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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 142, 16 June 1874, Page 2

An Expensive Brace op Pheasants — Mr William Head, of Auckland, has discovered, by painful experience, that the "Protection to Animals Act," imposes heavy penalties upon those who infringe its provisions. Somebody, it seems, gave him a pair of hen pheasants, and his wife turned them into coin without his knowledge, whereupon the police laid an information against him, as tbe husband, for selling pheasants without holding a license for selling game. Mr Head's plea tbat the birds were sold without his consent availed nothing; tbe Bench addressing him thus ; — " We are sorry to say there is no option in this matter left to the Bench. We are simply hero to administer the law. Whatever our private feelings in the matter may be, it !b our duty to inflict a fine of £20. At the same time we believe tbat it was not tbe intention of the legislature to make the fine so heavy without giviag discretionary power to fhe Bench, and if you feel inclined to apply for a remission of tbe fine, the Bench will assist you in any way it can." Thiß is one of the inconveniences of possessing a wife of a saving disposition. A surgical operation under peculiar circumstances, which , recently took place, is reported by the fßallarat Star. A man named Merritt, employed in the care of horse., was at the Corner Hotel a little before midnight, when a row occurred, and in a scuffle Merritt was thrown down or kicked, and a compound fracture of the right leg was the result. He was lilted into a waggonette and Dr. Nicholson was called out and. set the wounded limb in the street by moonlight and lamplight. Tbe man lay in the vehicle, one policeman held his foot, another policeman held the doctor's splints and bandages, another man supported the wounded man's leg by the knee, and a small group of wondering spectators witnessed the operation. Merritt bore the business manfully, and when the doctor had finished the patient waß taken to his own homo, It may afford the reader a lively if not a very favorable view of tho state of mining matters in Victoria at present, when we state that a . late number of tho Melbourne Argus contains a notification of not less than 145 calls, and only one dividend;