THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1880.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 13 August 1880, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY , A UGUST 13, 1880.

There was an unusually heavy day in the magistrate's Court yesterday, there being no less than three criminwl cases. A charge of sly-grog selling, against B. M. Wright, of tbe Boiler Road. There was, as is usually the oa«e in snob prosecutions, an atrocious amount of perjury, and that effort at holding back the truth, whioh is in reality the perjury of perjuries. As will be seen, however, the charge was fairly sheeted home, and the offender mulcted in a substantial fine. The next case was a change of assault with intent, preferred against fl. Brandt, by E. M. Wright, defendant in the preceding case. The evidence and statements of the parties were very'conflieting. After hearing the case his Worship considered that it waa ont whioh ought more properly to go before a jury, sftid accordingly committed the case to the next sitting of the District Court, to be held on the 25th instant. Shareholders in the Golden Treasure Com* pany will be- pleased to learn that a marked improvement has mani'ested itself of late in the prospects of tbe crushing. Present indications hold out Btrong hope of a yield approaching to half an ounce per ton. An inquest into the origin of the late fire was held on Wednesday last, before W. H Bevell, Esq., Coroner. The evidence elicited nothing new, and the Coroner in summing up said there was not a shadow ot suspicion in the ease, although from the fact that there was no one in tbe house at the time of the outbreak, it was impossible to say how th« fire actually originated. There was evidence to show that the flrerplace was insecure, and that tbe place had in consequence been on fire on a former occasion. The jury returned a verdict in acoordanoe with the Coroner's direction. The police are to be congratulated upon having rooted out one at least of the arsenals of sly-grog which infest the out-skirts of tbe County, and there is tome hope that the eremplAry nature of the penalty inflicted will operate at a salutary warning to other offenders of tbe class. No great exception Beams to have been taken, to the quality of tbe liquor vended in the case under notice, although one of the witnesses in tbe ease would only go bo far as to say that it was "pretty middling." As a matter of fact, however, there have been many complaints of late oj to the quality of the quartsopolitan whiskey, tbe Buller Eoad brew coming in for special malediction. How far these com* plaints are well or flUfounded, or indeed whether there v any foundation whatever, we do not venture to lay, but within the past year or two there have been several mysterious deaths down the Buller Road, and although this may be no more than a coincidence, it would be doing no great violence to the imagination to give the circumstance a much darker complexion. The sitting of the Warden's Court was ad* jonrned until the usual hour this morning. Tbe mind of a large portion of Reefton was much exercised yesterday over an elopement case, the chief actors in which arrived here by coach on Tuesday last, from Kumara. Whatever of romance may have been thought to attach to the escapade, it attributable probably totbe fact that tbe delinquent! were both comparatively young, and apparently had not yet ont their wisdom teeth. Both parties were for some hours on full view in the Police Court yesterday, and as the room was unusaally crowded, there was a great tipntoeing and straining of necks to catch a satisfying glympse of " the fair inamorata," and the " gay Lothario." It is no doubt hard for a Lothario to look very gay in a prisoners' d6ck, especially when confronted with such a common-place charge as that of purloining twaddling clothes, end the irstance in question was no exception. It seems that the erring pair took wing from the picturesque region of Dillman's Town on Monday last, and with an amount of pru« dent foresight for, it is to be imagined, the possibilities of tbe future, which under more prosaic cir*un>stances woulihave been highly commendable, they •• winged n a gin-box of baby linen with them. Hardly, however, had they shaken the poetio dust of Dillman's Town from their feet when tbe avenging Nemises, in the shape of sn enraged husband, was on the wallaby, and in hot pursuit. At Reefton tbe runaways were overtaken. The issue of a warrant, tbe midnight disturbance of the slumbering fugitives, tbe capture of the baby, and tbe gin«box. all this is now matter of history. Thus has poetic justice been done, and tbe Lotharioist left to mourn the bitterness of a four months' exile, with recollections that dwell in the Kumara. What a moral is here for the young men of Reefton! The reports of the New Guinea missionaries received by the Ellengowan are favourable.; Tbe Bey. Dr. Chalmers was at Port Moresby contemplating another inland journey; all well. The natives at West Gulf, Papua, on ♦heir return from the annual trading voyage to Port Moresby in March last, attacked a villaise at one place, killing and eating 60 perrons, and carrying off all the women. They threaten to return and do the came to the Port Moresby natives and all foreigner*. A private letter received from a former resident of Timaru, who is now in Sydney (*ays the South Canterbury Times), represents tbe state of the labor market there aa something deplorable. The writer who left New Zealand twelve months ago with a moderate amount of money, states that he has tried almost every kind of occupation, but baa ound it almost impossible to obtain n living. In one passage he writes :— '* Many here are starving ; in fact, 1 have gone for two days myself without food." With regard to the exhibition just closed-, he remarks :— " Shopkeepers say it has hurt them. It certainly

has shown that they get 100 per cent on their goods." The sensational story of the three Maoris who were oiUheir way from Napier to Parihftka' with portmanteaus stuffed with ammunition for the use of Te Whiti and his followers, turn* out to be the dream of a suspicious railway official. It will be remembered that suspecting the luggage of these men to contain bulletl from its weight, ho opened it, and found a quantity of powder and shot, whereupon he gate information to the police of Napier. An Inspector M facial tram sorted for Woodville, and tbi. caused the men 16 be arrested. They had, however, been in custody only .few minutes when a telegraa from »r. Buller put their affair on a satisfactory footing, and they were released, and their powder and thot given ba<k to. them. It appears they bad been to Nap.er on arisit to a chief, who, on their departure, gare them the ammunition to shoot pigeons in the neighbourhood of Marlon, in anticipation of a Maori meeting to be held shortly in the former place. It seems, therefore, that notwithstanding this powder and small shot, . we are no nearer a bloody war than we were this day last Week. We know one or two who will say, " Mora's the pity !" but we do not agree with them.— Bxohange, [t is no wonder the cost of eduoation in the Colony is a matter for serious consideration. The stern neoewity for retrenchment will do away with such an extravagance as is disclosed in the following advertisement, clipped from the Timaru Herald:— "South Canterbury Board of Education.— Wanted, a Master for the North Orari School i averago attendance 18? salary, £140 per annum, and a good bouse. Applications with certificates and testimonials, must reach the Education Office, Timaru, on or before Wednesday, 21st July.— H. W. Hammond, Seoretary." Under the regulations of the Wanganui Board an attendance of 19, would only cost the Board £72, leaving the difference between that amount, and say £100, to be made up in the district. Wo think if there was something like uniformity in the scale of teachers' salaries throughout the colony, economy and justice would be combined. To pay a master £140 per year, and provide a residence in the bargain, for 18 children, is extravagance. In an article upon this subject the Sydney Mail says :—" During the past year there has been an increase of about fire million of sheep. The number held on the Ist of January last is estimated at 80.000,000, and the actual weight of wool, washed and greasy, forwarded for shipment from this number according to the experience of the past, should not be lees than 245,5001b5. : 'Do I think of you' f you ask, dearest-,' wrote a husband to his wife. 'Do I think of you P' Tet, I do ; especially wh«n a button comes off or I find a hole in my stocking. ' I am glad you think of me, darling,' she wrote in reply ; ' I used to think a great deal of you when I wanted to go to the concert or theatre, or when I felt like having a drive ; but since I fonnd a gentleman friend who was willing to take your place I have not been troubled so much/ He took the next train for home. v The Aoonoagua, steamer, belonging to the Orient line, is the floating convent of the service as on nearly every trip a large ship- j ment of priests and nuns is made by her from London to Australia. On the last voyage (says the "Sydney Evening News") she brought sixty-seven for Queensland. One of the number was missing soon after the vessel anobored, and search for her proved unavailing— she was, in fact, non est invent us. A letter was received by the Lady Superior stating that the young novioate declined to make any further vows. Another of the young | ladies, said to be worth £70,000, belongs to the Brisbane contingent. She will be a I rich bride f»* the Church.