A £30,000 Man!

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 217, 6 January 1874, Page 7

A £30,000 Man!

A most extraordinary case is reported from Sale to the Melbourne Argus. As that well known and valuable officer, Inspector Rabat, was on his way to Stockyard Creek, he halted at a half-way house, known as “The German’s,” and whilst there, over-heard a man with a cart conversing with the- landlord in German. Some of the man’s remarks were so startling that he joined in the conversation, and learned that the traveller, named Schink, was, with his wife, in the employment of Mr Bath, a squatter, of Cherry Tree Flat Station. The man and his wife were under a six months’ engagement, but had only served six weeks, and his complaint was that the rations served out to the hands were putrid in a shocking degree. Some of the meat was in the cart at the time, and the stench proceeding from the vehicle was awful. If a bullock died of pleuro, or a sheep of fluke, it was served out as rations to the station bands ; and the most extraordinary part of the story is, that Mr Bath, though worth £30,000, would eat the same carrion himself. The hands were lodged in the most wretched lints, a couple of sacks being placed mi the bare earth for a bed, with little or no covering of any sort. Both as to the putrid ' meat and the wretched lodging, Bath justified himself by saving v'hat was good enough for him was good enough for the hands. A summons having been granted against Mr Bath, Inspector Rabat proceeded to the station to execute it, and upon entering the kitchen discovered quantities of the putrid flesh banging no, “the stench from which was horrible.” Subsequently to receiving the letter from Sale, the An/ns received a telegram, stating that the case had been heard before the Magistrates, by whom'it was dismissed,' oh the ground that Bath swore the filthy carrion

was! for his own, use ! Tlie same telegram states that the case of a boy who had boon licensed b> Bath from the training-ship Nelson was then hoard. “The boy’s clothing and bedding were in a filthy state. His sleep-ing-place was a filthy bark hut, with open walls and roof, and wet floor. The boy in winter had only two old bags and a piece of old blanket for bed and covering. Again did the £30,000 man ip-go the old plea—“ it is good enough for me to sleep in, and good enough for him.* The. sapient magistrates admitted the plea, and dismissed |ho information. Surely this monied maniac ought to have been sent to the Lunatic Asylum ; but in that case, where ought the Sale Magistrates to go ?