LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1010, 10 May 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A Gazette of the 29th inst. contains the appointment under "The Public Domains Act, 1880," of Messrs. A. H. Graham, J. B. Poynter, J. W. Johnson, C. D. Pitt, and G. L. Sunderland, as members of the Patutahi Domains Board ; and the appointment of Mr. C, W. Ferris as assessor uuder "The property Assessment Act, 1879," for Gieborne.

In our third page will be found the annual statement of accounts of the Gisborne Borough Council, from the Ist day of April, 1879, to March 31st, 1880.

Mr. P. Macfarlane's select dancing class will assemble at the the Music Hall, this evening 7.30. o'clock.

Marara Te Kani, the wife of the wellknown chief, Hiriui'Te Kani, died near Wharaurangi on Thursday last,. The deceased, who had been ailing for many years past from asthaina, was an owner in a large number of blocks of laud in this district. A tangi is now being held in accordance witli Maori custom. Shortly before the deceased departed this life, and feeling her end approaching, she sent a messenger for Mr. M. J. Gannon, interpreter, to prepare her will. It transpired yesterday, at the tangi, that the whole of her property which she owned in her own right, sne bequeathed to her son. The property she acquired through her husband she bequeathed to Hirini.

A Hokitika resident has got himself unwittingly iuto a very queer predicament. The local ' Time* ' saya :— He is, or was secretary to a company which was registered under the Joint Stock Companies Act. That company once poseased property of varied descriptions, but it has long ago gone the ways of all companies. It is, in met, defunct. The secretary omitted to take the name of the company in question off the regieter, and thought no more about it until a day or two ago, when he received an intimation from Wellington that he was fined LSO a day, and that the fine was still running on, and, like Tennyson's brook was likely to go on for ever. It appears that the Argus eyes of some Property Tax Commissioner discovered the name of the departed company on the register, and ' dropped on ' the secretary in the manner already related. It remains to be seen whether the Government can recover the fine, but 'we trust not.' Failing the money, will the sinning secretary be sent gaol dnring the pleasure of Her Most Gracious Majesty ? lf

Before Butler received his eighteen year's sentence. His Honor asked the Crown Prosecutor the question " What is it of the prisoner ? " and Mr, Haggitt replied a3 follows i— Before the prisoner came to this Colony at all, your Honor, I am informed that, uuder the name of George Lee, alias James Wilsou, he received various sentences. He received a sentence of twelve months for vagrancy at Mcl: bourne on the 17th September, 1860; twelve mouths for larceny on the 2nd February, 1863 ; six months for vagarncy on the 19th May, 1862, at Richmond ; five years for assault and robbery under arms on the loth of December, 1864, at the Supreme Court, Melbourne ; six months imprisonment for receiving stolen property on the 15th December, 1861, at the Supreme, Court, Melbourne, ; and five years for burglary on the loth September, 1871, at the Supreme Court, Melbourne. Iv addition to these the prisoner here received three months' hard labor for larceny iv August, 1876 ; aud in October, 1876, he was sentenced by this Court for burglary, larceny, larceny, larceny, house-breaking, house-breaking, — six distinct charges— to four year's penal servitude.