ROXBURGH.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 273, 24 April 1873, Page 6

ROXBURGH.

{From our own Correspondent.)

I do not often attack Government officers, but on this occasion I feel I would be lacking in my duty if I did not bring under public notice the conduct of the Clyde telegraphist. On Sunday, the 6th inst., Mrs. P. T. Fitzgerald — who had been confined a short time previously — became dangerously ill. There being no medical man in the district, Mr. Fitzgerald asked Mr. Hale the telegraphist, to telegraph to'ZEua^ peka for Dr. Halley. This was about one o'clock. Mr. Hale did so, but it been after hours could get no answer from the Tuapeka office. Mr. Hall then tried Clyde, from which, station he received an answer. He stated through the wires, that the message he wished to send was urgent, and asking the operator to goto Dr. Sterling to tell him to proceed at once to the Teviot, and at once telegraph what steps, should be taken pending his arrival. The Clyde telegraphist said " wait a minute." Mr. Hale waited at the iustrument for fully two hours, but the operator at Clyde never returned, therefore no further communication could be obtained till 5 o'clock, at which time Mis. Fitzgerald had died. The Government ought certainly to take notice of this, as though the message was sent after hours, feelings of common humanity ought to have indued the Clyde operator to have given the message to Dr. Sterling. It is not be a pleasant commentary upon the efficiency of the electric telegraph department of New Zealand, to have to chronicle that a woman has died leaving a family of 10 young children, through the caprice of an operator. i

Mining matters are progressing fay orably, and the demand for labor is still as extensive and urgent as ever.

The investigation I alluded to in my last issue, came off on Thursday, lasting from 2 o'clock to 10 o'clock p.m. Several witnesses were examined, with the object of showing who were the parties that put away or frightened Jesse Mackay, the informer in the recent sly -grog case. Ihe result, I presume, will shortly be made public.

On the Bth inst., the remains of Mrs. Fitzgerald, the late wife of Mr. P. T. Fitzgerald, were conveyed to the Cemetery, Roxburgh. The attendance of mourners and friends was unusually large, there being fully 250 persons present, including the members of the Odd Fellows Society, who appeared in funeral regalia. An amount of sympathy is felt for Mr. Fitzgerald under his severe bereavement, as he is left with a family of ten young children on his hands. This is one of those-unfor-tunate cases which, in all probability, would have been obviated if a medical man had been resident in the district. The district is a. very large one, and offers a good opening for a qualified practitioner, and it is hoped that it will not be long before it is provided with one, so as to prevent a lecurrence of such a sad case as the foregoing.