■ Taylor objected to as unsightly. The dispute Girded in the death of Midgley, the following is a resume of the evidence given at the inquiry into the cause of the death of John Midgley, slater and slangier, who died yesterday during the course of a qurrrel with J. Taylor, plumber, of Taylor and Oakley, was held this afternoon before Mr K. Beetbarn, coroner, and a jury of which Mr R. Walton was foreman. The evidence of eye-witnesses of the the quarrel was to the effect that after high words had been exchanged about a dividing fence Migdley was erecting, and to which Taylor objected as unsightly, Migdley left his ground and came on to Taylor’s section, and struck Taylor. The men fought for a minute or so, Taylor acting on the defence, till Oakley came up and separated them. Oakley said in his evidence ;— Ci After I had separated 1 them Midgley appeared, as near as I could tell, to be judging to get himself ready to make another attack on Taylor, and just as I expected, by his attitude that he was about to make another rush, the man suddenly became rigid : his hands closed suddenly ; he seemed to alter in a moment. They were four or five yards apart’ and before I could prevent him, he fell very heavily on the asphalt on his face. I was between them he fell. As soon as the man fell I picked him up and turned j* him on his 'ace at once. I concluded that he had a fit.” The witnessess were sure that nothing but fists were used on either side. Dr Patrick who had been called in to see the deceased, said there were some abrasions on the face, which were accounted for in the evidence by the fact that the deceased had fallen on an asphalt footpath. He had made a post mortem examination, and concluded that the deceased had died from apoplexy. The doctor said the apoplexy might have occurred before his fall “My opinion is, seeing that he fell in an interval of the conflict and not following a blow, that it was the excitement of the conflict which caused him to fall. He had not the apoplexy because he fell; he was killed by the apoplexy and not by the blow.” The Coroner in summing up carefully pointed out that, if Taylor had gone beyond reasonable limits in defending himself, he had laid himself open to the imputation of manslaughter / The jury returned a verdict that Taylor ii did not exceed the limits of justification in self-defence, and that the death of Midgely occurred through apoplexy brought on by excitement. Taylor was formally charged with manslaughter at * the court this morning, but is net at all probable, in the face of the verdict’ that the case will be gone on with. Oamaiixj, Feb. 24. An inquiry into the circumstances attending the burning of a six-roomed house on the 30tli January last was concluded before the district coroner to-day. The evidence of two witnesses to whom Mrs Ashcroft, the lessee of the house, was alleged to have stated that she intended not to continue paying insurance premiums, and they should not be astonished if the house was burnt down, was taken, along with other evidence. The furniture was insured for £175 in the Colonial Insurance Company. The jury returned a verdict that the house was burned down by some persons unknown to the jury for the purpose of defrauding the insurance company. Masterton, Fepy. 25. A Mrs Neilson reports to the Wairarapa Daily that her daughter, Annie Neilson, who has been missing for some time, returned home last night. Mrs Neilson states that her daughter was cruelly treated by her Wellington employer, and tried to escape; but" was captured, and conveyed to the Asylum, where she had been detained for three mouths. This week she alleges that in consequence of the publicity given to the case, the Asylum authorities returned her to her late employer, who sent her back to her parents in Masts.ton, '