A FAITHFUL DOG.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1014, 20 December 1881, Page 2

A FAITHFUL DOG.

The New Zealand Herald says : —“ At the fire in Upper Symonds-street, a splendid Newfoundland dog, belonging to the Messrs. Robertson, was burned to death in the destruction of their premises. One of the brothers slept upstairs, but before retiring to rest, placed the dog in the shop to protect it, with an injunction not to stir therefrom till he was told. In the excitement of the fire, Mr. Robertson forgot to call the animal out of the shop. One of the employees, a lad, endeavoured to get it out by the collar, but it refused, in response to the orders given by its master the previous night, not to budge, and died atitspost, the victim of a high sense of duty. The brothers were accustomed to send the dog with messages to the family residence, Takapuna, and it would proceed to the Queen-street wharf, take passage by the ferry steamer, deliver the message, and return similarly with the answer. It would go to a tool kit if sent for a chisel or any other article, turn the tools over with its paw, and select the article called for, in fact could do everything almost but speak. The family shed tears of unaffected regret yesterday over the untimely death of the noble animal, which met its fate as heroically, and from as high a sense of duty, as the Roman sentinel of ancient story. Who shall say after this where instinct ends and reason commences in the brute creation ? Mr. Robertson informs us he would not have taken £5O for the dog.”