The Dunstan Times FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1873.

Dunstan Times, Issue 577, 9 May 1873, Page 2

The Dunstan Times

FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1873.

Beneaththeßuleof Mon entirely just the pex is mightier than theswOßD.

In consequence of an accident just before going to press, we have to apologise for the absence of our usual leading article and some few paragraphs of local interest. The town narrowly escaped a conflagration on Sunday morning last, the cause being the rays of the sun on the large globe bottle in the shop window of Mr, Marshall, Chemist? The smell of burning paper attracting Mr. Marshall’s attention, ho went into the shop and was just in time to put out the flames that in a few minutes more would have extended to the body of the shop. The damage done is estimated at about 51. We are again requested to draw attention to the sale of Mining and Quartz Crushing Plant at Cromwell on Thursday next, the 16th instant, and urge upon Mining Companies the desirability of attending. Immediately after the crushing plant, the dredge Shenandoah and all gearings will be brought under The hammer, t Vide advertisement). A general invitation to lovers of the histrionic art is issued to attend at the Clyde Library, this (Friday) evening, for the purpose of discussing the formation of an Amateur Dramatic Club. Of talent in our midst, we are sure there is no lack, and it is sincerely to be desired that the promoters of the idea will find a good muster rally round them and assist in carrying out so desirable an object. We willingly draw attention to the advertisement in another column notifying that a series of social dances under the management and direction of the Clyde Brass Band, will be held in the Town Hall, Clyde, during the coming winter. On Wednesday evening next the season opens, when we hope to see a good attendance. The Brass Baud stepping in and providing an -occasional evening’s amusement and recrea tionisa step in the right direction and deserves support, and we hope that no squeamishness or any false feeling will prevent those Wednesday evening reunions from proving a success. In the.Resident Magistrates Court, Clyde* on Tuesday, the 6th inst, William Duffy, labourer, was charged on the information of William Edwaid Shurcy, Sergeant cf Police, stationed at Clyde, with having, on the night of the 3rd instant, attempted rape on the person of Sarah Patterson, a child between six and seven years of age,

and daughter of James l’atterson ( hotelkeeper, Clyde. The particulars of the case are as follows -The accused, who was a lodger in the hotel, went into the children’s room during the ‘night of the 3rd inst, and having got into the bed in which the child Sarah, and a little boy (her brother) were sleeping, committed the offene§. The boy was asleep during the tune, but was awoke by a man getting out of bed, and on enquiring of his sister who it was, she said it was Duffy,. The children did not tell their mother till the following evening, and the accused on being charged with the offence; denied it. Medical evidence to the effect that an offence had been committed, was taken, and the accused was committed for trial. . * . We are to glad to perceive that Mr. J. Holt has again got to workiu his coalmine, and to notify that lie expects being in a position to supply coals . daring the next week. Mr. Holt has sunk another shaft, making the third now on his Lease, ami from which he will get his supply for a time until the old shafts are drained of the water which has been standing so long in them The quality of the Clyde coal is so well known, there is little fear but that the demaud will.be equal to the supply. The Northern Escort brings down 8555 ounces of gold. An inquest was h&ld in the Court-house, Clyde, on Friday last May 2, before W. L, Simpson, Esq., Coroner, and a Jury of thirteen, Mr. W. Eames, Chairman, on the body of Eliza Main, who [had died suddenly, and under peculiar circumstances on the evening previous in the house of Wil Ham Atkins, carpenter. Cheviot-street, Clyde. The evidence of six witnesses, and that of Dr, A. T. Thomson, (who made a -post-mortem examination), which is wholly unfit for publication, having been taken, the jury retired for consultation. On returning to Court, gave the following verdict :—“That the deceased, Eliza Main, died from suffocation through the unnatural treatment received from William Atkins, and the jury are of the unanimous opinion that her death was caused by AVilliam Atkins. The Coroner said the verdict was one of manslaughter, and accordingly committed him for trial at the next Criminal Session. The Melbourne correspondent of the Daily Times writes as follows “ The ease of Felix Rabat, stockbroker, and brother of an inspector of police in Melbourne, has been heard, and the accused has been committed for trial on several charges of forgery, by altering acceptances so as to increase the amount for which they were made out. The evidence showed the existence of a peculiarly unsuspecting confidence on the part of the prosecutors, which, under the circumstances, was as unaccountable as it was pitiable. The case will no doubt be the occasion of a great deal of litigation in the civil courts. The altered bills were discounted by Rabat and renewed from time to time, and are now held by a class for whom there is not a groat amount of love felt by any other class—the Jew money lenders. They will doubtless take proceedings against the acceptors of the bills, and in the case of one man who had accepted a large number of bills for Rabat, they have rather a curious kind of claim. This was Mr. Willan, a respectable solicitor whom Rabat had induced to dabble in mining stock. He signed bills for Rabat from time to time, Rabat merely putting in the figures before the signature was appended, and filling in the words afterwards. Mr. Willan is very short sighted, and was very unsuspecting, and never thought of foul play. Rabat afterwards would alter the figures so as to correspond with the higher sum which he had filled in in words, and would then discount the paper. The discounters will contend that as Willan gave his signature to an incomplete bill, he became liable for the sum for which it was afterwards filled in. The question must be decided by the law, and to that I will leave it.” Ngakawhau coal mine bids fair to become a New Zealand wonder. In the main tunnel the coal has been opened up to the height of about twenty feet or thereabouts, and the crown of the seam has not yet been cut through. In putting in this tunnel the seam was found to extend not almost horizontally, but also near the end of the tunnel to take a sudden dip perpendicularly. A recent attempt has been made to find the extent of this dip, and a shaft ten feet deep has been put down, but as yet the underlay, as indicated near the mouth of the tunnel, has not 1 ,en reached. The seam has thus been proved for thirty feet in thickness, and its full extent from underlay to crown is as yet unknown.— Westport Times. “ Dauncing,” says a good man who died a great many years ago, is “a Bodily motion used in tyme of rejoycing.” And it is either “carnall, spiritual!, or idolatrous.’ Bueh is the text from which the author of “ Dancing Parsons, ” a little pamphlet which deduces all manner of denunciations against the luckless clergyman who ventures to thread the mazes of a quadrille at the quietest of evening parties. Yet after all why should a parson not bo allowed to dance? If dancing is indeed an unseemly and unprofitable amusement it should surely be avoided by layman no less than cleric.’ If it is a very innocent and graceful pastime it seems rather hard that clergymen alone should be debarred from participation in it.