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Dunstan Times, Issue 1298, 14 January 1887, Page 2

Dr M‘Gregor, the Inspector of Hospitals, made au official visit of inspection of the Dunstan District Hospital on Thursday (yesterday), the 13th inst After visiting the Institution, which took some two hours, the doctor then met Mr J. E Stevens (the Treasurer)*and Mr Faohe (the Secretary), and to them pointed out what 10 him appeared necessary improvements and alterations. Dr M'Gregor, unlike his predecessor Dr Grabham, by the evident interest he took in the Institution, is evidently the right man in the right place, and we congratulate alt concerned in the appointment. We notice that the Hon Dr. L. L. Smith, M.L.A., has returned to Melbourne from his recent European and American Tour, during which, we learn, he visited all the not -d Medical Establishments of the Old World thereby adding to his knowledge of that profession in which he is snob an eipcrienced Specialist. Mr Richmond Keele has been appointed collector of agricultural statistics for the Counties of Vincent, Maniotoco, and Lake. We have received a pamphlet entitled “Criticism on State Education in Victoria,” being a selection from letters which appeared iu the “ Ballarat Scar ” by “ Fairfield ”. Harvesting has commenced throughout the district, but we regret to learn that the crops are nothing like what they promised in the spring. The late frests In the first instance gave a check to the growth ; this being followed by an unprecedentedly long spell of dry and inordinately hot weather, The straw is stunted and the grain has a shrivelled appearance. The erection of the new iron bridge across Chatto Creek is being pushed ahead, and by present appearance it should be completed and ready for traffic in the course of a fortnight,. While having a nice light and airy appearance it will ha a remarkably strong structure. Mr J. M'Coimick, the contractor of the bridge across the Molyueuz at Roxburgh, now iu course of construction, is also the contractor of the Chatto Creek Bridge. The long spell of dry aud hot weather—ranging from 90 in the shade to 137deg in the sun—we have been enjoying (?) for the past fortnight has at length broke up, being followed by a most delicious and refreshing rain, accompanied by thunder. On Thurs day (yesterday) morning between 3 sod 4 o’clock it commenced to rain, and wiih but slighkjjiutei mission continued till midday. The effect was to cool the atmosphere aud make life again worth living. One effect we most decidedly hope it will have—that is, to quench the disastrous fires that have been raging for the past week on the western slope* of Lake Wakatip, the full particulars of which, as given by the ‘Otago Daily Times’ own correspondent, appears in another column. The friends and acquaintances of Mr Inspector Moore—and there are many in this and the surrounding district -will, we are sure, join with ns in congratulating him on his promotion to the rank of secondclass Inspectors The fcllo wing which affects most business men is worth preserving :—A decision of considerable importance, if it represents the law npo.i the subject, was given r.t InverCargill the other nay. It appears that a fiiia iif merchants down there sold some goodj by auction, one of the conditions of the sale im o .ed by 'be vendor bring that persons pu.ch sing goods .■'mounting to over a certain sum conld have three or four months credit it they handed to vendor approved bills for the price of the goods o bought. One of the purchasers tendered his own bill, which the vendors, however, objected to ta.ke, rod ’as the former showed no inclination lo get anyone to endorse lor 11 ffl, the vendor .efucad to deliver the goods and informed the buyer Ih it if he dll not complete the purchase by tendering a bid duly approved, ihe (goods would be sold at the buyer’s risk. The purchaser, however, told, the vendor ha could go to Halifax, or some other plain ; that he conld prove his bill to be a good one ; t ■ t ho sh mid compel the vendor to deliver the goods aud iak ■ the hill wiihout endorsement as payment. Issue was joined between the parties upon this que .ion : ihe vender sold the dispute i arln.des over again, and sued the pm chav r for the .1 iff err i ce in value, some Lfl or L 7. Tin defend ed, brought Ids bank manage ■»ud some one or two friends to prove that Ids position was fairly good, and that hit* bills wfi'e taken by the trading commuoiu The magistrate, therefore, m iiis wisdom argued that the parch 'Bor had fab ere.l the vendor in quedion was hound lo iak. his bills, b-cruse he had agreed in the con ditions of s tie to accept for, amounts over a certain sum aporovod bids This s°eras to ns rather a peculiar decision, and ii has, we think, no precedent iu the law books.— “ Mercantile aud B'Ckniptcy Gasetie.’’ It is estiraatod that ths insurance offices doing business in Australasia have lost by fires over, LIOO,OOO daring the month of December.. It is also said that not one of the offices have paid one per cent, dividend ont of the profits this year, the dividends having come out cf investments.

The authorities of the Government Life Insurance Department hope that by Fobrutry each individual policy-holder will know the amount c{ his or her bonus. The appointment of Messrs B. Naylor, L D. Macgeorge, F. Jeffery, and 0. Holden is gazetted os' Trustees of the Clyde Race Course, in room of T. L. Shepherd, deceased, W, A. Low out of the Colony, »n I Messrs Hazlett and Marshall,' resigned. Che Board of Trustees now consists of Messrs W. Fraser, Geo. Fsohe, and the f <ur above-named gentlemen, A shocking fatality is reported from a station near Temora (New South Wales). Mrs Doyle, wife of a boundary rider., bad occasion to proceed to the Post Office, about a mile distant. She left her three children, 18 months, 6 years, and 12 years "f age, respectively, at home. The children some time atterwards set out to meet her. They were passing by a tank when the baby tumbled in. The eldest girl im mediately rushed into the tank, gr—ped the baby, and held it above water, but the brave child became entangled' in some dead timber in tbe tank, and could not get clear. The other child 'procured a long stick, and reached it out to hsr sister, but unhappily the stick was too short. Seeing this the dropped the stick, and ran for help to some selectors who lived two mile* distant. Shortly after, the poor {mother returned to find her baby in the water, dead, and her eldest daughter drowned in the grasp of dead timber at the bottom of.the lank. A sensation was caused in Horsham on December 23 by the attempted murder of a woman. A man named Clark, working at Stevens’s brewery, when going home from work in the evening, found Mary Marqnardt, who was living with him as his wife, lying on a bed, with tremendous wounds on the head and body. The woman’s daughter, Mary, aged sixteen, was dressing (ho wounds, and stated that she did not know how they had occurred. She had been up town, and on returning found her mother lying on the floor weltering in her blood. Information waa given to the police, and.when'farther questioned the girl stuck to her tale. From her appearance, however, suspicion ‘fell on her, and she confessed ehe committed the deed. She stated she hit her mother several times on the bead with an axe. She was arrested, and she now states that she is encieritt by a man whose name she gave to the polics. The injured woman Is in great danger of her life.

A peculiar dispute, which may yet find its way into the law courts, has occurred at Sydney. Mr Mosely, 'who tor seven years has Keen in the branch of the Civil Service controlled by the Miniater of Works, was elected to a suburban municipal council, and recently became an alderman. He has never been previously found fault with, nor was bis connection with the municipality challenged. Bbl the Minister, acting under the Civil Service regulations, called on him to rsaiguhit municipal office, and on his rtfa-al dismissed him from the Service. Mr Mostly, deeming this to be an interference with his rights as a free citisen, baa taken counsel’! opinion with a view to bringing en action against the Government for loss of office. The following landers have beau received for the Mount Hyde bridges (masonry)' contract of the Otago Central railway—Accepted : Black and Alliaon (Dunedin), L 15,934. Declined : D, M’lntyre (Dunedin), L 17.302 ; J. Whittaker and Co. (Dunedin), Llß,lßl.

Mr George Chainey, a popular American lecturer, now on a visit to Australia, thus refers to the Melbourne Gup day :—“ Thare is a dark background to. the piotura of 100,000 on a racecourse gazing at the rush* iug horses as one man, many sther thousands hanging with breathless suspense on the telegraphic reports. Twc million pounds gambled away ! What does all this tall of secret shame, pain, desolation, madness, and despair? Enough money wasted to dot the deserts with artesian wells, causing the wilderness to blossom as tha rose, and to quench the blast furnaces from which the hot winds come."

The ‘ Reporter’s Magazine ’ states that a report which comes from . Paris is enough to make a shorthand writer’s hair stand on an end. Some time since, according to Paris, two ladies in the higher stratum of society made a wager as which of them conld talk the quickest! They both had to read manuscript. One of them managed to read 293,569 words in three hours, bat she was beaten by her rival, who brought' up her total to 296,311 word?. In other words, the average rate of speed of the first was 1130 words a minute and of the second 1q46? Maya kind providence protect us trom ladies of the higher ttratum of French society.

Tho following curious story la told In the ‘ Pall Mall Gazette' :—A man appeared at the counter of one of the London banka the other perspiring under the Weight of a heavy bag, which ha threw upon the counter and asked changed for gold. Tho bag contained exactly LIOO worth of fourpc’ny bits of the year 1838—all of the eix thousand as bright and unworn as when freshly issued from Mint. The owner explained that the coins ware « legacy from his grandmother, who had Just died, ami who, having a passion for fonrpenny pieces hid procured the bagful at the bank half a century ago, and hoarded them carefully until the day of her death. legatee took his hundred pounds in gold, and' departed. Next morning he reappeared in a very excited state of mind, and asked'for; the fonrpenny bits back j “ for,'** Said he, *’ 1 am told that the fewelterfl giv* a shilling apiece for them.” He wa«. politely Informed that tho coina had been contributed, and that it was impossi ble to- retnrn them now. Thereupon he went away sorrowful. And now everybody who has a friend in tho bank is gleefully exhibiting brand-new four-penny bits, which ho intends to have made up into breastpins and other trifles of personal adornment.

The Peril Figaro, states that in few monthi the Crawford-Dilke oue wiil enter on ite third aot. A number of Sir Charles Dilke’a friends have been investigating the oasO| and are on the track of a conspiracy that will make the press of the entire world re-echo with excitement. The trial, it predicts, will result in one of the ablest and most accomplished ''men of "modern times emerging with a high head and bold front from the infamy into which he has been cast by the accusations made against him.

A propo: al is on foot to place the stat ia of Liberty enlightening the world in the shade, A Committee of English snd Canadian residents in London is being formed to organise a celebration of the Queen's jubilee, and one of the suggestions to be considered is the erection of a colossal statue of her Majesty a hundred feet higher than M. Bartholdi's statue of Liberty,

The number of matches annually made is almost inconceivably great—s6o.ooo,ooo of boxes without counting the 40,000,000 or 50,000,000 of boxes of wax matches and fusess.

An explosion of gas occurred in the Bauk of New South Wales, Auckland, on Sunday, by which two clerks, N. Von Sturmer and W. Sturmer, were burned. Mr N. Von Sturmer, who is ledger-keeper, snd resides in the‘bank, returned from a stroll With kis com in, and on enteric 7 the side door detecte 1 the fumes of gss evi dently coming from the strong room. He unlocked the strong room door and pro, cured a light in order to ascertain whsi* the leak was, and on entering the cand a ignited the gae, and an explosion took place. The two men were considerably singed about theneck and bands, and also slightly on the face. Dr jHaiux wax telephoned for, and diessed ths bum* and ordered the men’s removal to the hospital, where they xre making satisfactory progress The force of ths explosion extended along a number pf psssagex ox the ground floor xnd rose to the third story, xnd scattered a sky light over tke main staircas. Curious mistakes ara occasionally made *>y the Telegraph department. On Monday Mr Maltby, of the Williamson Musgrove, and Garner Company, received a message at the Bluff s - 11 Will try and meet you tomorrow on arrival of the Wairarapa.— Lxtzix.” -Ax this is MrMaltby’s jjirst visit to the Colony, be was startled at receiving x telegram, presumably from a lady. His bewilderment continued till bis arrival at DonecUn, wbsn it transpired the toesWrge was from Mr Liddy, the company's treasurer, ...

Alderman' V. Notion, of Poole (England) Is offering LI,OOO to the town for the establishment of a Queen’s Jubilee Free Library, writes to the mayor of the borough "f have been % householder of the town ,>or *bouitwenly-one years, ail ha-oao-•tained from the use of iatoi'.cating liqours for a longer period. It is an established fact that the average expenditure in the United Kirigdonfi o'h alcoholic drink is about 14 10a per annum. .During my married ■life my- bousahpld has six persons. Tho.supy.of L 4 iOa per apnuiii 'for. each of those persons for twenty-one years, with compound interest, amounts to about LIOO3 tmd with thU sum lam pTeast'i to offer to •reel a suitable building and presented it for the purposes gf a free library, n iding room, and, if possible a school of ait. The town will thus benefit by . my abstinence, while Fam the gainer in being saved headaches and heartaches innumerable, which follow in the train of drink.

The.police at Budapest recently dispersed an encampment of sixteen -persons who had been driven fiam their homes by the oholera, and Who. having no sheltei, had established themselves under canvass near the Danube. In tho course of their researches after other vagrants, the police made tha astonishing discovery that thirty persons of both sexes were lying undressed in a dirty but warm stream of weter that fi i wed out of a mill. They had taken atones for pillows ar I had prepared' themsel-res to spend the,, night comfortably in this strang* Ded. Some of the vagrants stated that they had no other resting place since the cold weather set in.

A sensational incident (say* the ‘Ballarat Courier ’) thriUcd some thousands of spectators with horror for a few momenta on the evening of Boxing Eay at the Eastern Oval whoie a fireworks display and a Blondin performance were bein’ carried out. Blondin (Mr Stevenson, jun., of Balla-at Enat) had oerformed on the rope, which was about 30ft high, in his usual costume ; and on the second occasion, about half past 10 o'clock, ho mounted the rope encased in a- helmet which contained fireworks. Fireworks were also fixed on the rope, half-way ac oss, which. Blondin was .to ignite. Dressed in oil-olotb, ho walked along the rope, and set fire to the pyrotechnics, and," is arranged, a Sor.Oational scene war provided Blondin being surround’d on a!) sides with colored fire. He then sndden y stepped backwards, and it was seen that he himself was on fire, and that the flames from his oil-dotfa ware blaming up the sido of his face. With wonderful ooolneLg and prosoiioo of min 1 under such frightful oircumstances, he dropped his balancing-rod, and, letting, himself dosyn on to ths ropr, slid down a trapeze hanging below, and ho then droppad t» th' 6' grouAd. 1 His fall was broken by Brigadier Traitjr, of the City .Brigade, and ho was at once Beiaed, and ths burning garment oitinguishadi, iJaylhg b)?en doused with water,, amidst great applause he ascended the ladder- for >he purpose’of letting'tho Spcotßtors'know that ho was not seriously hurt. Tao affair caused gicat excitement, for ths moment, and cerorrl ladies went into hysterical fits. The oil-oloth is supposed to have ignited through some-fuse being-in one,of the pockets. Stevenson was only slightly scorched, and his skin chafed with sliding down the trspoee.