TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1523, 24 June 1886, Page 1

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

A youth named William Bennetts was at Wellington on Tuesday charged with assault with intent upon a girl aged fifteen. The prisoner was remanded for eight days. In St. John’s Presbyterian Church last Sunday in Wellington the Rev. Mr Paterson announced that news had been received from the Now Hebrides of the death of Mrs Charles Murray, Presbyterian missionary at Arabyn, one of the New Hebrides group. Mr Paterson it* referring to the proposed annexation of the New Hebrides by France, said:—" W know that where a Catholic power prevails Ohristlike missions are not allowed to be earned on with freedom, and experience tells us that such missions are in time broken up. I trust that Great Britain will stand firm iu opposing the annexation, as it would be cruel and unjust to hand over the islands to a nation which professedly has for its object the taking of the natives from their homes for the purpose of working in other islands.”

At the annual meeting of the Waimea Plains Railway Company, the directors' proposal to sell the line to the Government was adopted. Tlte chairman, Mr Wales, said that if the rate had come in as expected, the shareholders would have been receiving 7 per cent. It was stated that the shareholders might expect to get two-thirds of their capital back. A farmer named John Will, at Pukekohe East, Auckland, was sentenced on Tuesday to fourteen days’ imprisonment for gross cruelty to a girl aged thirteen. She had been an inmate of the Indu a tnal School, and “ farmed ” out to him, and contrary to the terms of the agreement, when the girl was taken from school she was illused by being knocked about, and compelled to work in the field. The Pakerikiri Hotel (Wellington), was burnt down on Tuesday morning. There waa .no oueon the premises at the time. The local banks in Wellington were kept busy on Saturday exchanging notes for gold for those about to proceed to KimbeWey, and in one hank alone over 600 sovereigns were paid over the counter in a couple of hours.

The Joint House Committee on Tuesday passed a resolution that the Speakers be requested to take steps to procure Parliamentary portraits of other eminent co’onisls from various parts of the colony, in order to place them in the lobby of the Parliamentary buildings. During Tuesday afternoon the leading mercantile houses in Christchurch were closed, and there were also a number of fl igs half mast high, as n mark of resp-tt for. the late Mr Bobt, Wilkin, who was buried that day. The funeral was one of the largest that has been seen in Canterbury. It is alleged that two recent deaths in Dunedin are the results of the dangerous style in which football is now played. The Star calls on the Rugby Uuion to interfere and check such brutality.

On Tuesday at Dunedin the Official Assignee brought under the notice of t l ;e Judge the great laxity which prevails with regard to keeping books, and said that if a notification were made by the court, it might have some effect. His Honor said that commercially there was scarcely anything more wicked than not keeping books properly. Regarding one case before him, he said an illiterate man like the bankrupt should not be in such a business as he was, but ought to be working for wages. He suspended for six months the discharge of William Loagie, for not keeping books. On Tuesday evening a fire broke out in Karangabspe road, Auckland, in the Cooperative Company’s grocery store, in the centre of a large, block of wooden shops, spreading to George Garrett’s butchery shop which was totally destroyed. A fish shop occupied by the co-operative was also burned, and Phillips’ baker shop was gutted. The fire originated upstairs in the back room of the grocery where a stove was used for making tea. The total loss is estimated at £3OOO.