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Dunstan Times, Issue 705, 22 October 1875, Page 2

Many of onr readers will be sorry to hear that Mr Timothy Wilkins, late of Speargrass Flat, during the early part of tho week, met with an accident whereby his leg was broken. We would draw the attention of our readers to the notice of a Dramatic Performance, which is to be given on tho 9th of Novcmbcrnoxt (Prince of Wales’ Birthday), by our Alexandra friends, for the benefit of the Hospital. The piece chosen for the occasion is ‘‘Ample Apology.” Mr Chappie intimates by advertisement in another column, that he will sell by auction, at Sandy Point, on Tuesday, October 2Gth, one-fourth share In a water-race, one-third share in claim, cottage, household furniture, share in paddock, &c, , At a meeting of shearers hold at the Australasian, Hotel, Dunedin,'during the week, a resolution was carried—That the rate for the ensuing season is to be one pound per hundred and found. » One of the shareholders in the big race being brought in to tho Donstan Commonage, from Chatto Creek, informs us that in about three weeks they expect to tap one of their sources of supply, and then they will commence sluicing operations. Yung Gin, the Chinaman, who was reminded from Cromwell to the Clyde gaol on a charge of Lunacy on -Saturday last was we understand, immediately on his arrival at Clyde, transferred to the Hospital, where he died, about thirty hours after admission. A Dunedin firm are the successful tenderers for the Clyde, Arrow and Nasehy gaols at, from what we can learn, a little over L 590 each. We have been given to- understand that at a meeting of - the Cromwell Cricketers held on Wednesday evening last, at the Town-hall, it was decided to accept the challenge of tho Clyde Team to play a mateli at the last-named place on the Prince of Wales’ birthday, being the 9th of November next, provided that the return match is played at Cromwell. As the Cromwell men are practising in earnest, it behoves the Clyde representatives to do likewise. We understand that our neighbors will have the services of one or two new p’aycrs. Through the falling in of the sides of Mr Coleman's workings at Batcher’s point, below Alexandra, and the burying of tho Californion pump wherewith tho ground was kept dry all word is stopped. Tho accident is most unfortunate as Mr Coleman had hut just succeeded in getting to work after an enforced idleness of many months on account of tho high level tho river has •maintained, hu l' it W'thought that it will not bo before the next season the claim will ba able to he again worked. In debate on the proposition that the charge for pvo'-s tclogianis to Evening papers shoe! 1 1)3 modified, it was stated that tho Telegraph department Was worked at an annual loss ai L 12,000.

Tho reprint article “ How Pianos r.ro injured,” is worth the attention pf owners of pian ifortos. , At a late sitting in Banco of tho Soprano Court, the rale for a now trial made absolute in the case Blakely v. Italian I. Westland is modest. It only wants another water-race constructed, to cost LOO,OOO ; a railway from Groymouth built, to cost LIOO.OOO, and additional representation -all to he granted this session. We only hope they may get it. The New Zealand Times devotes a su l • leader to the question how it is that sweepstakes on horse-racing events are prevented by law in Otago, and not in Westland and other parts of the Colony. Tho query remains unanswered. A correspondent furnished the following arithmetical problem to the Cross yesterday, anil commends it to the Good Templars. If any member of the order will work it out we will insert the result in a future issue : —Walking up Queen street, I strolled into a public house, and 1 borrowed from the landlord as much money as I had in roy pocket, and for his kindness I spent a shilling. Leaving this, I went into three others, in turn, each time borrowing as much inoney as 1 had in my pocket, and and spending a shilling for their kindness. When I left the fourth public-house I had nothing in my pocket—how much had I when I went into the first public-house 1 An extraordinary- outrage upon a Peruvian newspaper editor is reported. The editor in question, Castro xtauos byname, and residing at Iquique, was severely beaten by a police inspector and two constables, and an attempt was made to make him swa’low bis newspaper, which contained articles obnovious to the p dice. The inspector afterwards shot the editor in the stomach. By the last accounts ho was not expected to live, and the inspector was in custody. At a meeting of the Heart of Oak Gold Mining Company, held in Dunedin, the following peculiarly foggy resolution was passed “ That insomuch as the manager stales there is sufficient assets to meet the current liabilities of tho Company, if the shareholders paid the calls now due ; this meeting is of opinion that it is inexpedient to grant tho Directors power to borrow money on tho security of the Company ; but thinks that the Manager should take proper steps to recover all calls in arrear." An Auckland contemporary, referring lo a recent inquest in a case of suicide in that city, has the following “We do not know of any other civilized city but Auckland in which the atrocious verdict of felo de se is not obsolete except in very rare and almost impossible cases. Do the jurymen who cling to this relic of a barbarous age, and I who glibly bring in this verdict, know that | they are stamping dead men as felons whose names are to bs infamous and whose goods are forfeited, like those of other felons, to the Crown ? Here was a poor insane mortal who, a few days ago, with pockets full of money and with no apparent cause, deliberately cut his throat at a public-house in the city. He had been depressed in spoils for some time, and was in bad health His mind was evidently unhinged, and without apparent reason this poor man destroyed himself. Did the jury suppose he did so fir gain, nr for amusement or personal gratification ? It is a very shameful thing that the atrocious verdict of felo de sc should have been returned in this and in several other c vses in Auckland. It is painful enough in any ease to hear of friends who have committed suicide. But if it he any consolation to the friends of the poor man to whom, we refer, that may know that the people of this city universally consider that it is the juries and not the hapless dead who.ave disgraced by so senseless a verdict." A telegram to the Evening Star says : “ The prorogation of Parliament is definitely fixed for Thursday the 21st instant, (yesterday.) At Grahamstown, Auckland, a woman named Wall killed two of her children, a hoy nine years, and a girl seven yeara old. it appears tho woman is given to drunkenness, and in a fit of temporary insanity attacked the children with an axe, inflicting frightful wounds. The boy died immediately, the girl survived a couple of hours. The first crushing of the Phoenix Trihutors Skippers Greek, Upper Shotover, turned out very well. Ths quantity of stone reduced was only 40 tons, owing to the breaking down of the flaming, making it necessary to clean up. The yield was 221 ounces in a cake, and 10 ounces extra, which is within an ounce on the whole parcel of 6 ounces to the ton. Mr F. W. Evans, Mr Bullen’s manager, thinks tho stone left iu ihe paddock will yield, when crushed, at least one ounce per ton more. 400 tons have been raised. Mr Evans is pushing on the erection of new fluming with all possible speed, so as to enable the trihutors to take full advantage of the season when water is plenti-' fuL Some people are naturally of very sensitive dispositions. In tho Daily Times of the 13th, there appears a notice to the effect that those well-known premises in Princcsstrect, Dunedin, lately occupied by Messrs Gillies and Street, had been secured by Mr Donaldson, the proprietor of the Glasgow Pie House, as tho future depository for his savory wares. The next day there appears a second notice in tho Daily Times, that people may possibly have been misled through the paragraph in question into the belief that Messrs Gillies and Street had entered into the Pie business, instead of having removed their offices to Bond-Street, adjoining those of the Daily Times great city luminary. Wo should scarcely imagine that a'.youo would be so foolish as to believe that Messrs Gillie, and Street had turned pie-men, even it they dirt thferc would be no despair about it. One thing is certain, soiling pies must he a “pretty profitable kind of business,” or it would not follow, up those distinguished laud brokers so closely. A memorial to the Governor is being nuj metously signed praying for a commutation 1 of sen‘■oiioa passed on Mr Hunter, farmer of I Shag Valley, for burning down a hut on his property, in which some Chinamen lived.

The Daily Times say*—" An old offen-, der, named Joseph Brown, alias Tronder, was received into the gaol on Saturday night, from Oamaru, escorted by i PoliceConstable Harper. lie was 'sentenced at , Oamaru on the 14th inst,, by Mr Parker, , R.M., to nine calendar months’ imprison* , ment with hard labor, for obscene conduct , in Aln-strcet, Oamaru. on the 13th inst, . :The performance of the “ Ootaroon 11 by the Arrow Amateur Dramatic Club on the ■ 15th instant at the Library Hall was a very great success. Each of the actors, both male and female were well up in their respective paitf, in fact, they were letter perfect. Mr 'J. T. M. Hornsby, the stage manager and leader of the Amateur movement here deserves very great praise for the admirable organisation of the Club. When first informed of the change in the arrival and delivery of mails between Dunedin and Clyde’ and the alteration of the stages of the through line of coaches from Dune lin to Queenstown, we consoled ourselves with the thought that if Clyde were the loser by the change, that other places would be benefitted. In speaking of Clyde, and saying places, we refor not to the residents of the towns only, but of the entire districts. But what do we find ? why—that where before everythiug.was convenient, now the reverse is the Case, chaos and contusion reigning supreme in the matter of postal arrangements, and as to travellers that they are (excepting in but a few cases) put to greater inconvenience, being rushed through every centre of population, imd moreover, detained longer on the road We will start with the mails under the old arrangements the mail that leaves Dunedin on Monday morning, and which so far as our experience goes, is tl c most important mail of the week, and we think it is the case with most business men, does not arrive at Cromwell till Wednesday evening, instead of early in the morning as formerly, and the Friday’s mail, which, contains the Dunedin weeklies, instead of landing at Cromwell on the Saturday evening, does not till the following Monday evening, and beyond this those districts above Clyde are cut off from the Monday and Friday's down mail, there being no down mails on the evenings before. Now to the passengers—Under the old regime, travellers from Queenstown were enabled to reach Dunedin by 4 o’clock in the afternoon of the third day, with the advantage thrown in of passing each night in a town, whereas, by the present system, they do not arrive in Dunedin till 7.20 p.m. on the third day, and having withal to put up with the inconveniences of spending a night at a road si !e village, Consisting of 3 public houses and a Hour mill. For a single night however, this latter inconvenience could be put up with, but to have to submit to it for two nights .and a day, and that day being Sunday, as must be the case with all who desire to reach Dunedin on the Monday, is ,r joke that many will not care to submit to. Clyde, Alexandra, Roxburgh, and the intervening places proportionately suffer. The change was made doubtless with the view to batter suit the convenience of all, in which, however, it signally fails; a further change is therefore necessary. We must fain hone that the next move will be more favorably received. A handsome present (says the Lyttelton Times) was made lately by one of our most respected citizens to his little daughter, on her fourth birthday, in the shape of a receipted annual premium, for a policy of “ Endowment” under the Government Insurance. The yearly premiums fall due on each successive birthday, and the receipted premiums, representing each an annual investment, go on accumulating until the child’s twentieth year, on which birthday the last premium is paid in, merge on her twenty first onniversary into a solid and handsome gift, presented by her father in the form of a Government cheque for L2OO, placed by him absolutely at her own disposal. This is a laudable example of fatherly foresight and future provision for a child, and doubtless many parents and guardians might have previously availed themselves of this secure and gradual means of investment, had they been aware that such investments by instalments existed. This is mentioned for the information of those who may not he aware of the various shapes of Government Endowment. It may be stated that in the event of any child dying before the term of payment of such endowment is due, all the money paid by the father or guardian to the Government (up to the date of death), is immediately refunded in full, but without interest. The editor of the Coromandel Mail, who i can never help being humorous, even over serious matters, thus corrects a contemporary’s error Mistakes will occur in, the most ably-conducted newspapers, just as they may happen in the best regulated families ; and the Auckland Echo has fallen into an error which wc desire to correct. It says, in a late issue, that Messrs Woollams and M‘Leod are shareholders in the i Coromandel Mail, and that the new editor is merely the nominal proprietor. The mistake lies in this : neither Mr Woollams nor Mr M‘Lcod are shareholders in the Mail. Tho present proprietor tried very hard to drag these gentlemen into a snare and a dei lusion by offering them—each of them - a full one-half share in the property for the one-sixteenth of one share in tho Union i Beach Claim ; but neither could, or if they could, they wouldn’t see it. And although we did not say so then, wo say so now, that Messrs Wo, Hams and M’Leod were quite right Running a newspaper on one’s own account is about as risky as a fourhorse coaching business under similar conditions. In nine cases out of ton it means i hideous niia and combustion. Tho bueii ness suits the writer 6t this, because ho ■ loves excitement and he docs not know . anything moro exhilarating than being ' ruined It engages the attention, diverts the thoughts, exercises tho inventive powers, and tends to the cultivation of the ■ mental faculties. . . No, Messrs Wooliahrs and M‘Lend .arc not.shareholders in the' Mail, and just in proportion to the rei spect we have for them we hope they never will be.”