DUNEDIN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 269, 27 March 1873, Page 7

DUNEDIN.

(From our own Correspondent.) The abolition of the Mayor's Court is a subject which is at present exciting considerable attention, public opinion being apparently divided as to the advisability, of having the Court done away with. The movement has its supporters, but I am inclined to think that those who consider it would be unwise to petition for the abolition of a public boon which was only granted after considerable trouble had been gone to obtain it, are numerically much stronger than the abolitionist. The subject was first brought forward at one of the City Council meetings by Councillor Ramsay, who, it is rumored, is ambitious enough to indulge in aspirations of possessing the civic chair, and who either doubts his own capability as to the administration of justice in the City Police Court, or is not preparod to sacrifice the time which the performance of this part of the Mayor's duties runs away with. Councillor Ramsay was backed up in the Council by the chosen of the Leith Ward electors, Mr. Barnes, another intending candidate at the next Mayoral election, and who would certainly be unfit to sit on the Bench, whatever Mr. Ramsay's capabilities may be. Altogether the ball seems to have been set rolling in this matter from motives of personal convenience rather than with a desire to consult tlie public interest. It is clearly proved that the Mayor's Court is still a source of profit to the city, and of its public utility and advantage there can be no question, while on the whole the decisions of the present Mayor during the time he has sat on the Bench, have, with one or two exceptions, given almost j uuiversal satisfaction. There can be no j question also that the fact of the Mayor being the presiding Magistrate at the City Police * Court, gives the office a higher status than it would otherwise possess, and the propagation of views tending to lower the municipal status, is, •therefore, undesiraH\ Putting all these considerations to one side, it seems to me that it would be vjry undesirable to throw upon the Resident Magistrate of the city a Jlarge amount of additional work, seeing the late hour to which Jie is

often obliged to sit in order to dispose of the civil suits which engage his attention. Self-interest and personal aggrandisement are, however, powerful influences with the human mind, and the specious reasoning of the parii«3 interested, will, no doubt, be preserved with until the question is settled. The nomination of candidates for the seat in the Provincial Council, rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr. E. B. Cargill, who has left the Colony on a visit to England,, takes place on Wednesday. The gentlemen who have at present announced themselves as intending to contest the election, are Messrs. 11. S. Fish, C. S. Reeves, and E. Prosser. It is anticipated that the contest will lie between Messrs. Fish and Prosser, Mr. Heeves being considered ont of the race. Mr. Prosser formerly held a seat in the Canterbury Provincial Council. It is worthy of note that the Chinese passengers who leave by the Harriet Armitage, take away to the land of their birth the respectable amount of two thousand, seven hundred and forty ounces of gold, of the value of nearly LIO.OOO. There are also large exports of old iron, &c, and 78 large bales of fungus, the latter of which have been principally bought up for export purposes by Mr. Sew Hoy, the representative of an enterprising firm of Chinese merchants, who have their place of business iv Staf-ford-street. This peculiar, dry-look-ing article the Chinese "manufacture by some mysterious process into an article of food, no doubt palatable enongh to them, but which would, I anticipate, be quickly rejected by fastidious European stomachs. The two adventurers, Peebles and Dunn, have at last delivered their farewell lectures in Dunedin, and take their departure for Hong Kong in the Harriet Armitage, advertised to sail on the 25th inst. On the whole, they have ample reason to laugh in their sleeves at the credulity of the Dunedin people, and will no doubt, congratulate each other when quartered among the Celestials on board the Harriet Armitage, at the amount of cash they take away with them. ft is said that Dr. Dunn's takings amount to about £300, while his spiritual adviser had a heavy purse of sovereigns presented to him by the infatuated mortals who took up his cause in Dunctdin. As the preceptor and the pupil no doubt have a common purse, they may each be reckoned to have received £200 for their Dunedin trip. Not so bad, when it is remembered that the hint tkat they were travelling on a money-making spec was so sharpiy repudiated both by themselves and the Spiritual Investigation Society. The extraordinary quotitions from the biography of the Rev. Mr. Peebles which were quotpd in the "Daily Times" on Saturday, and in which Dr. Dunn figured so prominently, should certainly open the eyes of all and sundry to the rank imposition which has been practised by these worthies, especially by the medical half of the co-partnersliip, who possesses the diploma received from the dwellers in the " mansions of the blest." Mr. Peebles' biography, which has somehow or another found its way into the Athenaeum, is evidently worth rea^iug, and the rev, gentleman will no doubt be thankful that the particulars concerning the early career of himself and his companion, were not to hand at an earlier period of their O Lagan earner. /After this ignominious extinguishing of the Smith and Peebles and Dunn lights, it is hard to Bay what we shall have next in the way of spiritual worthies.