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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 997, 20 April 1871, Page 2

Among the patent medicines now in vogue, the various varieties of ** ehloiotjyne" have come; in to extensive use. We have always regarded this drug with considerable suspicion, believing it to be an insidious and dangerous preparation. Having recently met with a chemical circular in which the principal ingredients were set forth, we transcribe them for the benefit of our readers : " Containing in each fluid drachm active ingredients in the following ratio : Chloroform, 10 [grains]; Cannabis Indica ? 3 ; Scheele's acid, 1 ; Morphia, §." It will thus be seen that, in addition to other potent ingredients, onesix Hi pait of this medicine consists of chloroform, a drug used only with the greatest caution by medical practitioners. In the same circular we observe an advertisement of the " genuine syrup of the superphosphate of iron, quinine, and strychinine" (!)—a tonic medicine, the composition of which is as follows : —" 2 grains.of iron, 1 grain of quinine, and the thirty-second part of a grain of strychinine in each fluid drachm." We extract the following from the Dunstan Times, 31st March:—"Our St. Bathan's friends will be sorry to hear the news of the sudden death of Mr Robert Bedborongh, of Ihe Bank of New Zealand. Mr Bedborough, after the closing of the St. BathanV agency, was removed to Dunedin, and it was only some two months since that he was appointed to take charge of the Arrowtown agency. It appears that on Friday, the 17th March, Mr Bedborough found himself unwell, but not unusually so. On the Sunday following he sought the assistance of Dr. Scott, of Queenstown, who prescribed for him. Still nothing serious was apprehended, and he was able to attend to his duties at the Bank. On Monday evening he retired to rest,, sleeping, as is the usual ea-e with bank agents, on the Bank premises. Not finding him at his usual hour in the morning, and knowing that he was under medical treatment, his friends, having given notice to the police, effected an entrance through a window into the Bank, where they discovered Mr Bedborough in a dying state and unable to speak. Medical assistance was at once sent for, but without avail, and the poor fellow died at noon.. The next day an inquest was held on the body before the District Coroner (R. Beetham, Esq.), when Dr Douglas, who made the post mortem examination, gave in evidence, as his opinion, that the deceased died trom congestion of the brain. The funeral took place on Wednesday, and a considerable number of persons from Arrowtown and Queenstown followed the corpse to its last resting place. The deceased was 27 years of age We have ofttimes considered thearran ements of the Bank of New Zealand extremely parsimonious (and the same may be said of other banks), and we question if it is morally right that a man, singly by himself, should be left in charge ot any of the Bank's agencies It is cruel and inhuman to require such. A lad, even for company's sake, would not cost much, and we think that, in the interests of the shareholders, such should be conceded when the agent on the goldfields is not a married man, as in reality he should be. In this case the Bank has a great deal to answer for. Had assistance been at hand, it is very probable that the poor agent Bedborough, who breathed out almost his last breath untended and uncared for, might be a lining man at the present time What else might happen in a similar case it is almost impossible to conjecture. There would be nothing to prevent the whole of the property of the Bank being carried off."

There is a tiver .situated at the head of Bligh Sound which Lieut. Beddoes, K.N., and a party from the Clio visited during detention. On proceeding two miles up, they found it was the outlet from a lake, in appearance, two miles long and one mile wide. Lieutenant Beddoe", however, is of opinion that a

portion of the lake is hidden from view, and that it will on careful examination be found to extend a much greatei? length than :two miles The liver is of considerable size, but is rendered unnayigaTde by large rocks, snags, and rapids impeding its flow. It has been named Pitt River, and the lake, Lake Beddoes, " The Governor abroad," remarks the Wanganui Evening Herald, "is a confounded nuisance. We are continually receiving telegrams (for which we have to pav) of his advent in one place and his departure from another, his levee*, banquettmg, receptions, and whose guest he was. The worst of it is that no one cares a jot about the Governor, and the telegrams are not worth the money. We have a good mind to inform our correspondents not to send any moie telegrams about the Governorunless he has lost a leg or an arm. It. is devoutly hoped that the Governorwill settle down in the bosom of his. family, and put us to no mor-e useless expense in paying for telegrams which no one cares to read. We shall certainly not inflict upon our press friends the punishment they are inflicting upon us, when his Excellency conies to Wanganui. To please them, however, we may telegraph that * the Governor is here, the guest of the chairman of thepublic meeting.'" • A miserable instance of matrimonial infelicity, leading to the suicide of the wife, has occurred in the immediate vicinity of Clunes. A farmer and his wife, named Canai'd, who are reported to have been continually quarrelling, had a final contention on Thursday, 16th March. The woman ha\ing procured some laudanum, took it home with her and drank it. in the stable, Having told her children what she had done, they informed a neighbor named Callinan, who gave the woman an emetic. Dr Rose was then sent tor, and attended the woman during her subsequent illness. She lost the use of her limbs, but was otherwise conscious- until death supervened on the following Wednesday morning. The destruction of the Newton Congregational Church by the late gale has been felt as a serious loss by the inhabitants of Newton. The church was originally erected by those residing in the neighborhood, at a Cost of £7OO. Formerly the Rev. T. Booker presided over it as pastor, but, the district being too poor to maintain a clergyman, MrBooker was compelled to resign. A large Sunday School had, however, become connected with the church, and prior to its destruction the building was mainlv devoted to the use of the scholars and their teachers. Since the 2oth of March the Sunday School has been held in Mr Edwards' sehoolroom, which, however, is not suitable for the purpose, and an eflbrt is at present being made by the teachers to collect sufficient money to eroct another building. There are between 120 and 130 children attending the school, and we hope that the lauable efforts now being made will be liberally l-esponded to. Besides the special object mentio.ned r the building would answer the purposes of a public hall for the district.

The inhabitant of Yineland, a town in New Jersey, will not allow a house to be licensed there for the sale of strong drinks. They have a Permissive Bill, and the last vote tajten showed 1,200 votes against the traffic to four votes in its favor. The population of the place is 10,000, and the expense last year for care of their poor, their criminals, pay of police, &c , &c, amounted to fifteen pounds (£ls) sterling, just because no drink traffic is allowed in the place. Now, let us take a +own of a similar size in this colony. Launceston has a population of 10,829, and by the last return the sum of £2,265 7s 7d was expended in 1869 in payment of its police. We say nothing of the maintenance of its criminals and paupers, but simply state that its police cost for one year the -urn of £2,265 7s 7d, But then Launceston is piivileged to have about sixty liquor shops. Our taxpayers are a noble-minded, disinterested, un-elfish set of men. They are quite prepared to pay any amount of taxation ca«*od by the drinktraffic rather than deprive any man of his beer, or prevent the publican, the biewer, and the spirit merchant from becoming rich by

-a trade which pauperises the rest of the .community. It would be altogether /beneath them to pay, as the inhabitants of Vineland do, only .£ls a year to maintain their police, their poor, and their criminals.—Tasmanian paper. On the 4th inst, a little girl, aged 2J years, daughter of Mr Henry -Adams, baker, at Patea, was drowned by falling into a well on the premises of her father. When she was found life vas extinct. An inquest was held next day, and a verdict of " accidental death " retui ned. u Under the Verandah," in the Melbourne Leader, says :—" Deceased committed suicide while suffering from .the effeets ,of .drinking." Such was the verdict of a coroner's jury on the body of Elizabeth Benn, aged 32, the wife of a farmer, found dead in a water hole at the 'Yarra Flats last week; and such .has now become the established lormula •for coroners' juries in all such cases. Now I think this sort of verdict highly Knowing so much as to the cause of death in any particular <case, I think we ought to know some 'thing more. One man takes the life of another, and every eircumsfance, however trivial, connected with the mur--der, is rigidly investigated; but if a -man or woman is only poisoned by alcohol, it seems no one is to-be blamed, and consequently no inquiries are made. I think it quite possible that if inquiries were made it might; be found that occasional ly some one was to blame. As 4i sample of the sort of verdict that is wauted in cases of the sort, I «o mm end •the following, which I picked out of a western paper :—" We find that "the said Walter was drowned ls.t August, 1870, iii the river at Tompkin's Cove, in the town of Stony Point, by .recklessly jumping into the rivet, whilst \mder the maddening intiuenee of intoxicating liquor, obtained at the stores of John Connor and John Connel, licensed by the Board of Excise, in the face of a remonstrance against such license, signed by 214 names, and we do say that a Board of Excise that would grant such a license, against..such a remonstrmce as was presented in the case, are not, in our opinion, worthy the confidence or suffrage of a Christian or moral people." That was a verdict which meant something, and ,one, moreover, that would probably Jead to salutary results.

The Cambridge Chronicle states that the former Governor of Jamaica has jnow takeu up his residence in Somersetshire. It has been stated that the total sum raised for him v as <£ 15,000, of which Mr Eyre received a cheque for £7,000, the remainder having been .absorbed by law costs and the expenses of the fund. There is a rule, however, that, when a Government servant is put on his trial for charges relating to his official duties, the cost of his defence is provided from the national exchequer, ,and, under this regulation, the Government will have to pay Mr Eyre ,£4,000. The Duke of Edinburgh has made choice ,of Mr Eyre's son as one of the junior officers of the Galatea, of which the Duke is the commander. We understand that Mr R. Burrett, ,of this city, has made a presentation of six handsomely bound volumes of a popular educational work to the cadets -of the Wellington College and Gram mar School, as a prize to be competed for at rifle practice. This promising corps of youngsters, numbering sixty member**, was formed some six months ago, and have had the advantage of receiving instruction in drill from Col. Reader,' assisted by Sergeant Nelly. We hnve already had occasion to record more than once the result of their firing at the butts, and very creditable firing too. We heartily congratulate the member-; the company on the hand some and appropriate gift which Mr Burrett has so generously n ade them. —Evening April 8. A fatal mining .accident i« reported by the Grey Argus to have occurred on T.he South Beach, A party of„seven men were working in some new ground at the end of the tunnel, at ihe bottom of the shaft, in the Pioneer .claim, when suddenly the end of the .tunnel cayncl in. and one of the party, & man named Thomas Dixon, was immediately buried, and others barely .escaped. The tunnel in which the men were working is 180 feet long, and was m the bottom of a soft shaft. loitn.edi-

>ately upon the news of the accident .spreading, a large body of men from adjoining claims hurried to the spot, and commenced to dig the unfortunate man out From the loose and ''treacherous nature of the ground,'this was a long and dangerous operation, as the stuff fell in as rapidJj#B it was removed, but the workers were stimulated by the knowledge that Dixon was alive; They worked on in relays during-the night, and about two am. on Friday, after .twelve hours of unremitting labor,, they were successful in taking Dixon out, still alive, although dreadfully .crushed about the back and loins, and suffering great pain. Dr Smith was in waiting, and did everything ho could for the sufferer, but he rapidly sank and died about eight o'clock. The deceased, who was a Welshman, had been working in the neighborhood for several years, and was a sober, hardworking, and trustworthy man.