DUNEDIN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 328, 7 February 1874, Page 3

DUNEDIN.

{From our own Correspondent.')

The Dunedin Waterworks Company held their annual meeting at the Athenaeum on Tuesday evening, and judging from the repor| of the directors, there seems little probability of any arrangement being now arrived at with reference to the purchase of the works by the Corporation. The shareholders are congratulated on the continued and increasing prosperity of the 1 undertaking, and the steady increase of the revenue gives full warrant to the high anticipation of the Directors, as a still greater financial success in the future. A tabulated statement in the body of the report shows the satisfactory result of a yearly increase of about two per cent, interest on the capital invested, the percentage for the year just closed, having reached to 12 3.2oths. The directory seem resolved to take determined a tion to dispel the notion that the works of the Company are inadequate to meet the demand now existing. They have laid a considerable quantity of new piping, and in anticipation of a largely increased demand for their water, they have made arrangements for the purchase of land suitable for additional reservoirs for the storage of water. There can be no doubt that the Dunedin Water Works Co. have a splendid property in their hands, and if they can only keep the monopoly they at present enjoy, they trill not hare much cause to regret any expense they may at present be put to in extending their works.

A treat of no ordinary nature was afforded in the Resident Magistrate's Court in the early part of the present week, the litigants in the cases, which were the cause of the entertainment, being gentlemen of color. The plaintiff in the first case called (for there were cross-actions) ia a hair-dresser in Maclaggan-Btreet, well-known in Dunedin, and is generally dressed in a manner which completely takes the shine out of most of his fairer colored fellow-men. He hails from Virginia, and it was in consequence of acting the good Samaritan towards a Virginian brother, that circumstances occurred which led to the Court proceedings. The last-men-tioned individual held the responsible position of cook on board the Gamecock about a couple of years since, from which vessel ho ran away, and he came to the plaintiff for refuge, after haviug^nn-npT* bill for boopd and lodging elsewhere. This Christian (the barber) paid, and took the ebony cook to live with him at his own house, where he boarded him for various periods, and where also the latter had the extravagant allowance of two white shirts per day, done up by plaintiff's wife, and had supplied to him by plaintiff black kid gloves, blauk silk hats, neckties, &c. After treating the cook in this liberal manner, it came to the ears of the hairdresser aud his wife that their guest was in the habit of visiting Bristol House— an establishment whose fame has been often noted in the annals of our Police Court. This was not to be tolerated, and the ex-cook was turned away. This action was subsequently brought to recover about £18 for board and lodging. Parker, the defendant, institutei a cross-action for money lent, and also pleaded a set-off in the first case to the extent of about £6 for fowls, ox-tongues, eggs, and other choice fare' which, he maintained, he had brought to plaintiff's house while living with him, and the receipt of which Christian absolutely denied. The evidence was very conflicting, but was intensely amusing, and was accompanied with such- grotesque gestures by the rival darkies, as to cause suppressed laughter in the Court during the hearing of the case. Mr. Strode seemed to be in great doubt which Bide to believe; and in order to further investigate the matter, postponed the case till Wednesday, when judgment was 'given for £13 15s. Could I finish- here with Police Court news, I should be pleased ; but, in juxtaposition with the amusing case I have mentioned, I regret having to notice one which conjureß up very different feelings when spoken of. It was a charge of abduction heard before two Justices of the Peace on Monday. The evidence adduced went to show in the clearest manner that a young girl of thirteen, named Williams, had been induced to leave the house of a gentleman where she was in service, and take up her abode with a notorious prostitute named Powell. The woman Powell had repeatedly urged the girl to leave her father's house and live with her, and yielding to these solicitations the girl, who was, aa I hare said, at the time in service, at hist consented, and went to Powell's house, where she remained two days and nights, and no doubt witnessed scenes which were not fit sights for those who have no pretensions to morality or modesty, let alone for a mere child like the one in question. The father, hearing that his daughter had left the service of the gentleman with whom he had placed her, instituted a search for her, and no doubt hearing of this, the woman Powell sent tho child away to Port Chalmers, to the tender mercies of another degraded creature of the saute stamp, and denied all knowledge of the girl when enquiries were made by her parent as to her whereabouts. Fortunately Powell's Port Chalmers acquaintance was m durance vile at the time, and the girl was eventually found and taken home by her father. Most people would imagine that in the face of the very conclusive evidence which was brought forward against the woman Powell, a comiction would have resulted, and some slight check have been given to an evil which has attained painfully alarming proportions in other townß both at home and in some of the other colonies. Yet, strange to relate, the J.P.s who presided — Messrs. James Black and James Brown — dismissed the ease, because, forsooth, a summary conviction was beyond .their power, and they did not think lit to send the accused to trial. When such wretched displays of judicial ineompetency as this take place, it is time that some steps were taken to purge the roll of Justices of the Peace of its incompetent members. ■ Public opinion is very strong on the subject of the dismissal of the charge, brought againßt Powell, aud Messrs. Brown and Black hav^ been made subject of remarks by no means- of a complimentary nature.