A ROMANCE OF GOLD MINING.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume I, Issue 13, 7 March 1890, Page 3

A ROMANCE OF GOLD MINING.

A REMARKABLE WILL CASE

(Recfton Guardian.) A fortnight ago we published a telegram from Dunedin that Robertson Bros., Cardrona, obtained lOOnzs for eighteen days sluicing. The Seut.bland;Times tells us thereby hangs a tale. Messrs Robertson hold some 12

aeries of ground, of which area about a quarter of an acre has been operated upon, the .total yield of gold therefrom being fully 2000, 0 z, of an approximate value of £7500, The result of last washing up was very much admired ; the samples of gold being perhaps the best ever seen in Dunedin, It was almost totally composed of heavy nuggets, with only a very small portion of the fine particles. The tale is this. Everybody in the. Lakes district, from Martin's Bay To Cardrona, is acquainted with the Robertson family. They have lived there for years, and have been engaged in a variety of occupations,- always turning whenever opportunity: offered to,-the facinating pursuit of earth’s golden treasures. Their experience of mining was generally unhappy. Borne members of the family, however, kept on, and in course of time made their way to Cardrona, where tin y took up a piece of ground that promised well. It, however, did nothing mope, than ‘pay,’ indeed it scarcely enabledthe brothers to make ends meet, but they pegged away in the hope-that ‘something would turn up’ And so it did, and in a fashion most unexpected. One day the toilers slopped for their mid-day meal, and one of them went on a short distance to get some scrub with which to boil the • billy,’ as the miners call the useful utensil that takes the place of a kettle. Our friend had to go off his own area for the purpose. As he pulled the peadfql scrub, rpusing the. while on hi? pwn and his brother’s prosptpfs, he a rabbit hole—not an unpoipraou sight in that quarter. In idle curiosity he poked with bis finger the ground at the side of bunnyls home, and discovered—a nugget! Luck at last! The nugget had a number of companions, and these were. of. course quickly secured. He'had indeed found a billy, or ‘potboiler.’ A new claim was quickly, marked ou t, and the value of it has been stater above. When the Robertsons retire from the field and get up an armorial badge they should certainly adopt 4 Brer Rabbit’ as their crest.

A will case of some interest is at present upcnpying the attention of the Qhjef Justice'and a jury of twelve in the Supreme Court of Victoria. In A:ugast; last .Mr - Henry Moss,, of Port Melbourne ,(the owner of a lucrative lightering business and a considerable amount of real arid personal property),

. died, and by his will and two codicals '' left the balk of his possessions, valued between £3O,QUO and £40,000, to Mrs Grace Sumner, a woman who had been acting nurse to him. He was a man eighty years of age, and his children and grandchildren received paltry

legacies, which only came into effect

after all other claims had. been satisfied. According to the opening statement of counsel MrsSomner appeared to have literary taken possession of the old man, who was very feeble in health, on the death of his wife, and to have systematically worked to obtain complete ascendency over him during four years. A grand-daughter of Mr Moss was staying with her at a hotel conducted by her at fieaconsfleid at the

(imeof Mrs Moss’ death, and when she received a telegram informing her of the event Mrs Somner went to Port Melbourne with her. representing, that she ; waR M-igreat-fiMcn'drpf ,tha; testator, and t hat she intended - to talcVcharge of the liouseJhdd. Mrs Somner was as good n< hei word, for on arriving at Boscobel, the testator’s .residence at Port Melbourne, she entirely took possession At the funeraLHie placed herself in the fir<t,mourning carriage, to the exclusion of the sons, and only consented to go into the second after some expostulation on ‘their part. Returning from the g’ave she sang “ Cornin’ t hro’ the rve ” to cheer up the old man, as she said. She at om e undertook <he position of nurse to the testator, and so. overcame , all feelings of delicacy as to occupy his room all night. Mrs Somner soon got the old man estranged from his granddaughtefj who had 1 previously nursed him, and persuaded him to have a lawyer’s letter sent to the sons forbidding them the house. Ii is promised that the evidence of undue influence having been used on the tesla’or will be so strong that the will must be i upset. :

THE ENGLISH POST-OFFICE,

j (Southport Visitor.) ’ j Finv’nrtrpint'Tostinw ffimldo.-nments j are issued in Ihe c .ijrs" of'tli" y’ar than i the annual report of. tin PosimasterGfeneral. From small beginnings the ! P !; st-' liice lias gradually grown to lie .j one <f th .trr> al♦ • t c.i’ iiu'• national | institutions, transacting a gigantic business, and giving employment to large numbers: of men, women,: and boys in thy various; branches of the service. The thirty-fifth report for the year ended on the 31st of March last, which has just been issued, abounds with valuable, readable, and at times .ampsing information; In the fwdve months alluded to, the number of letters delivered in the United’Kingdom ran tithe enormous aggregate of 2,362,990,000 while of t hat total as many as 11,001,08/) missives were registered- The total number of officers on the permanent establishment of the department is 58,396, and the number added during the year under consideration 1866. This total includes 4,054 females, of whom 762-are empleyed as clerks in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh,'and 3,292 as clerks, sorters, and , telegraphists throughout the Kingdom. In addition to this there are. it is estimated,' 50,000 persons occupied throughput the country, including 16,000 females, who are employed by local postmasters to carry on the business of their offices. . Of retired officers in receipt t of well-earned : pensions there are 3367, whose aggregate yearly drawings amount to no more than £177,498. The number of returned letters was 14,286,000, No less than letters were posted without any address whatever, and 58,<K)ft loo«e postage stamps were found detached from letters.

r f As AisuaV;articles; in; great; variety have’ been discovered in the undelivered correspondent!, and parcels which, either because cf insufficient addresses or from insecure packings bad to be dealt with in the Returned Letter Office. One parcel contained a human skull, the crown of.which bad been sawn ’ off. In ahotHer box were found thirty green tree frogs, all alive I a tin mould was discovered, in perfectly good condition, a plum-pudding' which had been gent to Australia three yegrs previously and had found its wav back, owing to the, impossibility of tracing the lad to whom it was adr‘ dressed. Specimens of that useful article, the ladies’ dress-improver, and packets of made up hair for ladies’ head-gear may be seen in the museum, in which these various articles find a temporary resting place. The composition of Some parcels at Christmas time was peculiar. In one were two petticoats, a pair of stays, a : leg of mutton, and a packet of tobacco. In another a large grey rabbit, containing in its inside, two tobacco pipes, tobacco, a doll, and a piece of bacon, the whole being wrapped up in a lad\’s jacket. In the parcels stopped in transit as contrary to regulation were found a cat, a squirrel, pigeons, lizards, dorraiiv, snakes, a cook musk-rats, and moles, all alive, n>tt to mention one or two other parcls containing dead dogs and cats. During the n pair of a postoffice van in use on a Cornish railway a five pound note, in a dilapidated condition, was found behind one ol the panels, and,with the -assistance of the authorities of the Bank of England, was returned touts rightful - owasr; after a twelve yetffs from tlie date when it was committed to the post. In July, 1888, complaint was made that a registered letter, containing a £SO bankno e, had not been received at a country village, and after careful inquiry no trace could be found of the, missing letter or of its contents. Nearly seven months afterwards a lady-residing in the same village happened to open one of a large number of newspapers, which had been delivered at her house during a prolonged absence from home, and were about to be destroyed unopened, and the letter dropped from between the folds of the newspaper, into which it had slipped while in the post. She at oace returned it to the J?qst Office,

arid it was then'duly deliver d to the 'dddfSSiTe: ’ A very objectionable prae-' tice, and one likeiy to occasion risk and disappointment to the sender, is the growing habit of transmitting money in various articles sent by parcel post. Pour s'V Teigns were found in a mass of crushed grapes ; six in a packet of and -26s‘in'some smashed fruit.