A £30,000 MAN!

Evening Star, Issue 3383, 23 December 1873, Page 2

A £30,000 MAN!

A most extraordinary case is reported from Sale to the Melbourne ‘Argus. As that well known and valuable officer, Inspector Kabat, was ou his way to Stockyard (Jreek, he halted at a half-way house, kuown as “The German’s” and whilst there, overheard a man with a cart conversing with the landlord in German Some of the map's remarks were so startling that Rabat joined in the conversation, and learned that the traveller, named Scbmk, was, with his wife, in the employment of vlrßath, a squatter, of Cherry Tree Flat -Statiou, The man and his wife were under a six mouths’ engagement, bub had only served six weeks, and his com* plaint was that the rations served out to the hands were putrid ip a shocking degree, Some of the meat was in the cart at the time, and the stench proceeding from the vehicle was awful. If a bullock died of pleuro, or a sheep of fluke, it was served out as rations to the station bands ; and the most extraordinal y part of the story is, that IVfr Bath, though worth L30.00U, would eat the same carrion himself. The hands were lodged in the most wietched hut*, a couple of sacks being placed on the bare earth for a bed, with little or no covering of any part. Both as to the putrid meat and the wretched lodging, Bath justified himself by saying that what was good enough for him was iood enough for the hands. A Bumm on « having been granted agamst Mr Batfl, Inspector Kabat proceeded to the station to execute it, aud upon entering the kitchen discovered quantities of the putrid flesh flang-. mg up, “ the stench w -bich. was ble.” Subsequently to receiving thg letjiep from « K ale the ‘Argus’ received a telegram, stating that the case had been heard before the Magistrates, by whom it was dismissed, on the ground that Bath swore the filthy carrion was for his own use 1 The same telegram states that the case of a boy who had been licensed to Bath from the training-ship Nelson was then heard. “ The boy’s clothes and bedding were in a filthy state. His sleeping-place was a filthy bark nut, with open walls and roof, and wet floor.” The boy in winter had only t!wq old oags and a piece of old blanket fojr beflaqd covering. Again did the i_'3(),C|()o rqan qrge che old plea—“ it is good enough for tq deep in, and good e*qugh fqr Thg sapient magistrates admitted the plea, and dismissed the information. .Surely this monied maniac ought to have been sent to the Lunatic Asylum; but in that case, where ought the Sale Magistrate to go ?