A £30,000 MAN!

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 252, 2 January 1874, Page 4

A £30,000 MAN!

A most extraordinary case is reported from Sale to the ' Melbourne Argus.' As that well-known and valuable officer, Inspector ICabat, was on his,. Way, to Stockyard Creek;, he halted at a half-way house, known as "The .German's," and whilst there, over-heard,a ,man with a cart conversing with the landlord in; German., Some of ;th» man's remarks were so startling. that ICabat joined in the conversation, and learped that the traveller, named §chink, was, with his wife,.in the .employment of Mr. -Bath, a squatter, of Cherry Tree Flat Station. The r man and his wife ■were under a- six'.months' engagement, but had only, served six weeks; and his complaint was* that the. rations, served out to the hands were putridjin a shocking degree. Some, of the meat was in the- cart at the ,time ; Vand the, stench proceeding •trom the •vehicle, \yas, awful. If a ►bullockdied of pleuro, pr<a sKeep t< of fltike,; it ,wasr served ;outeas; rations tbi.the.^tatjon>hands; and; the mostVextraordinary,;-tpai-t k 'Of .the .'story is;, -.that ,\Dr. v Bath;. though- worth-j £30,000; Vo'uld eat*' the same carrion himself. The hands were lodged in the most wretched huts, , a couple' of sacks being placed on the;ba,re earth-far- bed,-j with' little* covering "of -a'ny ? part-' ■Both as to the .putrid n\eat and wretched lodging, Bath justified himself by saying that what' Was good enough for him was good enough' fon-theihands. A summons •having' been granted against Mrr Bath,] inspector Kabat proceeded: to the: station; to execute it, ah'd upon entering*' the kitchen discovered quantities of putrid' flesh; hanging up, " the stench from which? ' vy;as horrible.'' Subsequently l to receiving r the ( letter"from"Sale,'the '< Argus'"received 'a l , telegram, stating that the case Hadbeen , heai'd, by whom it ►•was*"dismissed/ on "the Aground' that Mr. Bath swore that the filthy carrion was for "his own" use! The same that the case ot a jt>by WhpVhM' been' licens'ecL to ! /Bath •: from tlie training-ship NeUon was^then 1 heai-d.' " The bpy's clothes and bedding were in a filthy state. t Tlislsleeping-place; was a filthy I bark 1 ' liiit, walls' and. roof/ janfl 'wet floor?''" 1 The 'boy in, winter had' ,on'ly 'two;pld''Jbags i and 'a piece of old 'blanket forced arid coyerirtg. ' Again "did the man urge the old plea—-V it. is good enough.for me to sleep; in,' arid good .enough" "for' Him.'' The sapient magistrates adniijted'the , plea, , and dismissed the ipformationi Surely this moniecT ..maniac ought; to have been sent to the. Lunatic Asylum ;' but in that case,* where' oughti the*jSale. t»'jjo v ?, h > ■'