NOTES FROM DUNEDIN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume 31, Issue 9220, 15 June 1900, Page 2

NOTES FROM DUNEDIN.

(BY OtJlt Own COBBBSPO&DfeK'fk) l" ,*'% v It is something to be thankful for that wd '> have had a week which has been devoid of patriotic excitement. The novelty of having - - holidays sprung unexpectedly upon us,, of '«> " getting up impromptu processions.* and, '] ' meeting, of seeing the streets full cif drunken " and half-drunken youths, of having one's ear split by the noise of the banging of-your neighbour's gong and of: the blowing of bis youngest child's trumpet has w6rn off. The i; whole thing ban palled upon the towri. jand business people have become heartily sick of it and of the dislocation which it baa caused to trade. Already we are making arrangements for the celebrations when the declaration of peace is announced. At leapt some persons are making the Arrangements for us. Thepublic do not know who tUo persons are and do not particularly care, bat as the celebrations are to be oh ail i elaborate scale and are to 'comprise a pro» cession of school children in the • morning, a procession of volunteers and trades in,the afternoon followed by sports which are <to • include mimic _ representations of actual warfare, and illustrations galore in the ' ' ■ evening it is practically certain that they will be to some extent bungled urilfißs th<S self-appointed committee add those to their number who may be regarded as specialists in "running " events of the description mentioned. In addition to this, however, I there will be some sort of reception given td i Trooper Seelye on his arrival here in a few days time, invalided back from Africa-. He enlisted from the Dunedin Cycle Corps and is a member of the . Dunedin Cycling Club, by which lie is to be entertained at dinner on some day next week. That, however, is all in the future. The past week has been free from causes of patriotic excitement. The only movement in connection with the war that has taken any practical i shape since I last wrote has been one for the collection of shilling subscription# for the purpose of making a presentation to Mr Adalbert Hay, the American Consul tit Pretoria. There is a hazy idea that he i ß j j cn< led the British prisoners, in* eluded among whom are of course 16 btf 17 New Zealanders, and although no one seems to have any definite knowledge on the subject it is thought that, in this testis momahsing time, his services might weli be acknowledged by some presentation. It is a madder world than most of us have supposed. And the past week has alsd seen an order transmitted H.mc for thß manufacture of a sword of honour for 1 General Baden-Powell. One cannot help thinking it would have bee.n better that tbd presentation to the hero of Marking should have taken a form more distinctive pf Nevtf Zealand than a sword of honour can be. General Baden-Powell will get stands tit swords of honour from other quarters. While we have had no excirment over the war during the past week we have nlso had very little excitment over anything else. It has in every respect been an uneventful week. Our members of Parliament, in a few daifd to pack up their boxes aiid the speeches thef have been preparing against the time which ' " they will spend in Wellington, have not caused any-more unxiety ihan -usuaJ, Mr Barclay has ceaeed to trouble us. andTiaiT - ceased to be troubled. The Workers' Political Committee have whitewashed him and declared that they h&vi3 fill] confidence in hini and as they hold the political conscience of Dunedin he leaves for Wellington without a stain on his patriotic character. Mr Arnold had been appearing before the Conciliation Board the capacity of advocate for » labour union and has been engaged in fetch-" ingupan agreement which the employers (the saddlers) distinctly refused to sign ; Mr James Allen has also been before tbe Conciliation Board as an employer at tbe suit of the Coal Miners' Union ; and Mr Millar hrt# been, let us hope, conciliating between the sets of disputants respectively represented by his colleagues. Mr E. G. Allen and Mr Morrison have been quiet—the latter wonderfully so, for he loves to make a splash, and it must have been rather galling to him to have been ignored as he was in the patriotic gathering lately. When our members are away we shall be dull indeed. We ttavd moreover lost one oE our town •• characters" lew visitors to Dunedin have nttt se<Jri " Bandy Harry "—the hit of every fifth-rate variety company that has appeared on the local stage. What his occupation in Dunedin originally was deponent knoweth not; ' What he graduated uhto was the performance of the duties of boots at a Rattray*Etrset hotel; Subsequently he became a stireet boot-black and sandwich manor anything in fact that would yield a few coppers. Thd laßt time I saw him was quite lately wberi he had in his possession a huge rat-trap and insinuated that he was going rat-catcing—-this is in view of the plague scare. Bdm e* how or other he gave the idea that ho might at sometime or other have been a professional rat-catcher. Later than this bis name ap* peared on tbe Police Court records among the " drunks " one morning. Someone mtfsl have taken compassion on him and have given him sufficient, in honour of the firitisli successes, to have got patriotically drunk; It was rarely be could get the chance, for hd was about two years ago committed to the' Benevolent Institution, no on.; having any further use for him outside. The monotony and enforced abstinence of his life inside the Old Men's Home must have been very irksome to him; and this morning hd quietly made away with himself by hanging himself behind the door in one of the roomd in the institution.

There has been some cofraHpondence irt the papers, and a great deal of discussion in sharebroking and mining circles, over certain peculiar transactions that have taken placd in shares of the Marsden Lead Dredging Company. There are few rights Aid d great many wrongs _in the case. The Marsden Lead Dredging Company consists of nine shareholders who entered into m compact one with another not to sell their 1 shares under 15s premium. Two of the nind are sharebrokers. The company was listed,and then it seems some of the sbar-holders—-two at least—gave orders to a broker to purchase shares for them at a price considerably below the minimum agreed upon, although they knew that if their compart was ad J hered to the brokers, if any, who sold shares to them, could not deliver. There were! sales, however, at prices up to 8s premium; brokers " specking " the share* selling them, that is, in the hope of bein* able to provide them for delivery, and takihg the' risk. The selling brokers discovered thfrf they bad. to use the colloquialism " falTcti in. Tbey could not buy sbai'ess for le«<* tbari 15s premium in order to exwiit'.; their undertaking to supply at 8s premium or less'. Some of them are young in the im*inr- N « and if the transaction is good in law. will have ii difficulty in making good the value of the shares to the buyers. There' is talk on the' part of some of them, however, of disputing the whole transaction oti the groiind that the buyers were well aware, from their' knowledge of the manner id which the' shares werii held and of the compact be' tween the shareholders, that the shared could not be delivered. On tbp one hand we have the holders of Marsden Lead Bhares who by placing buying commissions ifi the hands of their brokers tempted other brokers to sell what they could not deliver ; on the' other hand we have stockbrokers convicted of being jobbers, and hoist with their own petard in their practice tit over-selling 16seems a waste of sympathy to bestow it on either party v