The Dunstan Times. CLYDE FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1884.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1167, 11 July 1884, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

CLYDE FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1884.

Beneath the rale of men entirely jaa» The pen is mightier thar tHe sword.

In consequence of the lumping of the expenses under various headings in the last published report of the Vincent County Council, more especially in salaries, a very general misconcep- ■ 4-ion amongst all sections of the community has arisen, and we have been perfectly inundated with questions written and oral, as to the meaning of the exorbitantly high salaries paid, and when it was they were so in creased The figures more particularly called in question are—Engineer’s salary, LfiOO; clerk’s salary, L 305 ; Chairman’s salary, L 120; and member’s travelling expenses, L 37185. According to the published statement, and to take a literal meaning from the figures, the only .inference that cou'd be drawn was that the various items were the expenditure for the year, and the very generally expressed opinion was that the Councillors and the officials were a very happy little family, and were making a nice thing out of their offices. Having drawn the attention of the Chairman (Mr Wm. Fraser) and Councillor Pitches to the matter, those gentlemen most readily consented to give us every in. formation towards clearing np the mystery, and at once accompanied ua to the Clerk’s office, where we gleaned .the following, which we think and hope will be sufficient explanation, and will allay all feeling of uneasiness in the minds of ratepayers. Of travelling expenses we find that of the L 371 8s expended, L 249 6s were arrears that had accumulated during the years 1881 and 1882, and that LI 21 2s was only paid for the year 18S3; Engineer's salary, LI 87 10s, was for arrears to March 1883, and 1 4! 2 lOs for the year to February, Clerk’s salary, L 22 18s 4d, was arrears to March 1883, L 252 Is 8d to February 1834, and L3O bonus for payment of bond policy; Chairman’s salary, LSO, was arrears to March 1883, and L 75 salary to Feb rnary 1884. We cannot but admit ti'e figures were sufficient vague to warrant the evident feeling of distrust, and we hope in future' statements, for the sake of a few lines cf figures, they will be as plain to the op! que mind of th° taxpayer as to the pellucid brain of the compiler.

Tho coming election is creating little or no stir in any part of the Dnnstan Electorate, the prevailing opinion being that no one could serve the district better than the old member, Mr Vincent Pyke, who may rest assured of having a walk over. We may possibly be reckoning without justification, hnt Wednesday the day of nomination will tell the tale.

It is now certain that Mr S. N. Brown, proprietor of the Cromwell Argtit, will contest the election for the Lakes district against Mr Fergus and Mr Hornsby. Mr Brown has been many years resident in the electorate, and no one knows its requ re ments or capabilities better than he, therefore from a local standpoint he should make the hotter representative of tbe three oandi dates, but whether he would carry as much weight in the Assembly and prove of as much value to the district as the old member, we won’t pretend to say. That is for the electors to decide.

The Teviot mrresp indent of the Tuapeka Times in > peaking of the election says;

“ There is apparently no one coming forward avaiust Mr Pyke, and so fa'' a- this part of th • electorate is eon erned it would be useless I believe that gentleman holdi the confidence of his constituents, and will in all probability be returned unopposed.”

MrFncUe requests ns to draw s iecial attention to the sale of bulb inns, ironmongery, blacksmiths kit of tools, etc., at T.nkers, on Tuesday next, the 22nd inst. We have received information of the do (traction by tire of a four rooniod house up the Arrow River o.i Tuesday evening last, the propsrty of a Mr James Hamilton. The house was unoccupied, and was only purchased by Wiß present owner the day previous to the tiro from a man named John Clifford Christie, olios Lee. Christie, we learn, has since b. en arrested on the charge of setting tire to the bun u

The Dunedin <’oinpany’« large iron dredge has reen lately undergoing repairs, a new iron tumbler for the bucket ladder having been put in position, (and other repairs effected to tils her for the winter’s work, csbe is again at "ok, and we understand getting good payable gold.

The Illustrated New Zealand Heia'd (or tha month is a highly creditable production, and far bettor than has appeared yet. The (nil page picture of Gisborne is an excellent one, aa also indeed are the whole of the pictures.

We have heard nothing official from the Old Man reefs this past week, but incidentally we learn that the make of stone discovered last week in White’s Beef Company’s tunnel has every appearance of being permanent.

During the past week the weather has been more like spring than midwinter, If it continues for any length of time, and then hard frosts follow, the effect, it is feared, will be disastrous to the fruit and all other crops , According to G< Idsborough’s Monthly Wool Circular, the total quantity of wool exported from Austr; and Tasmania for the year ending July Ist was 865,462 bales, shewing an increase of 62,728 bales on previous year.

We have received from the Executive Cffii era of the Cons'itutional Reform Aasociation of‘Dunedin, a copy of its political programme, the principal lines of w liioh are Decentralisation. Increased Control over Local Affairs, and Increased Local Govern* ment Powers ; ” also is accompanied the following questions, with the request that they he brought immediately before the candidates for this district, with the view of eliciting their opinions thereon, and of giving the same every publicity. The questions are as follows :—l. Are you in favour of any alteration in the present system of local government ? 2. If so, what alterations do you purpose ? 3. Will you support any, and if so, which of the objects of the Constitutional Association ? 4. Are you in favour of lessening jthe functions of the Central Government ?

Ab “ Ratepayer’s ” letter cannot possibly do any good, and moreover as it is a covert attack on an individual, we must decline to publish it. Moreover, our remarks in another column is an answer to one, if not all, the complaints of “ Ratepayer.” “Boaz ” informs us that the principal prizes in his irrand Third Drawing were distributed as follows L3OO to Wellington ; Ll5O to Christchurch ; T,IOO to Napier; LSO to Wanvanui ; LSO to Dunedin ; while a number of the smaller sums were distributed up country. “ Boaz"> announces a Fourth Drawing to take place at the end of August

The following characteristic letter from the pen of Mr Vincent Pyke, appeared in the Otago Daily Times of the 3rd inst. ** Sir- I am reluctant to enter into any controv ray with Mr Ml W. Green, but I shall not allow him to scandalise me without refuting his libellous statements. He *8 reported to have excused himself for using his member’s railway-pass in pursuit of a business antagonistic to the public interesl s of New Zealand, by asserting that all the members do the same. This is false, so far at least as 1 am concerned. I leave oth-r members to speak for themselves. I should no more think of using my “pass” when travelling on private busmens than I should of committing larcenous appropriation of my neighbour’s goods. Mr M. W. Green must not, suppose that everyone is gifted with such a tough, double-barrelled, elastic conscience as he possesses.”

In the interest of all we insert the following telegram, which appeared in a late number of the Evening Star , leaving the meaning to those who may read it, and who may be interested “Mr Berry, as Postmaster-General, has ordered the detention of all letters addressed to the adver tiser of a sweep on the Melbourne Cup whose advertisement is published as from Dunedin.”

We have received a telegram from Mr Knox, the Hospital wardsman, who accompanied James Murdoch to Port Chalmers, to the effect that his patient had left in in the British Queen steamship for Eugland, and that he was in excellent spirits, A PiCT Worth Knowing.— Are yon suffering with Consumption, Coughs, Severe Colds settled on the Breast, Pneumonia, or any disease of the Throat and Lungs? If so,go to your Druggist and get a bottle of Boschee’s German Syrup. The people are going wild over its success, and Druggists all over our country are writing us of its wonderful cures among their customers. It has by far the largest sale of any remedy, simply because it is of so much value in all affections of this kind. Chionio cases quickly yield to it, Druggists recommend it aud physicians prescribe t. If you wish to try its superior virtue, get a Sample Bottle for fid. Large size bottle 3s. fid. Three doses will relieve any case. Try it. A number of squatters visited Scott's Hotel, Melbourne, Monday 16th June to in spec; a model contrivance called the universal rabbit and vermin trap, which consists of a large underground trap, {capable of holding 2000 rabbits, t > which about I7u drain pipes will be connected from the smface of t e gr ond. Once enticed into a huge artificial burrow, the rabbit, it is claimed, cannot escape, there being wire sorters in the pipes, which, as in mouse traps let the veimiu in, but not out Above g omul is a wire cage containing a few decoy ran bits. The invention was favourably re garded, and will be put to a praoiical test shortly in some rabbbit infested district. “ Bncuu-PAlßA.”—Quick, complete cures all annoying Kidney, Bladder aud Urinary Diseases. Druggists. Moses, Moss and Co., Sydney, General Agents.

An a’arming explosion took place at a bonemill situated on Ihe Saltwater U ycr. near Melbourne, where a vat used forsteam ing bones w.is blown up through ihe third floor and out of the roof, and after going some distance in the air descended through the roof, and eventually landed on a heap of bones in the centre floor, just above the engine. A portion of the etstern wall of the building was blown out, and it will cost about Ll5O to repair iho damage done. The cause of the explosion is unknown.

Considerable indignation has been raised in Melbourne at what waso nsidered a very inadequate sentence, passed upon a man named Lmoy, charged with wife beating. He was proved to have on several occasions treated his wife very badly, and on'the particnlar charge before the Magistrates it was stated by the constable that he found the man grasping his wifa by the throat, who was bleeding from two wounds in herJbead, and threatening to kill her. Having rescued the woman, the constable let go Leucy for a moment and he immediately rushed at his wife and dealt her a heavy blow on tha face, The Magistrates contented themsqlvefx with extracting from the prisoner a verbal recognisance “to abstain ’froml thrashing his wife for a period of six months.” Three days afterwards Laucy was brought up again for a repetition of the offence, and the first sentence has been brought under the notice of the Legislative Assembly.

Lord St. Leonards, who was committed for trial on May 8 for indecent assault on a servant girl named Cole, has been sentenced to seven weeks’ imprisonment. His Lordship having been in gaol since his committal, and hail having been refused, his sentence was dated from that time, and be has now been released.

The Adelaide correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, gives the following particulars of some peculiar (proceedings on the part of a solicitor Mr Strickland Gough Kingston, a well known solicitor, was charged at the City Police Court with inflicting grievous bodily harm on Michael Guerin on June 8, by shooting him with a pea rifle. Kingston had engaged the complainant, a cabman, to drive him, and when proceeding along Pirie street shot him in the back of the head, told the man it was a *lark’ and advised him to drive to the hospital, where he had to remain for a fortnight Subsequently Kingston boasted of the feat, and ’••anted to repeat it on another man. The accused was committed for trial, bail being refused. Afterwards, however, the Chief Jnstice ordered his release on bail, himself in L 250, and two sureties of LIOO each.” -

A narrow escape from a serious conflagra* tion occurred at the Theatre Roval, Brisbane, during the performance of “Tambour M jor” by the company which recently visited this Colony. A considerable escape of gas beneath the stage was noticed during the first act, and after the fall of the curtain the gas caught fire, and exploded with- a loud report. A panic ensued among a portion of the audience, and a rush was made for the doors ; but the alarm soon subsided on several of the company coming forward and assuring teem that there was no danger. Considerable alarm was also c-eated among the performers, and several ladies fainted ; but the performance was afterwards p oceeded with. The stage was aim-.at lifted bodily by the explosion, and the timbers were found to be charred, so that a terrible cat astrophe was narrowly averted.

Tfc is an old-established and idiotic rue (remarks a Lordon paper) that both the coroner ami the jury who inquire into a, dealh should be'obliged to view the body* The practical inconvenience of this system has just, been made abundantly manifest. Mr W. J. Payne was holding an inquest on the body of Perkins, the clerk who was murdered in Arthur street west; the rc<* quirements of the law as to viewing had been complied with, and the unfortunate man’s remains had been buried in Ilford Cemetery. The inquest, however, was adjourned, and before it was resumed Mr Payne died. Sir John Monoktoa is now acting-coroner, and, it being necessary for him to view the body, it must be exhumed and brought to the city mortuary, a proceeding eminently undesirable in the in* terests both of public health and of decency. The rule about viewing was made, of course, in the times when coroners and juries actually inspected the corpse in order to ascertain the cause of death. Now, however, that scientific medical evidence is invariably forthcoming, the proceeding is purely formal and unnecessary, and ought to be abolished without delay.

A case came before the Supreme Court, Now South Wales, in which a man sought to recover damages for a collision between a tramcar and his bus. The Judge gave an opinion on the question of the right to the road, rather important in its way, especially as the tramcar system in New Sou hj Wales is worked by the State. His Honor said : “The trams are not ‘kings of the road.* Anyone may deliberately drive between the raiis in front of a tram ; though it may annoy the passengers, still the tram has no right to go on until the road is clear- The tramway authorities do not seem to recog. nise this. They are rather inclined to be * the bullies of the road.’ ”

A rather amusing incident (says the Western Skn) occurr d at the sitting of the it* si-lent Magistrate's Court during the hearing of the case O’Brien v. Carroll—an acti"U for makuv; use of indecent language, Mr Ki.ni, who appeared for the complainant, requested one of the Celestial witnesses t > give ttie Court an illustration of the way ia winch defendant caught hold of his client. The man of law p'aced himself alongside fha witness box, and invited the almond-eye i deponent to give a practical exhibition cm defendant’s al eve 1 amatory proceedings. “ John” responds 1 by placing his arm round the waist of the learned c nn-el and giving him a fiqne- zo. exclaiming at the same time “likeetbat. !’ The gentleman of the long robe seemed a little uncomfortable while in the tender embrace, but was actually made to blush over face and 1 reck when a wag in the Court intei juted that word so hard to sp 11 and so peculiar to pronounce, hut which will be recognised a i that used by the rustic swain when poking his sweetheart gently in the ribs. The Court was fairly convulsed, f.om the grave and reverend occupant of the bench to the constable in attendance, who was some little time before he ci nld control himself sufficiently to call “ Silence in the Coort!”

The death is announced at Faria, at the age of seventy-two years, of Alphonse Ratisbonne, one of the tyro so/rs of the President of the Jetyiah Consistory at Strasburg, whose conversion to the Roman Catholicism made no small stir forty years ago, Theodore, the other brother, died a few months ago, at the age of eighty-one. He embraced Roman Catholicism in 1826. Alphonse followed his example in 1842 while on a visit to Rome, where the Virgin, aa he believed, appeared to him. Both became priests of the society of Oor Lady of Zion, founded /by the elder brother in celebration of tire ♦ other’s conversion. Alphonse died at Jeruf eaiem, Holloway’s Ointment and Pills—- ♦ Counsel for the Delicate,- Those to whom seasons of changeable temperatmes are protracted periods of trial should seek the earliest-opportunity o f removing ail obstacles to good health. This cooling ointment, perseveringly rubbed upon the skin, is the most reliable remedy for ov .rooming all diseases of the throat and chest. Quinsey, relaxed tonsils, sore throat, swollen glands, ordinary catarrh, and bronchitis, usually prevailing at this season, may be arrested as soon as discovered, and every symtom banished by Holloway’s simple and effective treatment. This Ointment and Pills are highly commended for the facility with which they successfully conquer influenza; they allay inan incredible shot time thedistressing fever and teasing cough.