RETRENCHMENT EXTRAORDINARY!

Cromwell Argus, Volume XII, Issue 587, 8 February 1881, Page 6

RETRENCHMENT EXTRAORDINARY!

[CONTHIBOTED.] paying determined on a visit to Vincent County '. from' Wakatipu (some' details of I saw on the occasion and the impressions left on my mind I intend sending you for publication) I reached Arrowtown in due course and was early about looking out for an easy mode of conveyance, and had set my'mind upon enlisting into my service that Of King Cobb, whose comfortable, or uncomfortable, coach provided better protection from the dust of the road and excessive heat oJ r the sun than was possible outside of a horse. In this respect I was doomed to disappointment, as all the seats were engaged save one, which I was told possibly might be required by the police, who were about to send a prisoner down to Clyde for incarceration in the gaol there. I was made aware that an unfortunate itinerant musician known as " Piccolo Charley" had for some little time been a sort of troublesome spirit amongst the Arrowites, importuning them for shillings, sixpences and nobblers. But he fell into the hands of the Philistines and was committed to Clyde gaol for seven days lander the Vagrant Act. I therefore made my way to the Arrow police-quarters, where I found that my chance of a passage by the coach was a myth. The sergeant in charge had taken "Charley" under his especial care, and was engaged fixing him up for his journey to Clyde. The process of sending a prisoner down to that most flourishing of cities was apparently attended with a considerable amount of grave calculation, deliberation and preparation. Likewise there was the filling in of as many papers as would wellnigh suffice for the manifest of a ship's cargo. Then, behold ! there was to be an escort of one mounted constable to ride behind the coach as a guard of honor as far as the Victoria Bridge, where guard number one would be relieved by guard number two from Cromwell, upon reaching which town guard number three from Clyde would be in waiting to perfect the escort to the gaol there, where the sentence passed at Arrowtown upon this eccentric and unworthy disciple of Orpheus would expire in five days ! Just imagine the costof all this to the country; because a vigorous retrenchment policy had declared the Arrow goal out of commission—a place strong enough and capacious enough, it seemed to me, to hold the Kelly gang had they been caught and put into it. In addition to the services of mounted constables going to and fro over 98 miles of country, there is the prisoner's coach-fare to pay, amounting to £1 12s 6d. " Piccolo Charley " was quite jubilant over the prospect of his comfortable and agreeable journey, and after signing several sheets of paper containing a list of his valuable property, and which was scarcely

worth the paper written upon, smiled benignly upon the ever-attentive Police sergeant, and in language most polite—for ff Charley" hi said to be an educated man—informed him that V everything was right into his hand, and that he wanted to go down country." It immediately occurred to me" thai everybody wanting to '"go down country " had best get themselves committed for a short period, and 'they would find themselves considerably in pocket by so doing. Envying the luxurious ease and good fortune of the vagrant musician, I went home, saddled my horse, and prepared myself for travelling.