CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10654, 15 May 1895, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

Eior.cisiHG A ■witch.

Details now received rpgnrding tie fearful tragedy reported by cable from Clonmel in the County of

Tipperary, Ireland, show -'■'-thati there was no exaggeration in the statement that a woman had been burned and tortured to death by the ignorant peasantry, in the belief that they were driviug out of her a witch who was supposed to have entored into posaescion of her. The unfortunate victim was a young married woman named Bridget Boland ■Dr„ jDleary, and nine persona have ißeeix indicted for murder in connection with her death. Two witnesses havo testified that they saw some of the accused persons holding Mrs Cleary down on the bed by her hands and feat. Her husband waa standing by the bed with oomo decoction in a spoon. He called . for some vile liquid, which was poured •bvar the woman’s body. A man at each Bide of the bed kept the body swinging about. The woman screamed horribly. Then she was forced to take tha decoction out of the spoon, and Cleary asked: “Are you Bridget Boland, wile of Michael Cleary ? Answer in tha name of God ?” “ I am Bridget Boland, in the name of God.” “Come home, Bridget Boland,” they all cried, showing that they believed in the witch theory. The woman waa afterwards taken from her bed and carried to the kitchen, where she was placed in a Bitting posture over the fire. A witness noticed some red marks on her body, acd was. told that they had used a red-hot poker on her to make her taka the medicine. As she was held over the fire she was comanswer Beveral.timeß;.‘Vlam

Bridget Boland, daughter of Patrick Boland, in the name of God I ” Then, groaning and screaming, she was carried back to bed. On a subsequent occasion, Cleary, the woman's husband, told his wife that he would burn her if she did not answer to her name three times. Her reply did not satisfy him, aad he seized a burning lamp and threw it at her. Ia a moment she was in a blaze. She ecieamed frantically, but her husband cried: “ Hold your tongue. It is not Bridget lam burning. You will soon ooa a witch going up the chimney.” A Mrs Burke admitted ia her testimony that she afterwards saw the corpse carried out of the house in a bag. It was found a week later at the bottom of a ditch, under two feet o£ mud, on the lands of Tally Cusane. The whole narration ia sickening in the extreme, and discloses a state of ignorance, superstition and brutality almost incredible.

A SOCIETY WOMAN ON A FARM.

Silk-growing and preservemaking give promise of becoming remunerative pursuits in the hands of Australian women, who have

J. 1 (lU ry UillCU) Vi UV Uu)V<> already begun to emulate their Californian sisters in practical work. It has been left, however, for a lady of prominent position in Australian, aa well as European, social circles to go a good deal further in organisation than any of her contemporaries. According to the Sydney Telegraph, this lady has established a farm that promises to be as great a success aa an industrious and determined woman can make it. This lady had to face the problem of “How to keep up appearances” on an exceedingly small income with a large family, and decided at once that ehe would not attempt it. She had no experience in farming, but this fact, so for from daunting her, only made her the bolder in her attempt to obtain a comfortable living with her own hands. To accomplish this she selected a property of 300 acres near Heidelberg, which was sufficiently near to Melbourne to permit its produce to he easily transported to a city market. Here, in a rambling old stone house, this lady and her delicately brought up daughters took up their abode, and commenced operations. The first step was to lay out a fine orchard, and the hillsides sloping down from the house were planted with choice fruit trees, the whole being surrounded, by a hiiar and wild blackberry hedge. For the heavy farm work this enterprising lady was fortunate enough to secure two thoroughly trustworthy and skilful men, whose practical knowledge relieves her from the responsibilities and many of the anxieties of the novice in agriculture.

THE DIVISION OF LABOTJB. 3

This lady’s son and daughters are no loss keenly interested in the success of thfi farm than their mother.

1119 itirin uimu unciz niouucrj and each one presides over a different department. The mother is, of course, the general director, and besides this she personally supervises the milk in all its departments and attends to the accounts. The buildings erected on Eoaehill are not exactly those of a “ model farm,” but they are well managed, and the primitive-look-ing dairy, with its cooling-room of eucalyptus bark, together with the barns, and poultry sheds, all show that perfect order and cleanliness are of the first importance in the manager’s eyes. That these buildings are not small may be judged from the fact that there are fifty milking cows, twenty pigs and about two hundred poultry belonging to the farm. To the eldest daughter is entrusted the household duties, but she also gathers the fruit, makes jam and pickles, and takes particular charge of a choice breed of bronze-wing turkeys, specially imported from America. The second girl is butter-maker-in-chisf, using a Cherry’s concussion churn, washer, presser and weigher. She is also the family seamstress, and adds to her pia-moaey by making blouses, &o. The third sister is an excellent cook, and has gained distinction by the success of her summer drinks. She also teaches her youngest sister, who in her turn presides night and morning over the hand cream separator, and is besides mistress of the poultry yard. All the assistance these capable women permit themselves in their own peculiar domain is one general servant who does the washing and helps with the milking. In this last operation, however, any one of the young ladies is quite competent to do her own share. Punctuality and earnest work are the order of the day, but it must not be supposed that life at Kosehill is one of “ all work and no play,” for social pleasures are by no means forgotten. Prienas often run up from town to rusticate for a few days, and admire the courageous enterprise. of these town-bred ladies who havo forsaken the monotonous aimlessness of ordinary social life to become earnest women with trua ideas as to the nobility of work.

POMAHAEA.

The report of the proceediags at the Wallace Asaeas■mentfloart. which anosared

IflcliO v(/UL U) W in a recant issue of the Otago Witness, has led, just ns we expected, to a revival of the controversy concorning the value of the Pomshaka Estate. The “ own correspondent ” of cur contemporary alleged, it will be remembered, that Mr Campbell, the Crown lands rsugar, had stated that the propsrfcy waa not worth more than £2 an acre. “I was very pleased indeed 3 ’ were the words ho placed in Mr Campbell’s month “ to sea that Mr Hawkins had reduced the value of the Pomahaka Estate to £2 per acre, as it is every penny it is worth, notwithstanding all the Government said about it, as the Government capital values wore f.or too high.” This was a very serious allegation in face of the fact that Mr Campbell had previously testified before a Parliamentary Committee that the land was good value for the price paid for it by the Government, and Mr G. W. Broderick has written to the Witness challenging iis accuracy. “I was,” ha writes, fl present during the whole sitting of the Court, and I never heard the word Pomahaka mentioned during the whole of the proceedings; and can, and do, distinctly assart that Mr Campbell in hie evidence never mentioned the Pomahaka Estate or purchase directly or indirectly. What ho really did say, after I had contended on behalf of my client that the capital value of her land—i.c£4Bo—should bo taken aa the correct value thereof for rating purposes, was: «Mr Hawkins, at Gore, I may tell your Honor, in some cases reduced the valuations to below the capital value, and there is no doubt that ia some instances tho capital values are too high for rating purposes, taking the land all round—the good and tho bad.’ Oa tho point of value this is all Mr Campbell said, and you will admit that ifc is at absolute variance with what your correspondent sajs ; but nevertheless it is the true statemeat of what actually did taka place.” This seems clear enough, bat the “own .correspondent”.-ir ready; ijritli'another-

version of Mr Campbell’s remarks. “ Yes, your Honor,” the Ranger is now reported to have said, “ I have very great pleasure indeed in giving evidence about the value of land in Southland, ea the value put upon it by the valuers ia utterly ridiculous, and I can assure your Honour that I am thoroughly conversant with the value of land all over Southland and Otago. I know tho value of every aero from the mountain tops to the awamps ; and, your Honor, I was very pleased indeed to see that his Honor Mr Hawkins had reduced the valuo of the land to £2 per acre, as it ia every penny it io worth, notwithstanding all the Government said about it, r.s all the Government capital values were far too hi gh.' There ia, it will be observed, no mention of Pomahaka in this revised version of Mr Campbell’s remarks, but tho “own correspondent ” ia sura that the Rarger had that estate in his mind when he was addressing tho Court. Perhaps Mr Campbell will now toll ns whether he has really changed his opinion of the value of the Government property.