FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Star, Issue 23834, 14 March 1941, Page 10

FIFTY YEARS AGO

FROM ’ STAR ’ FILES The pioneer train arrived at Middlemarch at 12.20 pan. on March 13. It brought 140 passengers from Dunedin and Lower Taieri, .mostly to attend the sale of sto'ck. Mr Pyko was present to see the up-country tapped. The veteran politician says the “ wall ” has now been penetrated and that the line at last taps the entrance to the “ garden of Otago.” The arrivals in the colony during February of 1891 totalled 1,245, and the departures to 1,579. Of the latter 697 went (to New South Wales and 517 to Victoria. * » * » ■ They have the good old sort of fishermen in anil around Blenheim, to judge by the following extract from a private letter originating in that locality•“ I caught a salmon trout last Thursday night weighing 29[lb. It was 56iin in length, 26J,in in girth, and lOjin in depth. I caught it with a thin piece of whipcord, and a bit of fat mutton for bait. How is that? 1 am the boss fisherman of New Zealand.” * * * * The Legislature of Arizona, United States, has introduced a Bill offering 200 dollars for every Indian killed while carrying anna. The Hinemoa arrived at Napier. Captain Fairchild reports that he called at the Antipodes and Bounty Islands, where he made a careful search without finding any traces of the Kakanui. He also called at the Chatham Islands and found some traces of the Assaye, which had evidently drifted there from the Snares. Among the wreckage were a topmast and a gun-carriage belonging to the vessel, as well as different articles of cargo. * * * * The Spanish Government is despatching 7,000 troops to Cuba to suppress the movement in favour of separation, which is being fostered from Washington. « * ♦ • , The proposal to form an alpine club has been taken up with great spirit by climbing men in Dunedin and Christchurch. * « • * A big fire occurred iu George street. It occurred iu a shop tenanted by Mr J. Brown, furniture dealer, this being one of a small block of substantial two-story brick buildings on the right-hand going north, between the Robert Burns Hotel and Molli-son-Mills’s drapery warehouse. As the brigade was at the Kakanui Fete and the arrangements made for their being called for a fire had not worked satisfactorily, there was considerable delay in the firemen’s arrival. By the time the firemen got to the scene the fire had a tenacious grip of Brown’s shop, and had also spread to Sutton’s grocery store adjoining; and it was not put out till Brown’s place was completely gutted and considerable damage done to other parts of the block and to goods therein housed. * * * • It speaks well for the orderly conduct of the people of Dunedin that, notwithstanding the immense crowds that attended last night’s fete and fire, there was not a solitary case of. drunkenness in the police cells. * * * * It is reported that Baron Hirsch has bought laud in the Argentine Republic, on which he intends to settle 400,000 expatriated Jews. • • * * It is estimated that in Paris one in 18 of the population, or 150,000, live on charity, with a tendency towards crime. In London this class is one in 30. • * ♦ » A blinding blizzard is raging in England. The temperature has gone down to zero. Many shipping disasters have occurred in the Channel. * * * * The latest instance of Government retrenchment. Post Office sorters have been requested to discontinue the use of red tape and to tie up official documents with common twine.