OUR OPOTIKI LETTER,

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume V, Issue 421, 23 September 1876, Page 3

OUR OPOTIKI LETTER,

(EBOM OtXB OWN 0OBBE8PONDBNT.)

Opotiki, Sept. 20, 1876. To our intense surprise and disgust, our new miller, Mr Brown, has turned out a rotten stick, and after commencing operations with such an encouraging prospect of success this most desirable industry i& likely to come to grief most ignominiously. Mr Brown, whom we all took to be a moneyed, man, on his arrival here three months ago, established himself at one of the principal hotels in the place, where, what with occasionally borrowing money, &c., he managed to run up a score of £25, besides other sums borrowed here and there ; also timber for a house and for the mill ; he had further persuaded a storekeeper to send for a whole cargo of timber to complete" the mill. Last week, however, some of the creditors becoming importunate, Mr Brown retired quietly to his newly-completed house on his own property, or rather the property leased by him as a mill site from Mr Nixon. The alarm was spread and enquiries instituted, when it appeared that Brown was actually penniless. At this juncture the stern arm of the law was stretched forth by our estimable friend Joyce, who locked up the luckless wight under the Vagrant Act. So Brown had a night's cogitation under the protecting wing of "Her Most Gracious Majesty," and in the t morning was brought before our two J.P.s., Major Goring and Captain Preece, where being desired to shew cause why he should not be set down 1 as a rogue and a vagabond, produced letters and documents, from which it appeared that he had some £14 coming to him out of a crop of barley or potatoes at Timaru. Mr Bockett, barrister, defended the case. The Court, after carefully considering the case, decided on dismissing the charge of vagrancy, at the same time cautioned the defendant that if he did not take immediate steps to liquidate his debts he would render himself liable to an indictment for obtaining money under false pretences. Mr Brown is an aged specimen of humanity of the rough. Scot ah pebble style, and not the least amusing feature of the case is, that although he looks -well over 80 years of age, he used his utmost endeavour to induce the owner of the land to lease the land for 21 years, as he did not consider 14 years long enough. I have since heard from a reliable source that the lease of the mill site has changed hands, and that Brown is engaged as miller, in which case we may still hope for the success of the affair, which is the more to be desired, as a number of our farmers have gone in largely for wheat growing this year on the strength of it. On Friday and Saturday evenings, 15th and 16th, the Star Dramatic Club gave their two performances, which met with the unlimited success they so thoroughly deserve. The Town Hall waß on both occasions crowded to excess. The pieces produced were ' ' The Jacobite," "Bamboozle," "The Ticket of Leave," and "The Fast Train." The scenery was entirely new, and painted, by one of' the Club expressly for the pieces. The performers were exceedingly, good; both in the faithful rendering of their parts, and the handsome and appropriate costumes they wore.. The band; which, consisted, of

eight amateur performers,, jras the best ever got together in this place, and their really capital music-was -by no means the least of the attractions. The members of the Dramatic Society, and especially the lady performers, have earned our warmest commendations for the very attractive and excellent entertainment they have given us.- It would be invidious in me to particularise where all were good, but the performances of Mrs Sisam, and < the Misses Potoky and Tinling were so superior to what might have" been expected from amateurs, that I cannot in justice withhold this slight acknowledgment of their merits. Among the amusing incidents of the occasion wis one in a tableau where one of the characters gets knocked backwards into a large chest, where he lies with his feet sticking out ; at this moment the curtain falls, but the applause being so loud and long, the scene-shifters took upon themselves to roll up the curtain, again revealing to the delighted audience an empty stage, with the sole exception of the chest in question with the two feet doing an imaginary hornpipe in the air in the vain effort of the owner thereof to extricate himself from his uncomfortable position. Another case was a stage whisper supposed to have issued from the purlieus of the proscenium. Stage Manager (to a leading character): "By Jove, ' Essefem,' I congratulate you on your extraordinary success ; excuse me for' remarking that had it not been for that last pint of beer you would never have brought down the house the way you did." Leading character (angrily, to manager, who had played on previous night): ".The remedy appears to have been applied with more success injmy case than in yours last night." I am given to understand that both parties intend demanding a written apology. A party of pleasure-seekers came to grief •in the Otara river yesterday, while returning from a ride on the beach they attempted to cross the lower ford in a dray, at nearly high water. The water rose first over the bottom of the dray, and then higher still, whereupon some took to the guardirons, and perched there in fearful suspense awaiting their fate. The horse losing his footing, commenced to plunge, thereby unseating some of the unwilling voyagers, who took to the water like youn.q; schnapper, and scrambled ashore promiscuously, quite unaware that they were only in about 4 feet of water, and might have walked out with ease had they but allowed their feet to sink to the bottom. One son of Neptune now only remained on the dray ; firm as a Church he stood on the guard-irons, looking as though the whole JBanl of New Zealand would not have induced him to' " come down out of that," which he was repeatedly requested to do by the charioteer, who stood up to his chin, holding the horse's head; however, they all eventually succeeded in reaching the bank from which they Had started, and having found a canoe without any paddles, they came across in it, paddling with their hands, presenting a melting and picturesque spectacle. Yesterday evening a similar occurrence, but of a much more serious nature, occurred in the "Waioeka river. Mr Thomas Crimmins was returning with his dray from Ohiwa, and while attempting to cross the river near to our useless 3000 pound bridge, the forceof the current turned the dray completely over. Crimmins, who cannot swim, clung to the guard-iron, and the dray rolled over and over, burying him each time under water. The horse kicked and struggled until he broke the shafts and harness and freed himself, and in the meantime poor Crimmins drifted into deep water. A youth named Geoghan was on the bank all the time, but was unable to render any r distance, having neither rope nor pole. At last by good fortune the dray drifted sufficiently near to the bank for Crimmins to make a struggle forthe shore, which he did, and was assisted out by Geoghan in an almost lifeless state. I wish that Sir George Grey and Mr Bees could have seen him lying there on the muddy bank, blue and cold, and have known that he is a man whose whole life has been devoted to the service of his country ; first in the Imperial and afterwards in the Colonial Forces, and that a wife and seven or eight little ones are all depending on him for their support, the burden of which will be increased by his heavy loss. I think had those honorable statesmen seen and known all this^ they might have been a little less bitter in their unwarrantable attack on our worthy representative} Captain Morris, when he asked for a trifling sum of money to be placed on the estimates for the sadly needed repairs of this same Waioeka bridge. Your admirable leading article on the obstruction offered by Sir George Grey and Mr Kees against Captain Morris re "Waioeka bridge is much, commended all alo% the Coast. .