LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 3, 18 November 1862, Page 2

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Mr. Donald Cameran brought down on the 13th inst., 53 ozs. from the Moa Creek. We have also been favored with the peiusal of a private letter from the same place. The writer states that new ru.-hes are continually taking place. He mentions one paity who got 142 ozs, (I) in one week. Population rathei small on account of the good news fiom the adjoining diggings, which are about eight miles from hero, near the Nevis.

Mr. Jamieson, of the Bank of New South Wales, kindly showed us 107 ozs. of »old from the Moa Creek and vicinity, which he put chased yesterday. On Sunday night, a very brilliant appearance of Aurora Australia was visible for some hour.-!.

Another example is afforded us of the necoosity of having Supreme Court sessions in Southland. The trial of John M'Kie Drummond for indecent assault, will require the attend ince of Mrs. Robinson, and of one if not both of her children, and last but not least our very efficient Clerk to the Superintendent, will bfive to take a trip to Duuedin should the Crown require his evidence.

A sum was voted a considerable time ago by the General Legislature for a Itegi.stiar of Deeds for this Province. Ii is time that the vacancy was filled by ihe appointment of a suitable person. At present all deeds have to be registered in Punedin, at a considerable loss of time and money.

We are requested to insert the following, as it may throw some light on a case that was heard in the Resident Magistrate's Court last week : —

A Caution to Tradtcsuen. — We wish particularly to draw attention to a case heard yesterday before the magistrates at the police oiEee, in which Mr. Frith, the butcher, sued Mr. S. R. Seoltock, the late secrftary and engineer to the Geelong Gas Company, and to ask the tradesmen of the town to read it over carefully for their own especial benefit. The butchers and bakers of Geelong seem to be more than fair game for all classes of the community ; even the highest church dignitaries don't think it a disgrace to the cloth to cheat them out of their honest claims ; and perhaps our friends of the cleaver and the board have made up their minds by this time, that they are likely to be cheated out of the price of the necessaries of life as the retailers of gewgaws and luxuries are out of theirs. But we scarcely think any of them were prepared for the dif ■ ficulties they will discover on reading Mr. Friths case, and they will see that in no trade more so than in those of butchers and bakers, are short accounts likely to cement a long friendship. If Mr. Frith had demanded payment of his account when it was about six inches long, instead of letting it run to the yard of paper placed before the bench yesterday, it is almost probable he would have been paid, even if Mr. Scoltock had not gone away, and he would have been able from, the freshness of memory to swear 'positively as to the delivery of the goods. Receipts for joints of meat, steaks, or chops, or loaves of bread delivered are never thought of, a3 in the delivery of dozens of wine, bags of flour, or chests of tea; but it would appear to be as necessary in the one case as the o'Jier. The law, it appears, makes ii

necessary to prove the^deliveiy of every item of an account sued ior, if it be disputed ; and from the defence of Mr. M'Cormiek in Mr. Friths case yesterday, we doubt whether there is a butcher or baker'in town that could recover .the -whole of any account he might sue for. The first thing to be done is to prove the goods were ordered, then, the complainant must prove the .delivery at the house of the party ordering. It is not sufficient for him to swear^taat he cat a roast of beef, of six pounds and a-half,and entered it in his ledger himself to the order of a customer ; he must produce the man or the boy who did deliver it. Then, again, suppose the boy gives it to some one standing at the door of the customer's house, he must be aftle to swear that he or she was the servant of the customer. In fact,, it Beems as if the difficulties of proof were almost insurmountable where no receipts are produced, and we beg to pomt out the danger of allowing such accounts to run on too long. — Geelong Advertise?; 30th October.

The following, from the Otago Daily Times, will be of interest to our runholders : — ** Log»ie v. Teschemaker, tried in the Supreme Court yesterday (14lh inst.), was of more than ordinary interest, from i:s indirect connection with the question of the Jate high price of meat. The plaintiff sought to recover at least 4d. per Ib. on 250 thfiep, of not le s than 521 b. weight each, which the defendant had admitiedly failed to deliver after entering into a contract. The defence was thai nothing but the very bad state of the roads prevented the completion of the contract ; and the jury damages at the rate of ld. per lb. (i'4o 12s. 6d. in the whole), being the sum which the defendant's counsel had argued was the fair measure of compensation. This verdict was taken as ruling another case (Simpson v. Teschemaker), in which the contract was, we bolieve, for 500 sheep ; the circumstances attending the breach being precisely similar.

The good people of Rlverton are exercising their privilege as Englishmen to "giowl." They are, we fancy, in tiie right : the moorings for their harbor appear to have taken up a permanent posi tion on the Jetiy, instead of being put to the use for which they were purchased.