ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 74, 10 February 1862, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Otago Daily Timbs.

Sin, —Our Main Road from the Junction to ntar che Golden Age Hotel, is almost impassable for heavily laden drays, and lias been so all summer— presuming that summer has already been with us, which many people doubt from the incessant rain which has fallen.

It is now many weeks since the imperative and pressing necessity of having the Slain Street or Road repairo-i, especially that fearful chasm in it near the Golden Belt Hotel, where horses are "daily strained and bullocks swamped before our doors, and where " Cruelty to Animals " is performed to perfectioni KJ forcibly impressed the minds of many storekeepers and others, that a subscription was got up, and a do.pulation despatched, in ail hasty, t.) urge on the Qo-vermn-31'.t the greal want, and to solicit 11:3 appropri» atipn of some p'lblio money tj repair the n ad, to •vliich the (ioveriiuieiit <tave a cordial aud tatisfac-" tory assent. Bus now weeka have elapsed, the monej

has boon appropriated for the desired ymrpoeo by the Government, mid a jTootily sum collected, but yet the main road or street, remains in the wtrae fearful plight, except ona paltry bridge which has been contracted for, and treated with something like business despatch, but which I heaj has not yet been paid for. It is also rumored, that the Committee h.vre not yet-iaado up their minds as to what road the people wanted to be repaired, and that they have requested the Government to send them some one to aid them out of this difficulty. i am, Sir, Your'a faithfully, J. Db Cocrcy Yocxe, M.D. Wetherstone's Flat, Feb. 5.

PnrcK op Justick in Russia.—lt was gome time before we were so far righted as to be able to go on, and then when we were making up lost time and overtook our friends with their sledges, numbering probably n hundred in a iong line on the one solitary truck, it became necessary to pis* them if we would not be kept v snail's pace "for many hours. But the passing was not. ensy. The whole line must draw close to one sid«, and in some cases into the soft mow, and this the men ;or a !on<r time refused to do. It was a difficult, job. involving ri-ks to some, and the road was theirs as well as ours, The Russian baron, who was olie of us, at length lost all temper, and brgaii to swear as oulv a Russian can. Being cold and hungiy, exhausted and much shaken, he was anxious to "gat some shelter, especially as night was now closing. Oatlis having no erftet, he lost the last glimmer of (X>lish. and came out the l>orn Tarta;1 that he was. Dragging the cudgel from my hand, h<; began belabouring with all hi* might the men and horses, dealing blows right and left, and compelling the men to draw up to one side as fast a* we came up. For an hour this lasted, before we had passed all the sledges. " There, you canaille," he cried as he struck. "Take that! Give the road, you lazy vermin ! Make room, you pins! lam a baron, don't you see ? A friend of the srovernor's ! Sons of dogs ! Defilement of the earth! Your mothers are beasts '." an Iso forth. This was his gentlest style, while the blows fell in a shower. Forty or fifty men submitted to all this, srrumbled but cowed ; they took the blows and insults of this one man as dogs take their masters' kicki; they were serfs, he was a baron. After he had recovered his scat and his breath, and had wiped the perspiration from his head, he turned to me and asked, with an air of national pride. " What do you say to that, me lort 1" " I say, that had you struck the poorest of my countrymen in that manner, tlwy would have either boxed you into a jelly, or tlwy would have tied you to a sledge until they reached the first town, and then given you up to a magistrate fur an assault." "Oh, as to that, I should soou get away from a magistrate. A little money would soon do that." " Indeed ! 1 can tell you that your whole estate, wilh a dozen like it. would not buy one of our magistrates." This assertion only caused an incredulous laugh, and a remark from "the baron that he could huy any country magistrate iv Russia for fifty kopecks "(eightenpeticc).— Dicfa:nt's All the Year Sound.