DUNEDIN NOTES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 137, 25 June 1872, Page 6

DUNEDIN NOTES.

By 0. P. Q. Juno 20, 1572. Considerable speculation was aroused in Dunedin dur ; 'ig the early part of the week by the discovery one morning of about thirty loaves of bread deposited in an out-of-the-way spot on Maori Hill, —for what purpose seemed une.cplainable. And the mystery was heightened on the following morning by a farther plant of fifty loaves being brought to light, in the latter case the bread being warm when found. It seemed difficult to find any reasonable solution of so extraordinary an occurrence; and people, after pux/d'll3 their brains over the matter, ceased to troupe then' heads about it, rightly conjecturing that in the ordinary course of events it wouhl soon be explained. The solution of the mvstery has come out, and it is ap.'ly exphvued by I one of the local papers is a case of " sal tin"" I a bakery. One of oar bikers wishing to dis--1 pose of his business, and being ?n treaty with lan intending purchaser, of eon; -0 wished to ! make his business appear as extensive as pos- | S'ble ; and not content with using honourable means in order to effect a sale, he adopted j the extraordinary plan of baking a much larger quantity of bread than he had any means of disposing of. This he did on two mornings that he had appended for the purchaser to meet him at the bakery, and see "i be supplies despatched to customers. The bargain for the purchase of the business not having been concluded prior to the finding of the loaves on Maori Hill, and the intended victim smelling a rat in consequence of this unexpected phase of the transaction, the wily baker's mismanaged turpitude recoiled on Irs own head, and the treaty for the purchase is now off. So runs the story as current in Dunedin. A couple of evenings since, there arrived from the Molyneux a tiny steamer of ten tons called the Clutha, the crew on the trip consisting of Captain Tall and the engineer. Out of curiosity, I went down to have a look at her, and 1 certainly wonder that people woidd risk their lives on the broad ocean in such a cockle-shell. Had a storm come on during the trip round, destruction would have been inevitable. She was built on the Molyneux to run in opposition to the Tiripeka, but has been a losing spec, T understand. Her engines, formerly belonging to a threshing machine, are to be taken out and used in the breaking of stones on the Port Chalmers railway line. If the statement which is going the rounds of the New ZeAmd Press be correct, to the effect that the Messrs Brogden have engaged 1000 skilled mechanics to work on our railways at Home wages, and that they are now about eighty days out, we may anticipate some nice rows when they land, and discover that their wages are so very much below those ruling in the Colony in similar trades. It seems irreconcileable, however, with accounts previously received of the engagement of navvies at Home by the Messrs Brogden at very reasonable wages. Yet it has been published in several of the influential journals of

the Colony, on the authority of the Builder; and these reports generally have a modicum of truth about them. The weather for the past eight or ten days has been most severe, and snow has been lying in some parts of the city over a week, a circumstance of very rare occurrence. The warmer weather of yesterday and to-day has, however, gone far towards melting the snow, and mud and slush have supervened to a most disgusting extent. I suppose that we should not complain, though, for until about a fortnight back, the weather was really delightful.