From Gisborne to Melbourne.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1088, 17 June 1882, Page 2

From Gisborne to Melbourne.

[Written for tiie Povbrty Bax Standard.] No. VID. DUNEDIN (Continued). In the years 1848-52, (luring which the events, chronicled in my previous letter, happened, there were some local celebrities in Dunedin town —they were funny people, some of them, and they did some funny things. The administration of the law was amongst the most comical of the comedy performances in those days. Air Alfred Chetham Strode presided over the lower Court with gushing dignity, and was sometimes assisted by his brother J.P.’s, who were about us plentiful, as useless, and no more ornamental than those of the present day. Ono of these “ strange fish ” was the now Hon. W. B. D. Alantell, who, as M.L.C., has attained the notoriety of being the funniest man, and drollest jokist in the Council. He was the same dry old stick 30 years ago. Although there were few men around him who had received wore colonial experience than he.

he knew the art of putting on a few magisterial frills as occasion required, and would assume a profound ignorance of anything it might be income*, ient to remember. On one occasion some sailore were had up before the R.M., and Mr Alantell was on the Bench—Mr John Hyde Harris was, I think conducting the case. The men were charged with desertion, and in stating their reasons said they preferred going to jail rather than sailing in such a “ b y hookah ”as that ship. Mr Alantell was searching the authorities at the time, when on hearing the expression he lifted his glasses to the counsel an .1 said, with the most lamb-like innocence, “ Air Harris, kindly inform the Court what is a “ b y hookah.” Air Harris replied that his own knowledge on nautical matters was no more extensive than His Worship’s, but thought it had some reference to unworthy seaboats. To those who knew Mr Alantell, the child like and bland expression of thankful relief that his face wore, while a

“titter” ran through the Court, was sublimely ridiculous—“ as if he didn’t know !” But talking of law, the police were a grand institution to begin wit h. What few prisoners there were to deal with, were generally allowed every liberty, except that of going where they liked, although mostly there was no one to prevent them. The certainly could go xvhen they liked, come back when they pleased, and no questions asked. This “system” was convenient, fur there was no building stronger than a raupo hut, in which the police themselves were quartered, and constant incarceration in such a p ! a *e would entail constant supervision, and would be awkward for the “ force, '* who generally did ‘ crib and rum hot’ in cither the Royal or the Commercial, or ‘ trotted out ’ some ancillary companion, by the placid waters, and under the umbrageous copses of Peliehet Bay. I don’t know, however, that these nondescript characters yclept policemen, were so great a travesty on the name of “ paeler ” as in later days, I saw them in your neigh boring town of Napier—in the “ good old days,” when “full private Groom” was the embodiment and personification of ull that was terrible and majestic as a street peace-preserver. It was the peculiar feature of this accommodating

ofiieial’s good nature, to take a wheelbarrow with him on his beat of an evening, and to wheel tiie “ incapchlos ” to the lock-up, or to their own home, if they preferred it—which, in some instances, they did not, as the matter would get wind, and Groom had tolerably comfortable quarters in his bachelor days. But it f<-il ns often to the lot of that now departed functionary, to be deported home in his uwn vehicle, in a nappy state of unconsciousness, by those whom lie endeavored to take “ into custody,” and to the great joy of the various Bacchanals who joined in the fun. As in Napier, so in Dunedin, the police were a most accommodating “ hands all round ” kind of people, and so heartily entered into the pastimes of the community that none but strangere were earnestly “ taken in and dono for.” 1 remember a tolerably big scandal that “ fetched ” Dunedin society immensely about Quo year 1852. It was in connection with a lawyer of some eminence, who, as Judge of the .Supremo Court, said he would not wait for the “tardy operation of the law,” and forthwith made, or threatened to make, a breach of the peace, on the person of an equally eminent scion of the Esculapian school—the gonial, high-spirited Dr. M.—who, in reply to what he considered to be disgraceful conduct of the said Judge towards some lady friends, sent him a challenge for a hostile meeting, giving him, rather generously, the choice of weapons. “ His Honor ” was a widower and notoriously enamoured of one of the ladies —a widow of about half his own age, and comely, withal,to look upon —who, it was understood looked favorably on him in the light of a suitor, although he had not proposed marriage ; and, if she was not called on as yet to say “Yes,” it was a settled thing in “society” that she would not be foolish enough to say “ No ” if asked the “ momentous question.” But the scandal, such as it was, arose, less from a too pronounced conclusion as to the honorable nature cf the Judge’s intentions, than from a too ready acceptance of an invitation for the said widow and her unmarried sister to partake of the hospitality of his house. Some weeks passed over, and host and guests seemed (so the scandal-mongers said) much more “at home,” and much longer en famlle than were consistent with etiquette and good breeding. So the said seandal-mcngers attacked the citadel of these ladies’ honor, from behind the ramparts of drawing-room lounges, and over cups of that beverage which “society ” knows so well how to sweeten with the sugar of bitterness. The eaemfej were dislolged ; and as there appeared little probability of the charming widow ever presiding as Mrs Justice S., suspicion loosened the tongue of calumny, which soon reached the cars of him whose ermine was, at the best? held to be none ©f the purest. He arraigned some of the alleged calumniators at the bar of justice, ending in a nolle prosequi, but, in the meantime, as I have said, look the law into his own hands, when “the Doctor,” hearing the names of the two ladies coupled with the slander, sent the Judge a formal challenge. Of course “ the meeting” did not take place ; but the little storm agitated the usually quiet atmosphere of Dunedin society for a time, and, likewise, provided pabulum for the quid nunesund newspapers of l.ho Colony, which, ultimately caused the Judge’s removal to another Colony. I have not time, nor space to relate more about the Dunedin of early days, although, like most other places, many tales can be told that would interest even strangers to the time in which they occurred.