Interprovincial Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1548, 6 February 1874, Page 107

Interprovincial Items.

Sudden Death. A laborer residing at Mosgiel, Otago, named George Drummond, died very suddenly on the 29th ult. The deceased was at work the whole of that day in laying the foundation for the additions to the Mosgiel Factory, and while putting away his tools at 5 o'clock before retiring home remarked to his companions that he felt very faint as if tipsy. His employer at once gave him a little spirits, and had him conveyed home in a cart. Dr Inglis was immediately in attendance, and treated him for sunstroke, but he died at nine o'clock. A post mortem examination of the body, held the following morning, showed that death was the result of apoplexy. Discovery of Moa Remains in Otago. The Otago Witness, 24th January, says: <—We are glad to hear that a report which was current not long ago, that a number of moabones had been discovered near Hamilton, has proved to be correct. Captain Hutton, the Provincial Geologist, has recently visited the locality where it was alleged the bones had been discovered, and ascertained from personal observation that an accumulation of these bones exists, in a tolerable state of preservation, in a swamp about a mile and a half on the east side of Hamilton. Amongst the skeletons there are not only several Species of the Dinornis, but those of the Aptornis, an articulated skeleton of which was recently exhibited by Dr. Haast at a meeting of the Canterbury Philosophical Institute. There are also the bones of some smaller birds, and these will prove of peculiar value, as hitherto palasontological research has not afforded much information as to the kind of small birds which were contemporaneous with the moa. It is estimated that there are about five or six wagon loads of bones in the swamp at Hamilton, and steps will be taken shortly to remove the entire quantity to Dunedin. The Canterbury Museum has been greatly enriched, and indeed has attained a name through the moa skeletons which have been obtained by Dr. Haast from the Glenmark Swamp, and we have no doubt that the valuable discovery of moa remains which Captain Hutton has lately inspected, will, when set up in the Dunedin Museum, render that institution more attractive than it has for some time been. Nor will it be through being able to exhibit the moa skeletons in the Museum only, that that institution will benefit by the discovery, as the number of skeletons will be such that the Museum authorities will be able to exchange them with British and Continental museums for specimens of Natural History and other objects suited for our Museum. Captain Hutton may be fairly congratulated upon such an acquisition to the Otago Museum having been made at the outset of his curatorship, .and it is only to be hoped that the Palaeonfcological department of that institution will not be the only department which will soon be materially 'enriched through his exertions,

In connection with the above information, it may not be uninteresting to mention that a number of old Maori ovens were discovered not long since near the banks of the Clutha, in the neighborhood of Moa Flat. The ovens are completely covered with silt, and have not yet been disturbedIt is likely that Captain Hutton will have an opportunity of investigating these in the course of a few weeks, and should he do so, it is by no means improbable that his explorations will result in considerable light being thrown upon the, as yet, unsettled question of the date of the moa's extinction. Official Neglect. There seems to be no end to the hurai' Hating in which the Gisborne Eesid ent Magistrate is placed through the neglect of that district by the departmen t of justice. The Standard complains biterly and justly on the subject. We take the following from its leading article of the 27th ult.: —We found a vivid illustration of [this on Saturday afternoon last, (to name one among.a number), in the Kesident Magistrate's Court. A woman— accused of having assaulted a man by hitting him on the head with a stone appeared before Dr Nesbitt and behaved in such a contumacious manner that his Worship had her removed to the lock-up, and in reply to her husband's subsequent inquiry, said she "had been committed to jail for contempt of Court, and would have to remain there one week." This was very proper, (for while official dignity must be observed, we commend the good sense generally displayed by Dr Nesbitt, in not taking heed to every word, not deliberately intended as an insult to the Court), but cui bono ?■ Before the Court rose the Sergeant of Police informed the Magistrate that he Jhad no place to keep the prisoner in, as he had three male prisoners in the jail, and no accommodation for them, much less for a woman ! The consequence was that the Court was put to the humiliating expedient of virtually ash ing the prisoner to apologize to it, in order to obtain her instant release! Dr Nesbitt wisely looked ahead of the difficulty by enquiring, Suppose shewon't apologize ? But luckily, (we say luckily under the circumstances), she did apologise, and was set free. We need not probe the depths of forensic casuistry in further support of that for which we are contending—that justice, so administered, not only fails in its mission, but it is held in contempt, and is, in fact, a reductlo ad absurdum. Bettor far to pocket the insults we have no means of resenting, that to threaten with a punishment we cannot inflict. Taking the whole department of Justice as it is here, into one view, we state deliberately that it is simply a disgrace. In no other Province but Auckland, and in no other town but Gisborne, would such a state of things be allowed to exist; and we earnestly hope that the General and Provincial Governments will see to the instant removal of scandals, which are the outcome of persistent neglect. The business of the Court is increasing weekly, the sittings occupying three or four days in the week. BothJMagistrate and officers are miserably underpaid, and the accommodation is too scant for public convenience. In the Block House, matters are far worse than may be understood from the bare'fact that there is "no accommodation for ladies' there. Security there is none, for the prisoners out-number, and, in some instances, are quartered with, the force in charge of them. There are no out-offices, and the personal decencies—to say nothing of the absolute requirements —of life are allowed to take care of themselves.