DUNEDIN.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1088, 23 January 1872, Page 2

D U NED IN.

\ (from our own correspondent.) . ~-;i-.\. , v January 167 " The two cases remaining over for tria before the Supreme Court — Clyne, fo cattle stealing, who was acquitted ; and Ewing, for unlawfully shooting at and wounding a Chinaman at St. Bathans — were disposed' of this week. ; The latter case caused a good deal of excitement among -the. diggers, and . the Chinaman . was caught in the, act of stealing washdirjb from the tub in' the 'claim of which Ewitig' was the owner. •. The thief tried to make off, but was chased and caught, and tied by - the tail. He, however, managed to get loose, and was clearing out when Ewing came up with a gun and fired a charge .of small shot T at him, a good many of- the pellets hitting him. . The Chinaman got three. ; months for stealing the gold, and Ewing was tried as above for unlawfully wounding. The jury found him guilty, but an arrest of judgment was asked for by his counsel, on accoiint of something bad in the indictment. This was argued out on Thursday, Messrs Macassey and Stout for arrest of judgment aud Mr Haggitt in support of the indictment. The arguments against the indictment chiefly lay in technical objections, that no. £ prpper definition of time and place was given ; that the venue, since : the union of-South-land with Otago, was wrong, there being now two. venues in Otago— lnvercargili and Dunedin, ;.,and some other objections of a similar nature. After, counsel had been heard on both sides a case was stated for the Court of Appeal, and Ewing was admitted to bail, himself in L2OO, and, two sureties in LIOO each. ' ■ ! The Graving Dock at Port Chalmers was formally taken possession of by the Chairman of the Dock Board, Mr R. B. Martin, on Thursday afternoon. • The . dispute between the Board and the contractors has been happily arranged without going to law, and the Dock is now ready for. the reception of vessels of any size navigating these waters'.— The formal opening is to take place in; a • few days, when the p.s. Luna is to be docked for repair. The s.s. Wanganuiis also to be taken in. His Honor the Superintendent is expected to do the formal business when the Luna arrives. « The Presbytery of Dunedin met in First Church, on Monday night, for the laudable purpose of endeavoring to effect a reconciliation between the minister and the office-bearers of that church. .. For $ris purpose memorials-had been circulated among the members for signature— each memorial being headed with a statement that those who signed sympathised either with the minister or the office-bearers respectively. The one for the officebearers was signed by 286 names, the other by a considerably smaller number. But a third document was hawked about, simply giving an expression of sympathy ; with the minister, and seeking to retain his . Services, and to this paper over 350 names were adhibited., Sjo'the Bre.sbytjer.y had a rather difficult piece of work before them in any attempt to reconcile these. Some of the office-bearers were called in support of their memorial, and the clergyman in support of his ; and speeches were inflicted on the audieqee which were not very christian-ljke to say the least. Motives were pretty freely imputed on both sides, and the Rev G. Sutherland, in going over the names opposed to him, picked out some here and there, 29 in all, which he said did not belong to the kirk, and were not in. the district, How the names were got did not appear, but after a long. .discussion, the Presbytery, seeing the utter improbability of their bringing about a better state of matters, appointed a committee to compare the various lists with the communion roll, and the seat-Trent book, and remitted the whole business to the Synod.. , . , The Synod met on Wednesday, in the First Church, and Mr James Kirkknd was elected -Moderator, but -beyond-the, reception of the reports .: of { the various committees appointed at last meeting of Synod, little actual work hag been done. Some of these reports, are yery interesting! hqwever, particularly the one on Church Extension, which deals with a matter which comes home to : almost everybody;. Some; more ministers are coming out from Scotland to supply the wants of the district ; and the report speaks, with something like pridej of the fact that Otago will very soon be independent of foreign help, as the Univerity is now in full work, and not a few students have entered on their studies with this very end in view. Tbere| is yet a great deal of business to be got through before the First Church case comes on for discussion. It will likely take a night or two of next week. Monday night has been set apart, for -the annual missionary of the Church. Most of the members" of Synod are topreach in the various ohurches of < iW district tomorrow. The past week has been about the hottest your correspondent has experienced* since he came to the flolony. ' The barometer has stood high, with little fluctuation, till yesterday, when it fell slightly 1 ;, but the thermometer has ranged very high, seldom less than 80deg.. in the: shade during the day, while during the. night it has registered sometimes more. In the son, 13,5, 120, 130, and sometimes higher, has been marked. The conse-. quence of this heat has been the drying up of all the smaller creeks and the reduction of the larger qnes to, the smallest dimensions seen for a long time back. Its' effect' on the crops has been disastrous'; all round the district the farniers are in despair of being 'aWe to harvest anything like a crop, for everything is so short. The oats stand about ten to fifteen inchgg high, and the wheat is under, three feet, while the paps is'h^y., hardly any- ; thing green to be seen. Very extensive fires have taken place on Pine Hill, sto the north of the town, and much cut and standing timber has been burnt, as well as some houses. The smoke, even in town, for the last two days, has been very disagreeable, but up on the hills, in the vicinity of the. fire, its effect has been to drive away the residents, who have taken ' shelter wherever they could, • If. rain don't come soon, things will be in a very b,ad. way jndeed all round us. In addition to' all thjs, there have heen some deaths froni sunstroke' in various places. In the mining districts, things, are nearly as bad, for the diggers' can get no water to wash with, and so the yield of gold falls off. ...