DUNEDIN SCARED.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1896, 22 March 1880, Page 3

DUNEDIN SCARED.

The inhabitant* of Dunedin, remark* the “Daily Time*,’’ have never been in such a state of anxiety for the safety of their live* and property as at the present time. The dastardly and brutal outrage in Cumberland street was certainly enough to strike terror into the hearts of the most fearless, while the many attempts at arson and burglary that have been made of late have had the effect of putting our citizens on their guard. One worthy knight of the cleaver, residing not far from the scene of the recent tragedy, determined to be prepared for any nocturnal attack, and armed himself with a Colt’s revolver, which, much to the discomfiture of his better half, he insisted on placing underneath his pillow ere he laid him down to sleep. The sequel proved that his precaution was not unnecessary. In the middle of the night he was awakened by a noise as of some one endeavoring to raise the window, and, being a man of action, ho seized his weapon and “let drive ” a bullet in the direction of the supposed intruder. The repert was followed by a smashing of glass and a dull thud. Then a sudden revulsion of feeling on the part of the doughty butcher, who began to wonder whether the victim of his unerring aim had been a burglar or a policeman. With some misgivings he went outside, and with emotion* that can be better imagined than described, discovered that he had mortally wounded his wife’s favorite cat. He conveyed the dying animal to his bedroom, and for half an hour had what our American friends call “ a good time." This mania for self-defence with firearms is really going a little too far. During the last week more revolvers and pistols have been sold in Dunedin than during the previous five years. Only last night a portly member of the Press was observed endeavoring to charge a six-chambered pepper-box with a deadly kind of ammunition known to the initiated as “pica quads,” while a more youthful and less blood-thirsty representative of the Fourth Estate was secure and happy in the possession of a single-barrelled shot gun and a Spanish dirk. If the supply of burglars and murderers were unlimited, there would be little cause for apprehension of mischievous results from this general armament on the part of the public ; but the probability is "hat when the practice of carrying deadly wenpons becomes common, all the bad and dangerous characters will emigrate, and our hitherto well-behaved citizens, having once cultivated a taste for blood, will go in for a little pistol practice amongst themselves.