The Arrow Observer, AND LAKES DISTRICT CHRONICLE. Arrowtown, Thursday, April 22, 1880. Local and General News.

Lake County Press, Volume IX, Issue 467, 22 April 1880, Page 2

The Arrow Observer, AND LAKES DISTRICT CHRONICLE. Arrowtown, Thursday, April 22, 1880. Local and General News.

The sale by auction of Mr M'Cracken’s farm and house advertised for Saturday will not take place, as they have been privately disposed of. Another cake from the Maryborough Company’s claim came down yesterday. It weighs 36ozs. Sdwts., and is the result of a 96-ton crushing. In our advertising columns there appears a notice under the hand of the Secretary to the Benevolent Institution which we have pleasure in calling special attention to. While local claims for charitable purposes are many, we do not doubt that a large number of our farmers and others will spare something, in goods or cash, for this central board of relief. We would suggest the appointment of some local agent to receive and forward contributions. In the last 1 Gazette ’ appears the appointment of Mr H. M. Adair as Crown Ranger for the Pro in dal District of Otago. The Rev. E. Granger, the newly-appointed Episcopalian curate for Queenstown and Arrow distri< 1 1, will hold his first services in the Arrow c n S inday next, when he will preach both mornii g and evening. We understand that the Am w congregation will contribute £IOO per annum to the rev. gentleman’s stipend, in return for which they will secure one-third of his services. Mr G. Heller (whose success in the cucum-ber-growing line we noticed a short time since) has left at our office some exceedingly fine specimens of tomato grown by him in the Arrow, one of which turns the scale at half-a-pound. The additional five head of stampers at the Homeward Bound Company’s mine will, we are informed, be completed and ready for operations in about three weeks’ time. The Company has, further, decided to increase its crushing-power by another ten heads, making a total of twenty head of stampers when completed. Want of crushing-power has been, in the past, the main drawback of the Homeward Bound, and we are glad to see that a probability exists of that drawback being removed. The Gladstone Company are making arrangements for getting another crushing through at the Maryborough battery before the do: o of the present season. We sincerely hope that the County Council at its next sitting will take the motion tabled by Mr M’Dougall re the Arrow-Macetown dray-road into serious consideration, and allow no short-sighted policy to stand in the way of so desirable and reproductive a work being taken in hand. As the Arrow division will be a member short 1 (awing to the absence of Mr M’Cracken) we shall have to tr ist to the spirit of fairness on the part of other members of the Council. Two or three thousand pounds spent in such a work will be money well laid out, and will be a profitable investment for the Council as well as an inestimable boon to the claimhold'ers and public at large. We notice by the last list of Sydney Exhibition awards that both our local millers appear as prize-takers. Mr Gilmour receives the first degree of merit for samples of oatmeal exhibited by him, and Mr P. Butel the third degree of merit for flour. The Wakatip has always held a high reputation for grainproducing, and the result of the manufactured article must still further increase that reputation. Wo believe that, if the grain forwarded had been more carefully selected, it also would have shown well in the front. We are informed that barley grown by Mr Brown, Speargrass Flat, gained a prize, but have seen no mention of it in the lists published from time to time. The piecemeal manner in which the awards are being announced makes it difficult to trace local exhibits, but when the complete list is published we shall be able to ascertain what reception each has met with at the hands of the judges. The trial of Butler for the Dunedin tragedy was concluded in the Supreme Court on Saturday last. The accused (who conducted his own case throughout) at the close of the evidence made a most masterly defence occupying five hours in delivery. After a deliberation of three hours the jury returned a verdict of “Not Guilty.” Butler is now undergoing his trial on the further and separate charges of threatening to shoot the police and of setting fire to Mr Stamper’s house in High Street, Dunedin. Most intense interest has been taken by the Dunedin public in the progress of the trial. Creditors appear to be very liberal to insolvents in the Wairarapa. A meeting was held the other day in the estate of a storekeeper, at which, in a very prompt and business-like manner, it was resolved the estate be wound up forthwith, a dividend to be declared out of the funds in hand, and that the balance of uncollected debts be handed over to the bankrupt to enable him to commence business again. Finally, to make everything comfortable and complete, the creditors recommended that the debtor’s discharge be granted The evidence with regard to the chin chon a rubra cure for drunkenness is very conflicting. Here is the unfavorable report:—“ The Superintendent of the Home of Inebriates at San Francisco has given the drug a full and fair trial, and he reports that its influence is absolutely nil. He further states that, from his inquiries as to its use in private practice, he is confirmed in his unfavorable opinion.” Jurymen, as a rule (says a Timaru paper), are not remarkable for any great perspicacity. In a recent case tried in Timaru, some of the jurors were not aware what their verdict really was until they saw it published in the papers. If anything could prove the old proverb that ‘ 1 a prophet hath no honour in his own country” it would be the reception Capt.

Barry’s book “ Up and Down” has met with. The Queen has thanked him for a copy ! and the London ‘Times’ says ‘‘the book is thoroughly worth reading, and worth thinking over as welland again, ‘‘from every page the truth speaks out.” (!) We (‘ Echo ’) cannot venture to quote more. As for the ‘ Athenaeum ’ it says “it is the most remarkable and extraordinary book it has ever been our lot to, read.” We should say it was—“most remarkable ” and ‘‘extraordinary.” And this is English literary criticism! Mr Simpson, 8.M., at Dunedin, is evidently much opposed to swearing. Last week an individual, who was brought before him and charged with swearing in a public street, was mightily astonished to have a fine of £lO and costs inflicted on him, or in default three months’ imprisonment. The word rate for telegrams to Europe is now in force. The charge right through from New Zealand to Europe is 11s lOd per word. A wine grower near Cugneaux, in the Department of the Haute Garonne, on testing his new wine found it had a most peculiar and unusual flavour. He had the vat emptied and found at the bottom of it the corpse of one of his vintners, who had been missing since last September. The authorities have forbidden the sale of this extraordinary wine, but, curiously enough, they will allow it to be made into brandy. Lovers of French brandy who object to human alcohol would do well to take to beer for some time to come. ‘‘That night some of the bodies were brought in, but mutilated in such a manner that we could not identify them except by parts of their dress. I can’t tell you all the indignities they had suffered; their faces smashed in with the butts of rifles, their bodies out in slashes from feet to head—crimped like a fish, in fact; their throats cut from ear to ear ; the hands and feet of many cut off; in fact, every cruelty perpetrated that could he devised.” So we (‘Pall Mall Gazette’) read in a private letter from a young English officer who fought with conspicuous coolness and gallantry at Cabul in the desperate action of December 11. Lest the Duke of Argyll, Sir George Campbell, and others should assume (as otherwise they may) that the bodies so dreadfully mangled were those of Affghans, brought into camp to gratify the eyes of our officers and soldiers when the fight was over, we hasten to say that it was not so. The mutilated were Englishmen; the mutilators Affghans. When a person wants to borrow money, it makes a great deal of difference (says the ‘ Morning Herald ’) whether or not he knows how to go about getting it. For instance, we were told yesterday of a man who wanted the loan of some £4OO for three months, on the ample security of a freehold section and house. This a generous money-lender agreed to advance him at 10 per cent, interest—that is to say, at the rate of 40 per cent, per annum. In addition to the security of the property, the lender, to make assurance doubly sure, desired a bill of sale over the furniture in the house. It was only on consulting a legal friend as to the advisability of agreeing to this latter proposal that the borrower discovered the money could have been obtained from an ordinary agent for 2-J per cent, for the three months. History repeats itself in bankruptcy proceedings. A man filed his schedule the other day in Wellington, with the happy result that the debts remained with the husband, while the landed estate remained with his wife, who “ purchased it with her own earnings.” The bankrupt knew nothing about her property; not even that it was three times the value of his debts. All he knew was that he had settled nothing on her but the furniture, and that simply from motives of ‘ 1 pure love and affection.” The ‘ Wallaroo Times ’ says teachers of morality are often like road direction posts which, although they point out the way to be taken, do not travel it themselves. When an ordinary individual is seen by a leading member of a church, playing at cards for drinks in a tap room, the pious man shrugs his shoulders and passes by on the other side, but when anyone who makes no special pretensions to be better than his neighbours sees a couple of men who always take a leading part in the performance of divine service in their respective chapels, acting in the manner described, the sign post illustration presents itself, and the presumption is that their public piety and prayers only form a thin varnish to cover the old Adam beneath. A strange murder and suicide occurred a few days ago at Rossau, in Zurich. A man whose wife had left him, owing to his violent conduct, followed her to her father’s house, fired right and left at the inmates, killing the father, and discharging the remaining barrels of his revolver at the people who tried to arrest him. He then defended himself with a pitchfork, and at the moment the police had succeeded in depriving him of this weapon (which was not done before he had severely wounded several of his assailants) ho drew a knife, cut his throat from ear to ear, and fell dead on the spot. We (‘ Taranaki News ’) have received from Mr S. Gale, gome very fine specimens of his Giant Rocca onions. One specimen weighs lib ISozs., and four weighed 6jibs. Although so large they are of fine texture and mild eating. The editor of the ‘ News ’ has lit upon a voucher revealing the nature of the charitable aid rendered to some of the sick poor of Taranaki. The voucher bore no small resemblance to a bill of fare containing a list of all the delicacies of the season. There were liquors of various kinds, tins of jam, tins of salmon, and to crown it all—a walking stick. A telegram states that the notorious John M‘Laren, formerly of Dunedin, has been sentenced at Melbourne to four years’ imprisonment, for house-breaking.

THE CROWN TERRACE LAH On Monday last, when the land the Crown Terrace was opened for j plication upon, the immediate paymi system, £l per acre being the mi mum price, only two sections were a plied for, viz., section 41, block YR Shotover District, and section 10, bio VII., Kawarau District. There vn six applicants for the former and thi for the latter section. The date a place of auction, (there being a p rality of applicants,) will be notified Government. It seems a marvel that the Wa Land Board cannot, or will not, class this land as to quality and price so to admit of its being taken up. Ho in the present instance, are some ? acres opened, and every section vi at £1 per acre, no matter what elevation or utility. As an example Section 1, block YIL, is situated! the summit of the Crown Range, 4j feet above the sea, and is covered n snow about six months in the year, n no dray-road nearer than three mi Section 41, block VIII., and section block YIL, are down on the flat, el to the dray-road, andj 3000 feet loi in elevation. This is a fair sani of the method pursued by the AVi Land Board in classifying rural lan How can they expect to realise, nn this system, £1 per acre upon all la remaining on the Crown Terrace. (?) may state that, with the exception the two sections applied for, the maining 2100 acres are situated on side of, and in most instances high the mountain ranges, and are certai not worth more than from 5s to 10a acre, as they can merely be used easements to the section-holders be!