A DISGRACE TO THE CORPORATION.

Evening Star, Issue 7212, 14 May 1887, Page 3

A DISGRACE TO THE CORPORATION.

TO THE EDITOK. Sir,—As an express and van proprietor, I beg to draw the attention of the powers that be to the disgraceful state of the street running between the cross wharf and the D and C railway sheds. It is veritably nothintr more than a series of deep holes filled with liquid mud, and dangerous to all and suudry expressmen and carters who have to deliver or fetch goods to or from the wharf and railway sheds. The traffic down this streeii-was always heavy, and is now doub'y so, through the biick railway shed being turned into an export shed, while the B shed is being pulled down and removed further soutii out of the road of that gigantic monument of fully called the "over-bridge." An old identity remarked to me this morning that the street in question reminded him of tho good old times when bullock-diays wore embedded up to their axles in Prin'oos street, and, considering that a quarter of a century has elapsed since then, is it not a disgrace, sir, to the City councillors that a thoroughfare in which is centred tho whole of the import and export trade of tho City of Dunedin should be nothing more than an impassable quagmire whiio there are scores of umemployed men walking the streets and hundreds of loads of metal neatly stacked at the end of the cross wharf.

Tho Corporation daymen, instead of clearing tho mud off this street, are, I suppose, picking tho gross out of the water tables in some of the quiet side streets. As a couple of days' bad weather has made the street in question newly impassable already, it o»n be imagined what it will be in the depth of winter. People whose business takes them from tho wharf to the brick shed have to wade ankle deep through this sea of mud, and it is downright cruelty to the poor horses that have to strugglo through it with their heavy loads. Sorious accidents will happen before long, with their concomitant actions for damages, and then perhaps the City Engineer will waken up. I should like to see Hi'b Worship the Mayor and his councillors driven up and down this street a few time*, and if an axle would break and they were left floundering in the mud they would concur in the opinion that it wants repairing immediately, and so remedy a disgrace to themselves aud tho City of Dunedin.—l am, etc., George Tilbury. Dunedin, May 14

"Are you fond of tongue, sir?" I was always fond of tongue, madam, and I like it •till." " A man can get nothing without labor," said a woman to a tramp who declined to saw some wood in exchange for a dinner. "I know better than that," he replied, as he turned away : "he can get hungry." A correspondent wants to know if it is proper to urge a young lady to sing St an evening gathering after she has refused onco. It is proper to urge her a little, but not enough to induce her to change hor mind. A theological student was asked to preach not long ago for a colored congregation, After the sermon he asked one of the deacons of the church to close the service with prayer. This ha did with great uuction, among other things asking that the young preacher might "he anointed with tho Ho (oil) of Patnioß." Tho Prince and Princess of Wales have celebrated their twenty-fourth wedding day by a children's ball. The family infirmity of deafneßS has oome upon the Princess, and ill-health has stiffened one of her kness, and thinned her hair so as to make her almost dependent on art for that adornment: but her eyes are as bright antl soft, her skin as smooth, her carriage as girlish as the day she first entered Windsor Castle. She is such a very grand lady that there are of course very few private houses to which she can go consistently with her dignity. Her chief happiness is in her children and in music. "She is also fond of conjuring tricks, and has a special delight in the recitations of a Mr Clifford Harrison, a professional reciter, who is a frequent guest of the Prince and Princess, and is the adored of a large Bet of ladies, to whom he recites every Saturday afternoon at Steinway Hall. Professional reciting, next to operatic singing, is about the most paying craft in England.

Widows seldom come out second best in an encounter, but occasionally this happens, and the following is a case in point:—A few years ago there was an exceedingly attractive specimen of the tribo living in Birmingham. Her ago was about forty, and she had a beautiful daughter aged twenty, who was engaged to a soft-headed young man with a rich father. The widow, however, fell in love with tho youth, and won him horeelf, and the girl then covered the old male parent with daughterly kisses and attentions until he married her. She made him a good wife, too, and when he died three years later lio left all his property to her and to her two infant children. Then the young lady went for vengeance. She stopped tho Boft-headed son's supplies, and he had to take a billet at L2 a week, while the ex-widow, who had gone through her own property in the blissful days of early married fifo, now aooks two attenuated chops for breakfast, brushes her own boots, patches her husband's trousers, and regrets the day when she cut her daughtc-r out in the affections of a clerk earning 40s a week. On February 6 a case having reference to " word competitions" came r>efore Judge Powell at the Camhorwell County Court. At the end of last year, the defendants, Messrs Barker and Co., who are the proprietors of the ' Weekly News and Clerkenwell Chronicle,' advertised in several of the daily papers that they would give away prizes in money to the amount of LSO for the greatest number of words formed out ef the word " connubiality;" the first prize to be L 25, the second L 5, and so on. There were several hundred competitors, among them being the plaintiff Elliott. When tho award was published, giving the names and addresses of the successful competitors, the first prize was awarded to a doctor living in the country, and the second prize was, in consequence of there being several ties, divided among three persons. The balance of tho LSO was distributed in half-crown prizes, and among the recipients waß the plaintiff. After giving credit for the amount, ho now brought tho present action to recover the balance of Ls—namely 1-41 7s Gd. In support of his case he contended that the list he sent in was better than the one which obtained the first prize ; and, if not, that he at any rate was entitled to the second prize. He then endeavored to point out several words which werd not to be found in the dictionaries allowed to be used in the competition. Mr Gregson, solicitor for the defence, called several witnesses who were engaged in the adjudication, who deposed that there were at least fifteen or sixteen lists better than the plaintiffs, &ml handed in three lists for perusal. His Honor said it would take him weeks to go through the lists, As it was, the first case of the kind that had come before him, he wmild consider the nutter, and give his decision at a futiire date. • In the meantime he would retain the plaintiffs list and tho dictionaries made aise of for his guidance. • _^