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Dunstan Times, Issue 1214, 5 June 1885, Page 2

During the past week we have had some exceptionally mild an 1 beautiful days. It is to be hoped that gloomy winter will not yet come down upon us with unwonted teverity before he passes away, Mr Fache requests us to draw attention to the sale by auction*! at Ida Valley, tomorrow, of cattle and horses, at Mr Thomas Flannery’s yards. As the sale is announced as unreserved, it should be worth the attention of all whose dea'ings are with cattle and horses.

We have received intimation of a teiribly sudden death on Monday last in the person of Mr John Tohil), brother of Mr Henry Tohill, of the Criterion Hotel. Alexandra, Deceased, we understand, had been unwell for a few days only suffering from a cold, and bis unexpected decease is a great blow to his family connections. A very successful concert was held at Alexandra on the night of Friday last, notwithstanding the stormy evening which set in just before the time of starting for those who had to come any distance. On this account a good few who intended to be pre sent were prevented, still there was a re speotable audience and a number came from considerable distances. The programme was (though somewhat lengthy) gone through in first rate style. Mr Robert t inlay occupied the chair, and after a few words of introduction called up'-n the brass band to open the concert. It is needless to say that many of the songs were encored, such as “ Vaahti,” *• Excelsior,” “ The Old Flag,” “ North Countree,” and numerous others, A number c{ instrumental duets and solos lent variety to the programme and were well received. The band rendered the second piece “ The heavens are Telling,” with good effect. Mr Peat gave a humorous reading which evoked much laughter. The programme being so lengthy it would be too long to give an account of each item, but we may say that all the performers willingly and well gavetheir services, and the concert as a whole was high-class and one of the best that has been given for some time. Mrs Lothian ably presided at the pianoforte, and rendeied the accompaniments with ex cell-nt taste and time. M’ss (Jolgan and Miss Haig also kindly lent their assistance in playing several accompaniments. At the close, the chairman proposed a hearty vo'e of thanks to all the performers, those ladies and gentlemen who bad so kindly and willingly come forward to give such an ex cellent concert, and the vote was carried with acclamation. On the motion of Mr G McNeill, a heariy vote of thanks was given to the chairman, after which the band brought the concert to a close by playing the National Anthem.

Babin Hood, in this issue is agsin before, the public on the Melbourne Grand National Steeplechase, the Christchurch Waterloo Cup,'on which he proposes to distribute. LiOOO. Robin Hood has been up to the present most liberally patronise 1, and if we can judge, most worthily so, sshis drawings have given general satisfaction, and moreover, he gives every information as to where the prizes fall,everything appears to be fair and above board.

At last week’s meeting of the Alexandra Mutual Improvement Society a majority of the members seemed to regard the introduction of “ bunny” to the colony as a blessing,, on account of the large number of people to whom the extirpation of the pest had given employment for the last few years. I was. stated by the leader of the debate, on the other side of the question, howeyer, that on a run capable of carrying 10.000 eheep, 80,000 rabbits could be fed, but that the pecuniary profit in favour o! the sheep would be about LIOOO as against the ra< • bits, that is if the run were solely devoted to the one or the other of these animals. That is to say, a run stocked with 10,0 l 0 sheep would pay letter by LIOOO Abaft the same run stocked with 80,000 rabbits as a rabbit farm. The debate for next Tuesday was fixed for|“The Mining Indu-try v the Agricultural Industry.” Mr G. Cameron to support the former and Mr Kelman the' latter. It was arranged to have a paper read by Mr Alfred on the 16th, and the following meeting to be devoted to the discussion of three great great novelists, v z Dickins, Thackerary, and Bulwer Lytton. He Society adopted. <a let of rules and bye laws for guidance in -its business, and after a vote of thanks to the chair the meeting adjourned. The May number of 11 Once a Month” is fully up to all previous numbers.' /The gallery of Colonial statesmen and celebrities is represented by the H m. Mr Dalley, Colonial Secretary, of New South Wales, whose name has been brought prominently before the world of late in connection with the de tachment of the New South Wales soldiers for the Soudan. “ Once a month is improv ing as it gets older, and we now re-affirm that it is worthy a place in every household.

The Commissioner of Police at Sydney has received a report fiom Mutt.burra River relative to the murder of Mr Walter

Running, manager of the Dare River station on the 2nd May, by Walter Gordon, employed in the woolshed on the station. On three occasions Gordon complained of illness, and though Mr Running gave nine medicine he asked to be sent to Muttaburra. This Mr Running refused, and'on the morning of the murder Goi don was seen going to the office winnow, where the de ceased was sitting writing. The murderer entered the room, and placed a revolver at Mr Running’s back and tired, the bullet passing through his

body into a table. There were three men in the office at the time, .- and, - they seized Gordon. When the pistol was taken from him he said, “ the dog would nut take me to Muttabui ra*” When he was arrested he was euffeiiug from low fever,.,and had the evening before the murder threatened to shoot Mr Running. The feeling amongst bushmen in the district is chat Gordon was delirious with fever, and did not know what he was doing. Tue police, however, insist that he was not delirious at the time he committed the deed, and ttiough ill knew perfectly well what he was about. He has been remanded, and is watched day and night. The despised, not to say detested, rabbit, seems likely to save bis good name after all. The Hon. Robert Campbell, by way of encouraging rabbit-catching on his Olekeika estate on the Waitaki, recently sent .00 frozen rabbits to London. They fetched Is apiece in Leadenhall Market, and yielded a net profit of 5d each. The rabbits were cleaned, but not skinned, before being frozen. The skins are worth 24-1 each,’ so' that the profit on rabbit-catching was just doubled by the operation. Mr Campbell hopes by this experiment to induce his own men and small settle) s in the neighbourhood to catch rabbits as a means of increasing their earnings, and he has offered to undertake the trouble of having ’hem frozen and. despatched to London with bis own shipmints of mutton. If this price of Is apiece can be depended npon for large numbers, it may happen that great tracts of- poor country will prove to he more profitable under rabbics than under sheep. At all; events, it will enable the settlers in rabbit infested districts to make something out of the pest beyond the wretche pittance that is got for the skins.—Wellington Press. At the Palmerston Resident Magistrate’s Court recently, before H. W. Robinson, Esq., K. M , a lather peculiar case of Sunday trading was William Jeffs, a waggoner, was charged with unlawfully wonting at his calling by driving his loaded waggon on the Shag Valley road on a Sunday... Mr. Levi appeared for the waggoner, and contended that his client came within the words of the exemptions to the SundayTrading clause of the Police Offences Act. That section expressly exempts from its provisions tho driver of any private or public carriage or cab ; and Mr Levi argued

that the term “ carriage ” was a general

expression equivalent to vehicle, an! include! a waggon, submitting also that ex emptions to a penal enactment must be construed liberally, and, where the meaning is doubtful, in favour of the defendant. The Magistrate upheld this contention, and dismissed the information.

On the 6th of May, the Ale'an’e Volunteers were in ca nn for the purpose of having a sham fight with some other corps of the

South Australian force, and an attack was expected to be made that night. Pgovidenthe attack was an*' made, o- there would have been a frightful loss of life, for to the Volunteers in camp there had been served ont 14,000 ba*: cart'd Iges, which by a mistake of same|staffiofficer had been obstitutod for blank ammunition.

The Australasian noticed as a curious incident of the recent war scare the withdrawal of suras of money from building societies, savings banks, and ordinary hanks, udder the belief that the money would be safer in some place of concealment. It is curious (says our contemporary) as illustrat ing a survival of, or rather a relapse to, the hoarding instinct which it was thought that advanbed civilisation had nearly eradicated. Modern methods of banking, cad upon the raoney-owaer to forevo the pleasure of seeing and handling bis money, a pleasure which, when money mecs and more took the form of pap-rpromusea-topay had practically' disappeared. Tne system induces him to forego his sense of aotual possession of saved money, and in exchange it offers him the gratification of interest. His pleasurable feeling of ownership was in a great measure withdrawn from the principal, and concentrated itself mainly on the profit yielded in the shape of interest. It also induces 'him to accept the bank's guarantee of safety in exchange fur the security he could provide for himself by means of secret biding. But when a time of war alarm comes,, an early symptom is the return of some amon-* the leas instructed classes ‘to the old primitive m itiiod of wrapping the money m an old stocking and biding it under the hearthstone or in a cor uer of the chimney, or iu a hole in the garden, the owner preferring to take all the risks in a material shape rather than in th. undefined, and, to him, Isa easi y esti mated form involved by safe keeping in a bank.

, What may happen to a man in Melbourne .is thus told by the Argue of the 20th inet. s’ “ The case of the young man Deu ly, who was picked up in a helpless condition on the steps of the General Post Office on the night of Friday last.and was refused admission to the Melbourne Hospital when takep thither by the police, came up for discussion at the meeting of the hospital committee yesterday afternoon. The chairman (Mr J. M. Bruce) said that it would be a disgrace to a committee if snob a thing were allowed to occur again. He had asked the house surgeon to *urniah a report showing the actual number of patients in the hospital oh that particular night, and the number of beds occupied. •Several members of the Committee expressed themselves strongly with reference to the action of the superintendent in refusing admisaiou in such a serious case, and it was decided to ask him for a report in the matter. Mr Carton meutione I that Den ly was removed from the gaol hospital by his friends, an I had since died. The young man, whose brother is a prominent pbysi clan in Loudon, arrived at Sydney several weeks ago, and came to Melbourne last Thursday to receive .a draft which had been sent out from England. While searching for the residence of some friends he fell exhausted on the steps of the Post Office. A con-table toon. him to the watch house, where Constable Whitney, who., was in charge, seeing that he was very ill, sent him on to the Hospital. When The constable retai ned with him, Whitney did not care to take him in, an i offered him money to pay for his lodging in the city, bin Dendy said he would rather not, aocep ; the money, and was then charged with vagrancy, and sent to the i oal-hospital.

A telegram from Auckland recently announced the arrest of John Ayres, a jewelhr, on a charge of breaking into and entering the. premises of Messrs Hart and Levy, pawnbrokers, on the 19th J me, 1884, and stealing therefrom one necklace, eght silver watches, one silver jug, one diam nd ring, one gold brooch, one gold watch and albert, value L 125. The perpetrator of the burglary had remained undiscovered since the above date, and no f a single clue had been obtained, and it was con j ictured the jewellery had been melted down. On Monday evening an accquaintance of Mr Levy, while in convera ition with that gentleman, incidentally, pulled out his watch to see the.time, and Mr Levy at once recognised it as his own. To the inquiry as to where he had purchased it, the possessor stated that he had purchased it from Mr Ayres. The police were made acquainted with the circumstance, and Mr Ayres inter viewed. He stated that he had. purchased the watch oyer the counter, did not know the name of the vendor or where he was to be found.'

Four men at work on the sewer works at Sydney had a miraculous escape from dea hj They were proceeding down one of the shafts and the driver,who had just gone On, was not aware that the winding engine had been place,d out of gear by his predecessor for the purpose of working the air fan, and no sooner were the men in the cage than it descended, with great ve'ocity, the speed being accelerated owing to the wire rope slipping off the dram or barrel. The men went down' in the; cage to the bottom, a distance o! 168 ft, but, fortunately, their fall was broken by the water, or the injuries sustained wonld have been of a ranch more serious character.

Says the Tiraaru Herald: "The latest illustration of the old adage that one goes from homo to hear news is contained in the following extract from the Evening Pr'ss (Wellington)': *lt is stVo I, apparently on trustworthy information, that the wife of a small settler near Timaru, who has recently been in very embarrassed circumstances, has come in f o a fortune of three milirn< sterling. Whoa the news came, so the story goes, the husband hail left his family, and was trying to pick up a living among some of the islands, and the children were out n

; service or em dove 1 in other humble pursuits’ We shonll beglal to hear some confirmation of this nows, which seems almost to good to be true. Assuming it to be well-foun led, we should imagine the Inoky conpla are still ‘in embarrassed circumstances ' —not knowing what t • do with their three millions. No doubt however, thqy would jiofl, plenty of. sympathising frtends roady .tb help them'.

The corespondent of the Melbourne Agt with the New South Wales contingent gives the following explanation of the burning of We burnt their poor village as we returned to the sareeba-. a contemptible thing in the abstract, bat perhaps the only means of conveying wholeeome terror to the eavage mind. If we had left the huts untouched we should have bad only a costly fool’s errand. Had wc k lied 2(00 oj thein, they would have published their lossejt" among the tribes at 60 ,- but now it will ba-_ known that Tamai is burnt, and with a few hours* labour the (little hamlet will be aa flourishing as ever." In the District Court, Melbourne, last week, before Mr Panton, P.M, and.abench of magistrates, three named Lyons, Holmes, and Bass, connected with the permanent force, were summoned for assault. Evidence was given showing that au outrage of a most disgraceful ‘character ■ ha V been committed by one or more of tho defendants in Kirk’s B.izaar Hotel. At the / close of the case for the prosecution the charges against Holmes and Bass were withdrawn. The commanding officer gs re Lyons a good character during, the time he had been a member of the force. Mr Panton said the Bench viewed with regret tha position which the defendants occupied. They were satisfied that, aa regarded Lyons, a gross assault ha I been committed by him. The character of the Pcr i.anent Artillery bad i'ways hitherto stood high, and tho Bench were extremely sorry on the present oo - ision to see mem be s of that foica brought before that Court on a charge of assault. The evidence clearly showed that Lyons had conducted himself in a very disgraceful manner, which necessitated an example being made of him, to prevent a repitit.pn of su hj rowdyism. For the brutal assault on the landlady of the hotel Lyons was sentenced to one months’ imprison* ment; ami he was fined 40s, with 20s costs, for tha assault on the landlord.