TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 257, 6 February 1874, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

i " And his deeds do follow him." Is it not true ? Who hears, who reads anything about the late millionaire, except about his money?—now no better (well for him if no worse) than the laj£ pauper borne to his final restingplace, unknown and unwept, from Dunedin Hospital. How much he had! Millions glide sweetly from the tongue. Was it two, or was it three ? And you say he was mean—he was miserable—how strange! Three millions, did you say ? And so we worship Mammon, while forced to recognise that he—with power of vitality gone—his last will read—is of all men most miserable. One man accumulates three; millions of pounds. He in the race with thousands—perhaps one thousand. How many, then, must be pauperised through his riches ?—for there is no such thing as simple aggregation of wealth in the hands of the individual without a corresponding loss from the pockets of the public—accumulative wealth as opposed to creative, which is of course, of public advantage.

'late news by cablegram. Jan. 20. John Hoe v. Bichard Doe.—Plaintiff alleges that he is the owner of certain property situate on the river Thames ; that he can. trace his right of inheritance to the days of Magna Charta; that the defendant Doe, being scientifically disposed, has made use of a system of hydraulics, for the better disEosal of the sewage from his wareouses and closets, which system entails a discharge into the said river Thames of the said sewage, at a point /about ten miles above the property of the plaintiff, whereby the waters of the river are defiled and polluted. The defendant replies that he is only one of 3,500,000 people who discharge refuse in a more or less scientific way into the said river; that 80,000,000 gallons of sewage were, at a very recent date, discharged daily into the Thames above Blackwall; that this freat river, like all other rivers, had a een used in a similar way from time immemorial; that the rivers were, indeed, the King's highways (ref. Hale reports) for sewage and other matter better got rid of for the public convenience; that, finally, if it is an offence, John Koe, the plaintiff, similarly offends, and therefore po judgment could come on the information of an offender, unless a special indemnity had first; been proclaimed relieving John Boe jfrom the like penalties he asserts to. attach to defendant. LATEST DATE. Jan. 27. Judgment.—That the Metropolitan Board of Works—who have regulation, by letting of licenses, &c, and the general supervision of all drainage works —who have sanctioned the said scientific deposits of sewage from the defendant s premises, are the offenders. That, as a penalty for such offence, ,they be condemned, by Act of Parliament, to take certain lands on the banks of the Thames for the better drainage of the metropolis, including the lands of the plaintiff, John Roe" such lands to be paid for at a valuation to be arrived at by arbitration. That the defendant, Bichard Doe, in the meantime be granted special liberty to maintain his present plan of drainage until such time as the Board of Works shall have made other and more suit- , able provision.

Isr our columns last week, while freely commenting on the results of, the inquiry into the wreck of the Surat, we said " trouble was not over for the captain, as a charge was pending in another Court." Later news came to hand, which we published as an extra on Friday morning, that the judgment of this latter trial was two months' imprisonment. We cannot understand the maudlin sentimentality that evinces pity for a man who, with the dangerous power over the lives of passengers a master's certificate places him in possession of, is totally ignorant of his responsibilities—who, when through carelessness, having placed 300 men, women, and children in a position where, but for most fortunate circumstances, a lobs of life to the greater portion was imminent. We find a certificated captain who, in the face of danger, flies to drink to* oblivion. The taking away his power to Ibe in a similar position is, forsooth, cruel, unjust, &c. We do not envy these sentimentalists who place an incapable officer's feelings above the lives of 300 souls. [Since this was written we learn that one passenger has died from the effects of the exposure to hardship at Catlin's Biver.]