DUNEDIN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3175, 1 September 1881, Page 3

DUNEDIN.

September 1. The new Masonic Hall was consecrated with much ceremony last night. Four hundred and fifty Masons were present. At the City Court, to-day, before Mr Simpson, R.M., and Mr Fish, J.P., Edward Marlow, a shipping clerk, was charged with horsewhipping Walter Rose, agent here for the Liberty. Defendant admitted the assault, and said he whipped the complainant because he admitted being connected with the paper, which published an insulting paragraph concerning him. The bench, in fining the defendant 20s and costs, said the paper was undoubtedly a disgrace and a nuisance to so.iety, but if, as the counsel for the defence asked, they only inflicted a nominal fine, there was a danger of blood being shed, aud of society becoming disorganised. They suggested that the public should move the Legislature to suppress papers of the Liberty description, and while sympathising with the defendant to a certain extent in taking the law into his own hands, feared that lynch law would be introduced if they overlooked the assault. Harry McCarthy, a laborer working on tbe harbor dredge, was picked up on the railway line near Ravensborne early this morning. He has a large scalp wound on his head. It is supposed tbat he fell off the late train last night. He was taken to the hospital, where he regained consciousness.