TELEGRAMS

Southland Times, Issue 12729, 13 October 1893, Page 2

TELEGRAMS

(Per Press Association) AUCKLAND, Oct. 12. The Mahinapua left this afternoon With the ’Frisco southern mails. The farm buildings of Mr Wm. Walters at Papakura was burned down this morning with their contents. They were insured in the Norwich Union office for L3OO. A policeman named Thomas O’Brien, charged with drunkenness at the Poilce Court, did not appear. Counsel applied for a remand which Sergeant Gamble opposed, but the Bench granted it. NAPIER, Oct. 12. St. Hippo was scratched for the New Zealand Cup this morning. WELLINGTON, Oct. 12. The s.s. Hauroto brought 144 passengers from Sydney. Owing to the amalgamation of the Customs and Marine Departments, Mr Lewis Wilson, Assistant-Secretary of Marine, has to retire. He entered the department; in 1867. Mr Glasgow, Under-Secretary for Customs, takes charge of Marine as well. Mr Wilson is not entitled to a pension, but receives the usual compensation of a month’s salary for every year he has been in the service. The jurisdiction of the Civil Court of Appeal will probably be extended to criminal cases under the provisions of the Criminal Code Act. MASTERTON, Oct. 12. The libel action Pownall v. Payton was heard in the District Court to-day. Pownall, Mayor of Masterton, sued the proprietor of the Wairarapa Daily Times for commenting in a paragraph on the presentation of an address to an ex-employe signed by him, The Times stating that the said paragraph was blasphemous. In summing at considerable length Judge Kettle spoke of irreverence of young men in the colony* The jury gave a verdict for plaintiff with 1 damages ; no costs being allowed. CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 12. In the Supreme Court to-day Mr Justice Denniston gave judgment for the Waimakiriri Ashley Water Supply Board in the case brought against them by Dixon, who applied for an injunction restraining the Board from making water races. Mr Troup, proprietor of the Crown Iron- ' works, had a thigh badly fractured by a bicycle accident to-day. Merganser has been scratched for all engagements at the C.J.C. meeting. DUNEDIN, Oct. 12. A deputation from the City and Suburban Tramway Company waited on the Hon. J. G. Ward to-day, when the question of electricity as a motive was thrashed out. The Minister expressed his willingness to go to the extent of LBOOO in providing metallic circuits for the telephone wires, the Tramway Company paying L4OOO. He refused to promise however, to give LBOOO if the cost was less than L12,00C. The unfairness of asking the Tramway Company to pay for improving the Government telephone system was pointed out. The Minister admitted that a wrong system|had been adopted, but said it was a question of money with the Government; they had to make the money they had to go as far as possible. The Minister at length promised co obtain the services of independent experts to go into the whole matter and also that when the question was setcled an Order-in-Council would be issued giving the company a title. It is understood that the Minister for Lands has concluded the purchase from Mr John Douglas (Mount Royal) of his Pomahaka Downs and Burning Plains Estate, adjoining the famed Clydevale Estate. The area is 7462 acres, and the price is about L2 10s per acre—a portion of the estate: sojd in 1889, and not the best of it, realised L 3 12s.