NAPIER NEWS-NOTES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 492, 12 August 1890, Page 2

NAPIER NEWS-NOTES.

(VBOH Oflß OWN COBBESPONDXXT.) Napier, August 9. The all absorbing topic since the opening of the Supreme Court here has been the bill cases—the subject matter of which, by the way, has proved to be of an unsavory character. There have been several actions brought against the Trnstees in the estate of the late William Fletcher, the biggest and most importance of which was that by John Vigor Brown. He claimed for over three thousand pounds, but two of the bills were abandoned—one for £1365 and one for £5BB. There were eight bills altogether, and six of them were placed before a jury for their decision. They found that four bills had been altered, viz; one from £8 to £368, one from £5 to £175, one from £7 to £247; and one from £25 to £225. The two other bills, they said, had not been altered. A second issue was placed before them—Did the negligence of Fletcher enable such alterations to be made ? A reply in the affirmative was returned, but the jury said that Brown had not manifested due care or he would not have discounted the bills. Judgment has not yet been entered up in the case. It is the intention of the Waipawa County Racing Club to spend £l4O on improving their course this year, and also to increase the amount of stakes to be competed for. The club has a few hundred pounds to their credit in the bank, The sum of £l5 15s was voted to Mr B. B. Johnson, who for a number of years has acted in the capacity of starter. An elderly Maori woman, who was supposed to bs over 80 years of age, was found drowned in the Te Hauke swamp the other day. She had left her hut to look for “ Maori cabbage. ” The Taranaki footballers will play a Hawke’s Bay representative team here on Monday next, and a Maori team on the Wednesday following. The poultry and canary show tbis year was a most successful one in every respect, A large number of Wellington exhibits graced tha show, Mayor Ellis, of Heatings, intends resigning in connection with the much vexed pig question. The missing case of sewing exhibits sent from Hawke’s Bav to the recent exhibition has turned up in Dunedin, It is probable that tha shearers of New Zealand will amalgamate with the Australian bodies. The Rev. Oliver Dean the other night denounced from the pulpit the undesirable state of things which existed in regard to Land Monopoly. He thought it was a disgrace and a shame that such largo tracts of land, not only in the Hawke's Biy, but in other party of the colony,.should be looked up and in tlie hands of a few. He favors a laud tax. The Opera “Rip Van Winkle” will be produced by the Napier Operatic Society on the 19th lost. Unionism is spreading througheut Hawke's Bay, all the laborers, mill hands, butchers and others uniting. It Will cost £5OO to construct a road from town to the breakwater. The Council propose that the Harbor Board and Council should do tbe work jointly. The Auditor General would not pass an account for eight guineas—expenditure incurred by the Napier Council on the occasion of the Firemen’s visit to Napier,— and the council have got out of paying it io a novel, if not mean way. The other night they voted the eight guineas to the Mayor as salary, it being understood that hie Worship should nbt stick to it, but hand it back, The proposal wm carried amid laughter.

The Mayor remarked that there were more ways of killing a dog than by choking him with butter. A fancy dress carnival held at the skating rink the other night was a great success. The energetic manager has now a side show attached to the rink, in which an educated pig, who has apparently received a college education, and a number of performing fleas, entertain the public. A headless illusion, designated “ Zetella," is also on view. The funeral of the late Charles H. Weber, surveyor, who was lost in the bush near Pahiatua a couple of years ago, took place the other day. His eon recognised the remains as those of his father. Another instance of the bush giving up its dead. The appeal case of Cresswell V. Morton (an action relative to a bill of costs, which Morton said were too high, and which he got reduced) was struck out by Justice Connolly the other day owing to the necessary notice under the Act. having been omitted to be given. Justice Connolly has been very sevpre on our local lawyers since his arrival here, and has several times “sat on them,” to use a current colliqualism, when they have needlessly wasted the time of the Court.