OUR DUNEDIN LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4451, 25 June 1875, Page 3

OUR DUNEDIN LETTER.

(from our own correspondent.) Dunedin, June 21. The dying throes of the Provincial Council are over, and the poor old body is defunct, and it is to be hoped by all in favor of retrenchment, and the progress of .the colony, that the corpse will never be re-animated —that the funeral will be a decent one, but that after a few tears have been shed the deceased will be forgotten or remembered as having existed only at a time when it was of assistance to its relations. The conduct of our members generally since my last writing, has been, on the whole, particularly orderly, but there have been one or two ebullitions of temper. Such little things as these, however, must be expected. Mr. Turton, our "silent member," who, a week or two ago bragged about having blacked his officer's boot 3 and cleaned his spurs, has now been re-christened "the talkingmember" from the fact that he speaks on every subject—conceiveable and inconceiveable —brought before the Council. Another silent member —Mr. J. C. Brown —who, in addition to being an M.P.C., has the honor to write M.H.B. after hi 3 name, has also surprised—l will not say delighted—the House by bursting into a full blown orator. If at the General Assembly he goes on the rate he has been going on here there will be many opportunities forhon. members to sleep during the various debates, or to retire to Bellamy's with a clear conscience that they are doing their duty. The last; notice on the order paper was one by Mr. J. C. Brown, who was determined to immortalise ■ himself. The motion was one censuring the Government for unnecessary delay in opening the Waipori Sludge Channel. '• Having read this motion, and knowing the habit of the Superintendent, he cast furtive glances to the right of the Speaker's chair, 9vidently fearing the entrance of his Honor. Hon. members, perfectly well understanding his feeling, for most of them had experienced it, laughed most heartily—but still no Superintendent. Then Mr. Brown prepared himself for what no doubt would, or might have been, a most eloquent speech, by observing after clearing his throat : Mr. Speaker, I will just point out one or two reasons why this vote of censure should be passed upon " " His Honor the Superintendent," cried a loud voice, and enter his Honor with the prorogation speech, which be read off forthwith, much to the disgust of the irrepressible Brown. The newspapers have lately been lacking an exciting element beyond their telegraphic columns. One day last week, however, a para-<-/raph appeared in the Times, stating that they understood that the directors of the Guardian newspaper had given, up the name of a letter signed Pudor, which had appeared in this latterjournal some few days previously. The writer, it stated, was Mr. Jame 3 Smith, the wellknown barrister of this town, while the person evidently referred to by Pudor was Mr. Macassey, another barrister of this town, equally well known, though certainly not so well respected. Well, this paragraph caused a little excitement, but on Friday the legal profession and others had ample material for chatty and enjoyable conversation, as on that morning a long letter appeared in the Guardian signed by Mr. James Smith himself, throwing off all disguise, and stating distinctly that the person he referred to in his letter was Mr. Macassey, and lest there should be any mistake about the matter, he repeated the charges he had already made against that gentleman, principally in reference to-the Ward-Chapman scandal. In concluding his letter, he proceeded to hold Mr. Macassey up to the bar of public opinion, and wondered whether he would allow judgmenttogoby default. Inpointoffaet,hehel(l out the tails of his coat for Macassey to tread upon t and said he was quite prepared to prove his words in the Supreme Court. Of course this letter was the talk of the town, and if not a nine days', was at least a nine hours' wonder. Well, on the following morning an equally long letter appeared in the Times, in which Macassey took Smith to task very severely, explained that the reason of this bitter feeling on the part of Smith was because since his (Macassey's) return from England he had won every case in which they were opposing counsel. He likewise stated in his letter that quite a number of clients, dissatisfied with the way in which Mr. Smith conducted their business, had transferred it to him (Mr. Macassey), and that for this and sundry other reasons Mr. Smith had tried to pillory him. He then stated that he was quite prepared to justify his conduct in the Ward-Chapman business, and wound up by excluding Smith from the society of gentlemen. On the same day there appeared letters in both Guardian and Times, signed by John L. Gillies, in which he briefly constituted himself the champion of Macassey. And so the matter stands. It is agreed on all sides that Macassey made it very hot for Smith, and now the question is, What next ? Our Bankruptcy Court sits to-day, when a long list will be presented to his Honor Mr. Justice Johnston, who will preside here for the first, time. From what took place at Tirnaru, it would seem that he won't stand

: mj flummery, and after what has taken place - It J* not at all likely that our bar will present ■'fiim an address either on his commencing or concluding business. There is one good point about Johnston, and that is, if the members of % the bar commence any of their nonsense he will very Boon shut them up. Should Mr. Smith and Mr. Macassey come any of their pranks by turning his court into. a..bear garden, ho will in all probability order the learned gentlemen into the back yard for ten minutes to settle their little differences by manual labor while tho next case is proceeded with. On Friday a meeting of a novel character ty>ok place, when addresses were delivered, and th wicked were exhorted to turn from their

ways, and return to the paths of virtue. Cards were distributed among the public, inviting them to be present at a tea-meeting at Farley's Hall, at eight o'clock ; and at the bottom of the cards, the words "no males admitted" appeared. I believe the promoters of the meeting were the ladies of the Benevolent Asylum and the Ladies' Refuge. The persons invited were fallen women, but the tickets were distributed in rather a reckless manner for such an object—in fact, they fell into the ■ hands of large numbers of ladies, who were anything but fallen. I can't say whether the proceedings were a success or not, but the Times this morning states that there was a good attendance, and also gives the object of the meeting. A great outcry is being raised, and that very properly, about the rise in the price of butchers' meat, which commences to-day. Seventeen knights of the block and cleaver very coolly signed their names to an advertisement, in which they stated that on and after such a date, being, in fact, the next day, the price of all meat—beef, pork, and mutton, it may be presumed—would be raised one penny per pound. The public kicked up a great hubbub about it, and for once the newspapers were in perfect accord, and growled out a protest. From this fact I should be inclined to imagine that newspaper men occasionally eat meat, and do not live altogether upon suction.

We had a large attendance of the public at the Police Court this morning to listen to the details of a bigamy case, in which a woman is the prisoner, but as certain witnesses had not arrived from Christchurch, these curiositymongers were disappointed. The young lady, whose rejoices in about five Christian names and the surname of Schmidt, appeared'to treat the matter very lightly, said her first husband had plenty of money, and expressed her surprise that he was not present. But the fact is he did not care to come from Christchurch with her. She was remanded for the production of evidence, and in default of being able to find bail, she will have the pleasure of passing the intervening space in prison, where she will have the opportunity of reflecting, and deciding which husband she likes best. Perhaps, like Captain Macbeath, she could be happy with either were t'other dear charmer away. Well, now both are away, and she has an opportunity—and being in a police cell, I should say a very good opportunity—of being unhappy. We have been making a tremendous stir here to have a " Celtic chair founded," or something or other at Edinbugh. To this exception has been taken by certain people, who want it " founded" at Aberdeen. It appears to me, not being a Scotchman, that if they found it at all they should found it for —if not in New Zealand-—say Dunedin.