The Dunstan Times CLYDE FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1883.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1089, 13 April 1883, Page 2

The Dunstan Times

CLYDE FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1883.

Beneath the rale of men entirely jusi The pen is mightier than the sword.

Native game appears to be very scarce this year, we even not having received our customary hamper. In the R. M. Court on Tuesday last, Denis Tohey was mulcted In £ll odd, damages and costs incurred by James M ‘Arthur, through dogs of the defendants worrying his sheep. The plaintiff stated that on several nights the sheep in his paddocks had been worried, and that at last he caught them in the act. One of the evidences of the peculiarity of the season is to be seen in one of the gardens in Clyde—it being a large pear tree in full blossom. In the E.M. Court, Clyde, before Major Keddoll, R.M., and W. S. Rees, J.P., yesterdayl the 12th inst , George Clarl., late Clerk of the Vincent County, was brought up under the charge of embezzling County funds. The evidence of G. W. Smith, hawker, was taken to the effect that he had paid accused his hawker’s fee, £5, but had not received his license, Mr F. J. Wilson, who was conducting J-.he prosecution, assisted by the police, then applied for a remand till Saturday, 21st, for the production of further evidence, which was granted. The Bench stated their willingness to take bail in accused’s own security of £4OO, and two sureties of £2OO each. The parties engaged ou the eastern slope of the Old Man Eange, at the back of Bald Hill Flat, working the discovered leaders there, are still pushing vigorously ahead. As yet no defined reef has been struck, the stuff between the backs continuing broken up, but carrying a good lot of loose gold. The prospects we look upon it are good. To-morrow Mr Fache sells at Blacks, by order of the mortgagees, Ryan’s Bendigo Hotel. To a steady industrious couple this should be a good opening. All the crops in the Blacks, Lauder, and Ida Valley districts, are now in, and the steam thresher is busy putting it through. All the stuff threshed as yet has turned ont fully up to expectations, and it is proved that there was nothing like so much damage done by the rain as at one time thought for. The runholders in the Blacks and Lauder districts are kept pretty busy just now in clearing their runs of strayed horses and cattle. Scarce a day passes but that one or more mobs are driven poundwards. The agent of the bank of New Zealand, notifies in another column that the office hours of the branch agency at Clyde, will in future be from 12 noon to 3 p.m., and desires constituents to bear same in mind. The change in hours is made purely in the interest of those living in tho out districts. It will bo seen that the Clyde Amateur Dramatic Company will repeat their entertainment at Cromwell, on Friday the 28th Inut., in aid of the Cromwell Athenceum fund. The notice of the entertainment at Clyde on last Friday evening, and given in the Cromwell Argus, indicates a lack of of taste and judgment we scarcely gave our contemporary credit for. The next time our contemporary sends his representative to an entertainment in Clyde, it he will only let us know we will see that a seat or seats in tho front row are retained him, and it will matter not if he puts in an appearance either before the curtain rises, or in the middle of the clay, or oven after all is over ho will find it vacant and awaiting him. A good deal of interest outside is manifested in the meeting held on Monday evening last, in reference to the establishment of a flour mill in the district, and tho pre vailing opinion is that if a good central site is selected plenty of capital will be forthcoming to carry it through. However, from what wo can glean, tho mill is not so badly wanted, as tho introduction of capital into the district so that the farmers and graziers could at a short notice convert their produce into money, or obtain a lien on it for current expenoes. A mill company with capital sufficient could readily cover both businesses, and we think it worth while considering.

The surveyors are busily engaged laying off a number of sections at Tiger Hill, Blacks district, We specially draw the attention of contractors to the extention of time for receiving tenders for No. 2 Contract, Arrow to Maoetown Koad, from the 16th to 30th inst., by order of Oliver Wakefield, Undersecretary, This is a work of some magnitude and should be worthy attention. We have not heard if either of the bodies of the men unfortunately drowned last week in the neighbourhood of Alexandra, have as yet been recovered. We understand that the Rev H. J. Davis, of Naseby, will conduct the usual services in this pariah on Sunday next, the Rev G. Fynes Clinton officiating at Naseby. We have to acknowledge the receipt of the March number of the “North New Zealand Settler,” specially devoted to subjects of interest to farmers and gardeners, also the “ American Reporter ” for February last; in this is a wonderful amount of information relative to the trade and commerce of America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. It wilkbe well perhaps for all those parties who are about objecting to the Assessment under the Property Tax Act to consider the following:—The difficulty in connection with the valuations of property under the Property Assessment Act has assumed a new phase. There is often a dissimilarity between the valuations of the assessors and the owners, sad in some cases the public rating bod!* object to both valuations as being too low. We (North Otago Times) believe that u offer has been made to the Government for a large estate near Oamaru. The Government have a right to purchase at an advance of 10 per cent, on the owner’s valuation, and the intending purchasers of the estate in question ask that the Government should exercise this right, and they agree to buy from the Government at a price considerably in excess of that to be paid to the present owner. If this course is agreed to by the Government, there is every probability that a number of estates will change hands at prices that will, it is said, he satisfactory to everyone but the seller. The result of the application to purchase the estate in question will, we should imagine, be watched with a good deal of interest, as offers for other estates may follow. The business people'of Hawker, according to the Northern Argus, seem determined not to be outdone by the banks. They have intimated that they intend to charge 3d on all bank notes under L 25, and pro rata the same as the bank commission on cheques. They evidently think if sauce is good tor the goose it is also good for the gander. A mere boy, named Cobb, was hanged by a mob from a railroad bridge on the out skirts of the town of Windtield, Kansas, February Ist. It is said the lad had his head turned by reading about the exploits Jo.ise James and other brigands, and was determined to signalise himself in the same way. Ho killed a constable in Jefferson county, and a few days after shot and mortally wounded .Sheriff S henneman. At a recent card party at the house of a popular London dentist the counters used were false teeth. At first the ladies seemed very sensitive about touching the little white heaps, but as the evening were on the more false teeth each fair dame possessed the happier she seemed. When the counters were totalled up at the end of tho game there were only three more than had been originally given out. J antes Carey, one of the prisoners at present in custody on the charge of conspiracy to murder in connection with the Phceoix Park outrage, and who has now turned informer, was on January 30th brought before the governor of Dublin Gaol, in which he is confined, charged with tho prison offence of neglecting the cleaning of his cell. On being ushered into the governor’s presence, he suddenly rushed across the room, and with his clenched fist struA him violently in the face. He was endeavouring to commit a further assault when he was with difficulty dragged away by the warders. Before long the Imperial Parliament will be asked fora grant for Prince Albert Victor. According to the precedents of the Prince* Charlotte and her present Majesty, the should have been demanded before *l4l Except in tho case of Princess the only members of the Royal Family who bow have a claim on the country are tho children of the Prince of Wales. Air George Crawford, the oldest horsedealer in Scotland, died recently at his resi denes, Banktop House, Johnstone, in his 88th year. He was born in Johnstone on sth February, 1795. His reminiscences of Johnstone extended to the end of the last century, when it had very few inhabitants. He commenced the horse dealing in 1815, and he was in the practice of attending the markets between Carlisle in England and Brechin in Forfarshire. By the oxercise of an economy in his personal habits that could rarely be equalled, he succeeded in accumulating a considerable amount of house property in Johnstone, to which he latterly devoted his attention. Mr Crawford was shrewd in his business transactions, and for a great many years was known by the appellation of “ Tho Laird.” The total eclipse of the sun on May 6 will last six minutes, and a longer one will probably not occur within the next 100 years. It will be partially visible in many places, bnt few will see it in its entirety, as its path lies almost entirely through the ocean, touching land nowhere but at a little island in the South Pacific called Caroline Island, which is out of tho trMk of any established commerce or travel. The French Government has determined to send an expedition to that Island ; it is almost certain an American party will go thither, and it is more than probable that a grand international gathering of astronomers will take place at Caroline bland to take part in this scientific quest,

The following curious story is told by tho Wanganui Herald :— ** For near a score of years there has lived on the sea-beach near Opunako an old man whose colonial life has been a hermitage. The purchaser of tho wreck of the steamer Lord Wellisley, the remains of which still lie within a few yards of the beach, this man is said to have squatted down just above high-water, to live for the rest of his days on the realisation of his purchase. Years have rolled on and day by day, as the time recedes, he visits the wreck, procuring from it some some little piece of metal or some useful article of the many which went to make up this once powerful steamer. These are disposed of one way and another, and thus ho earns his livelihood. Of late he has been blowing up by means of dynamite the coal which still remains in her hold, and although nothing else but the boiler appear above the surface, he still finds enough to keep alive the flame of life. To-day he repeats the task just as he did twenty years ago, living away from the society of men, bound up solely in himself and in the object of his livelihood.” The appointment of Mr William Pairbaim Forrest as Deputy Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, for the district of Mamiherikia is notifiied in the Government Gazette. John M’Cafferty, a member of the Armed Constabulary, has died at Cambridge under peculiar circumstances. While engaged in carpenter’s work on the Karipo bridge he got a splinter of wood run into his hand near the base of the thumb. He paid little heed to the wound, but bluod poisoning set in, terminating in death. A strange curiosity was captured on Mj R. Elliott’s estate, Beaumont, a few days ago, says the Tuapeka Times, in the shape of a full-grown rabbit, with its under incisors turned up like a boar’s tusk, and fully two inches long, the upper ones meeting them and being about one and a half inches long. One of the grinders had also pierced through the tongue ; and how bunny managed not only to support life but to be in fair condition under such difficulties is a problem not very easy of solution. When found, its stomach was well filled, which it must have done by getting its food at one side of the month by some means or other, Mr J. Christie, into whose hands this strange curiosity fell, presented it to the president of the Athenaeum, to be preserved as a curiosity iu the Museum. Great excitement has been caused at Bischoff (Tasmania) by it becoming known there that Henry Hall had airived with two of the prospectors from the Specimen Reef Company, bringing with them some extraordinarily rich specimens of gold. The parcel weighed about 201b, 101b to 12lb of which is supposed to consist of pure metal. The inquest on Mr Harding (the Brighton Mystery) resulted in a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind. A t the burning of a Russian circus at Berditscheff the entire city assembled around, but no one tried to save the unlucky victims. The firemen are said to have been all drunk, as is usual in Russia on New Year’s day.