LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 9146, 24 June 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

-Ebbatum. — We were in error with regard to cases in the R.M. Court having been adjourned till Friday, in, consequence of Mr Hardcastle's absence on circuit. There were no cases set down for hearing on Tuesday last. Amalgamation. — No. 1 and No. 2 Companies of the Carljle Rifle Volun^ teers have been amalgamated into one corps, under the designation of the Patea Rifle Volunteers. JotrBNALiSTic. — The first number of the Wairarapa Valley Weekly Guardian has been published at Carterton, by Messrs Marshall and Fawcett, It is creditably got up. Accepted Tender. — The tender of Berry and Newman, of New Plymouth, £13,400, has been accepted for the Waingongoro contract of the FoxtonNew Plymouth Railway. Great Wig Case. — To-morrow there will be heard in the Resident Magistrate's Court a case in which the interest will centre in a barrister's wig. There is likely to be a large muster of the legal fraternity, and the Crown Prosecutor has been retained for the defence. The plaintiff, a leading stationer in town, will conduct his own case, and a good deal of amusement is expected. Sunday School Centbnaey. — Throughout the English-speaking world next week will be specially observed in commemoration of the establishment of tko first Sunday School, by -Hobert Raikes, of Gloucester, just one hundred years ago. There wilt bo special services to mark the occasion in the principal cities and towns throughout this colony. In Wanganui the matter has been taken up by the Presbyterian schools. The programme, we understand, is as follows ;— On Sunday morning a special sermon will be preached at J St Pauls' by the Rev Mr Treadwell, some of Sankey's hymns being sung by the children. In the afternoon the usual teaching will bo dispensed with, and addresses will bo delivered by the teachers and others. The parents and friends of the children are invited to be present. On Tuesday evening a Scholars' tea meeting will be held in ilie Bclioolroom, commencing at 5.30, to be followed by a specml children's service. A small charge will be made for admission to the tea. On Wednesday evening service will be conducted by the Rev Mr Tread wll. On l huraday evening Mr Tucker will deliver a leciure on the suhjeel of Sunday Schools, and on Fn'diiy evening a United Teachers' prayer meeang .iili briuj; tho centenary celebration to a close.

Otago Habboub. — We have not yet seen Sir John Coode's report, but the New Zealand Times says it has been received in Wellington, is favourable to the Board's operations, and approves of several suggestions made by the Board's Engineer, Mr Simpson. Wellington Unemployed. — A considerable number of men, who had been working on very low wages for the Corporation of Wellington, were discharged on Monday last. Unless something turns up, they will become at once a burden on the Government or the Benevolent Tnstitution. Outside Opinion. — In reviewing the conduct of New Zealand Minist er s, " Todd's Parliamentary Government in the British Colonies," copies of which were received by the last Home mail, describes _ the conduct of Sir George Grey in his action re the Hon Mr Hall's resignation of his seat in the Legislative Council in the following terms : — " Sir George Grey undertook to assail the new Premier upon extraordinary grounds, and in a very unprecedented manner." Narrow Escai'e.— We take the following from the Wellington Chronicle : — "A somewhat strange story comes from Lyttelton. On the arrival of the ketch Clematis at that port, the captain reported that his craft had been run into by the steamer Rotorua, and that the steamer hove to, and after the captain had ascertained there was no damage done continued on the voyage. Capiain Tozer, of the Rotorua, however, denies the whole affair. Doubtless the captain of the schooner mistook the steamer. Enquiries are being made into thecircumsinncca, and the true facts of the case Jill, soon be elicited." Inconsistency. — A correspondent of tho Napier Daily Telegraph writes as follows.— "All who have been in the habit of perusing the daily papers may perhaps remembpr that about a year ago a certain Maori named Hiroki was charged at Napier with having placed an obstruction on the railway line somewhere' near Takapau, and on being tried for the offence he was acquitted on the ground of hia ignorance, with a gentle reminder that if repeated he would be severely punished. A. European for a similar, crime has been sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude." Thk Otaibi Block. — The following are the particulars of the recent decision of the Native Lands Court with regard to the Otairi Block : — About 8000 acres on the western boundary of the block have been devoted to the five hapus of the Wanganui Natives. On the southeastern corner, immediately over the Rangatira block, about 1000 acres have been set aside for the Ngatiapas. With the exception of 500 acres, with, which Batana, on account of his wife, has been specially endowed, the balance of about 41,000 acres goes to the Ngatiawhiti, more commonly known as Utiku Pofcaka's tribe. The above block is bounded on the west by the I'urakina River ; on the east by the Eangitikei River, and it is through this block that the Murimotu Road will be constructed. Me G. Jones, M.H.E.— Writing of the newly-elected member for Waitaki, the Ashburton Mail has the following : —Judging from his speeches, he scarcely discerns tha 1 ; settled Government, with slow but perpetual reform, is the surest means of conferring happiness upon the bulk of the community. We are much afraid of Mr Jones taking to the exhibit tion of Liberal pyrotechnics, and so achieving nothing more than was attained by Mr Feldwick in the last Parliament, with an equally inglorious close to ' his legislative' career. The new member for Waitaki has the ability for better things, but he has yet to learn moderation, and that to sow discord and breed discontent amongst his fellows should not be the aim of a high-minded legislator's existence, Levy t. Beaven. — This appeal case from the Civil Sittings of the District Court of Wanganui last September, which was heard before his Honor the Chief Justice at the Circuit Sittings of the Supreme Court of Wanganui on the ,26th April last, was decided a few days ago in Wellington, when the appeal was allowed with costs. A new trial was ordered, and each party ordered to pay his own costs of the former trial. A written judgment was given, and as the case is one of some importance to holders of bills of sale, who in. these hard times are somewhat numerous, we will give a copyof.the, judgment, or so much as we deem necessary, as soon as practicable. The decision was in favour of Mr P. Beaven, who was the appellant. The Gem Puzzle. — We thought this affair was stale, but we see that the Canterbury Times has, allowed a good deal of space to its supposed elucidation by various correspondents, and the New Zealand Times, of the 22nd inst., informs its readers where the puzzle may be bought in a handy form. The affair is a palpable fraud. The numbers may invariably be placed after — SBy two minutes' trouble — either perfectly right, in which case there is 'nothing further to be done, or right with the exception that in the last line the figures run 13, 15, 14, in which case also there is nothing further to be done, for whenever that result is obtained the blocks ' were at the Btart placed in the box in such order that their right arrangement is impossible. We call the affair (a fraud, because, however difficult to be done, a puzzle ought to be solvable, and that is what the gem puzzle is not except in some cases. We notice that in America a man has offered a considerable reward to anyone who will tell him how to make the numbers come right. Exhumation. — Application was recently made to the Prussian Home Ministry by the near relatives of a wealthy and eccentric old lady who died at Berlin early in February last, for permission to exhume her body, upon the following grounds : — The deceased, who, though she lived in a manner little short of penurious, was known to possess a large fortune in Government and railway stock, had expressed, a few hours before her death, the wish to be buried in the old clothes she was accustomed to wear in the house, and which she kept on throughout her last illness. Her relatives naturally complied with her death-bed instructions, and, after her body had been consigned to the earth, proceeded to take an inventory of her effects, and to search for her assignments of scrip and other property. As, however, their anxious and exhaustive investigations bore no fruit in the way of valuable documents, they came to the conclusion that tlieir defunct kinswoman, desirous not to be parted from her property even in the grave, had sown up her stock vouchers, and so forth, in the lining of the threadbare gown in which they had laid her to rest. They have, therefore, petitioned the State authorities for leave to lake up the miserley old dame's body, upon the chance of finding their inheritance ingeniously concealed among the folds of its mortuary garment. Their application I haa been submitted to the legal advisers of the Prussian Crown, who will decide whether or not it may lawfully be. granted ; and the result of the deliberations now pending upon this singular case is awaited with considerable interest by tho .Berlin public.

Wellington Sewsbage. — Mr Climie, the engineer, whose scheme of sewerage is tlie subject of a lawsuit between himself and the City Council of Wellington, has offered to refer the matter to arbitration. The Council has declined, principally on the ground that submission to arbitration might imply a recognition of some part at least of the claim. The action therefore goes on. Death by Stbychnine. — We learn from the Wairarapa Daily thafc an inquest was held before Dr H. S. Spratt, Coroner, and a jury on the re« mains of the late Johann Gottlieb Bockel, at the Empire Hotel, Masterton, on Saturday morning last. The evidence of W. Dorset, at whose accom-modation-house deceased breathed his last, and a witness named Matthews, went to show that deceased came up to tlie Camp on Wednesday, 16th instant, on business connected with Dorset, and there not being sufficient bed accommodation in the house, deceased was made as comfortable as possible on a sofa. In the morning he complained to Dorset he had not slept well, and went up to a vacated bed, saying he was not to be disturbed on any account. Going up stairs at three o'clock witnesß found deceased dead, and immediately gave alarm to the police at Masterton. . Dr Hoskins' evidence was to the effect that a post mortem examination had been made, and resulted in finding about four ounces of a thick fluid in the stomach, strongly impregnated with strychnine. A paper of strychnine, found on deceased's dining table, and a knife had also been hauded to hira. The paper contained about 20 grains of strychnine, and the knife was covered with jam and strychnine crystals. Deceased had been in the habit of taking chloral for years, and no doubt took a dose of it with the poison, thus passing off quietly into death. The jury, after two hours' deliberation, returned the following verdict: — "That deceased, Johann Gottlieb Bookel, lioisnned himself by strychnine on the 17th instant, at Dorset's accommodationhouse, Forty-Mile Bush, while labouring under mental depression." We learn also that the funeral took place on Sunday, and by some oversight no ch-rgyman could be found to perform the funeral rite, it ultimately devolving on a layman.