WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 296, 13 September 1927, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

The 377-ounce nugget reported this morning from the New Guinea goldfield is a valuable discovery, but still very small beer beside Australia’s re-cord-breakers. Australia’s biggest lump of gold on record is Holtermau’s Nugget, discovered at Hill End, New South Wales, in 1872. It weighed 7500 ounces, and was valued at £12,000. Strictly speaking, it was not a nugget in the' proper, sense of the word, but a mass of gold in a reef. Australia’s —and the world’s—biggest true nugget was the Welcome Stranger, found at Moliagul, in Victoria, in 1869. It tipped the scale at 2234 ounces, and was worth £9s34—quite a good day’s pay for the man who liglitedonit. Nearly as big was the famous Welcome Nugget discovered at Ballarat in 1858. This weighed 2217, ounces, and was worth £9325.

Bigger than cither of these, but in two pieces, and thus strictly two nuggets, was the find at Dunolly, Victoria, in 1857. These two pieces together scaled 2952 ounces, but were only worth £5500. If the miners of Asia in bvgone days had preserved records of their nuggets, no doubt some record-breakers would be on the list there for gold used to be plentiful enough in that part of the world in the past, and some of the maharajahs of India still sit on vast hoards accumulated by their ancestors. It used, for instance, to be the custom until recently of the Maharajah of Travancore once a year to get int the scales while his servitors loaded up the other side with gold. When enough had been put in to tip the beam and the Maharajah floated up off the ground a halt was called, and the gold taken from the scale and distributed to the populace in charity’. Even the nastiest anarchist must thus admit that at least one monarch in the history books was literally worth his weight in gold to his subjects.

The return to Britain at this late hour of a crippled man saved from H.M.S. Queen Mary by the Germans recalls the fact that out of about 1266 officers and men in that vessel at the Battle of Jutland only twenty survived the engagement. It was at 2.20 p.m. that the two fleets sighted each other, and at 4.26 p.m. the Seydlitz and the Derfflinger, after crippling the Lion, concentrated their fire on the Queen Mary. The British ship was fighting gallantly when a salvo crashed into her forward and a red flame shot up and an explosion rent her asunder. In another instant only a huge pall of smoke marked the grave of this fine ship and her crew. Great quantities of the debris from her fell on the fol’ lowing British ships. Four midshipmen and 14 men were picked up by the British ships, and the Germans saved one sub-lieutenant and one man, apparently the survivor mentioned in the news message. Altogether the Germans saved 177 British officers and men at Jutland. ■

“A F.W.” writes: ‘The other day a. portrait of the Hon. Algernon Gray’ Tollemaelie-was presented by Sir Douglas McLean, of Napier, to the Turnbull Library. Mr. Tollemaelie was a wellknown figure in the early history of this citv. lie lived at the corner of Willis and Abel Smith Streets, where the chemist shop now stands. T lie house stood back about 50 or 00 tcet from Willis Street, and in tjie front there was a neat and well-kept garden containing many choice plants. It was said that .Mr. Tollemaelie came to Wellington in order to economise, as his predecessor had mortgaged the family estates. Many settlers here borrowed money on mortgage from Mr. Tollemaclie.”

Our correspondent sends a narrative of a curious Court case as a result of a practical joke played by some cricketers on Mr. Tollemaelie in 1862 It appears that the Wellington representative cricket team of that year was returning home in the Stormbird after a match at Auckland. This little vessel (which survived to be the oldest steamship on Lloyd’s Register) in the course of her peregrination down the coast made a call at Nelson, and there Mr.Tollemaelie joined her as a passenger.

The cricketers were in high spirits, and amused themselves by playing practical jokes on the various passenger# quartered iu the bunks around the cabin. As a result, Mr. Tollemaelie, an inoffensive elderlv gentleman who had no connection with the-team, awoke to hna himself being hoisted by a rope from his bunk up towards the skylight l e did not take kindly to the experience, and on arrival at Wellington took legal proceedings against two members of the team. One of the defendants " a 9 ordered to pay forty One well-known member of the cricket team who had gene to ask Mr. lolle mache to withdraw the case was thrown out of the house by that gentlema , and lie in turn claimed damages tor assault, and got a shilling. Cncke was thus exciting in Wellington sixty t ears back but people’s tempers about that date were hotter all round, forrsonre. where about the same time there was a case of two Government depattmental heads having a willing bout of fisticuffs in the Lambton Station platform en route to the office one fine morning, and other such incidents were common enough.

The following letter was recently received bv a Chicago company from a native of Africa:— Sir —Connection burden reputatio and ’most respectfully to acquainted with vott that: I serejire perceised your desipiation and address by reason of a certain cue affectionate of mine. Consequence : vou are a beneficially mann factorv at U.S.A. Thus on receipt of this note, take courage to departnred me vour bargain catalogue including price list ere mv order to vour tion. Thus,' should tins application prove me successful, I will always endeavored bv dilligent discharged of my occupations to demonstrate mv opinion of vour kindness. , T am ambushed vour benetoence joinder in arrived at next mail. Yours sincerely,

Teacher: “Use the right verb this sentence: ‘The toast was drank m silence’.” , . Pupil: “The toast was ate in silence.

“ Xnd are vou anv relation to Pat „ioU,er's Ural child. and rat was thirteenth.” THF PASSIONATE MAGAZINE WRITER TO HIS LOVE. Corydon Ah, sweet, the songs 1 sing to thee Nor wondrous are nor many. Phyllis And mind thou getst a weighty fee, And copst a pretty penny. Corvdon Dear love, thou hast my brimming heart Till that I near must die for it. Phyllis Xy, sell the magazines thine art, ’And soak ’em in the eye for it. —Franklin P. Adams. ia New York “Ltf*.**