DUNEDIN NOTES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2278, 15 September 1899, Page 7

DUNEDIN NOTES.

(From a Cokkesi-ondent.) Mining—or rather dredging—is still booming, and nearly every peison one comes in contact with has got "diedyc " on the brain. Perhaps this is no great wonder seeing the almost iuvariably profitable results of flic increasing licet of these vessels on the Molyneux, which is a veritable Pactolus. If money does not actually make money in the present rush it inspires lucky shareholders with greater confidence to invest some of their handsome returns in other ventures. Hence the facility with which companies put on the market are floated at times even before prospectuses are issued. Reverting to the recent record of 786i0z of gold got by the Hartley and Riley Company, for a week's work, an old Wakatipu resident says that by a singular coincidence it was the same mouth (August) and about the same day of that month, in the year 1862, when that Company's namesake predecessors and discoverers took into Dunedin at evening some 751 ba weight of gold chiefly the proceeds of a winter's work on the beach named alter them on the Molyneux river. Although old Californian miners, little did they think, probably, of the wealth in that grand old stream, and that 37 years after machinery would exist capable of takiug almost as much out of it in a week as they got from " pebbles on the shore" after four or five months' patient cradling. The winter just passed both at the Dunstan and Wakatipu appears to have greatly resembled the fine season Hartley and Riley experienced. The late Mr Rees, pioneer and runholder, speaking of that winter, said that a person could easily cross the Lower Shotover ford without getting wet more than about half way to the knees. The old Shotover since then, however, has been too much disturbed by the irrepressible miner, and the channels cut in its continually drifting shingle are too deep to make such fording practicable now. Armit, the young footballer who was injured at the match between Otago and Taranaki, still remains at the hospital in the same precarious condition. He is receiving all the aid that medical skill can devise, and withal the peculiar sensation of numbness (otherwise paralysis) that came over his body on the day he received the injuries, is present. The gieatest sympathy from ali parts is felt for Armit in his misfortune. This has been shown in a substantial manner by the donation ot the gate proceeds of recent football matches, besides many other contributions from various sources, amouuting to nearly £SOO in all. These moneys are to be given to Armit'B mother, who was solely dependant on on her son for support. The latter circumstance gives this unfortunate affair a sadder aspect, as for the loss practically of one's bread-winner is a trying ordeal. However, it is consoling to think, in her hour of distress, the Dunedin people have stood by her. Football in Dunedin has received a check by this sad mishap, as such accidents are always sickening to spectators, some of whom vow they will never go to see another match. Some of his brother players and immediate friends, I understand, will never don the jersey again.

At the meeting of the Caversham Council recently, the Mayor disclosed a bad state of affairs amongst the youth of that suburb. It appears that the Sundays are devoted to card-playing by a considerable portion of yonng lads who regularly make their meeting ground the sandhills, and on the other places close by. The game mostly played is euchre —not the mere game, but for money, which is the very element of gambling, and when dice are introduced, as seems apparent, they they will before long be seized with an uncontrollable love for that objectionable habit. The Council have, however, taken the necessary steps to check the pernicious custom by the intervention of Inspector Pardy, with the object of getting him to allow a plainclothes constable to perambulate these frequented spots and give these young urchins the necessary warning. The Justice Department has been augmented in funds to some extent during the last month or so by the infliction of fines for breaches of the Stamp Act in the transfer of mining shares. The minimum penalty for non-compliance with the Act is £2O; and the magistrate has had no alternative but to inflict this. The charge laid under sec. 133 of the Act which seems to be pretty general, is that of executing a contract not purporting to be the transfer of sbares in a company without the name of the purchaser of shares having been written in the transfer. It is a prstty evident fact from these breaches that great ignorance prevails in the proper observance of the law in this respect. This is not altogether to be wondered at, as a great number of those transferring shares are people who have never undertaken such transactions until the mining industry had developed into such proportions during the last 6 months. Had these individuals gone to the trouble of consulting men of the law they would not have been landed in their present trouble, as £2O is a neat sum to come off any premiums that most probably were attached to the transferred shares. However, the lesson has b' en learnt, and it is not likely that many or any more violations of the Act will occur.

The scandalous treatraeut of Dreyfus has been one of the topics of the hour. The news came as a shock, fot it was fully conjectured that this shamefully treated and undoubtedly innocent man would have been acquitted. What a deplorable and degraded state the Government of that nation has got into. It seems that machinations of its members have been all concentrated on the one object of torturing an innocent man because of the jealousy of some of his comrades in the Army. They have not been satisfied with the four years on Devil's Island but give poor Dreyfus another 10 years in a fortress, of course not quite so bad as the former torture. His case has been watched with the keenest interest here as in every other part of the civilised world, and the cry now goes up " Down with the Frenchmen." They have no sympathy from anybody, and it has beeu truly said that a harrier is raised between the French nation and the world.