SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 383, 16 July 1877, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

[from our own correspondents.]

DUNEDIN.

BANQUET TO MR. WM. CONYERS. AN M.H.R.'S LOVE-MAKING IN PUBLIC. ' PRESS AND PUBLIC DISSATISFACTION WITH EEID VERICT. July 16. Mr. Wm. Conyers was entertained by a large number- of friends on Saturday. Everything passed off with great success. Sir Dillon Bell presided. Mr. Conyers, in the course of his speech, said that the Otago railways at the present moment were earning LISO,OOO yearly, and that, with those of Canterbury, they would next year yield L 500,000. The morning papers say that a certain M.H.R. was the victim of a scene at the Railway Pier, which prevented his departure fur Wellington, to attend to iiis legislative duties. The scene is said to have been very touching, the spectators being moved to an extent seldom witnessed at the performance of the most pathetic of Boucicault's most stirring melo-clramas. An irate charmer clung with fond embrace to the man of political warfare, and refused to be rudely severed from him, even though the country should be suffered to go irretrievably to ruin owing to the mighty man's absence from the deliberations of the assembled wiss men of this glorious land. In vain did he attempt to soothe her agitation and calm the troubled emotions of the fond one's loving heart. In vain did he plead that his duty called him away, and that his country's call must be obeyed, even at the cost of parting from one so devotedly attached to him. The voice of the charmer prevailed ; her superior rights were admitted, the consequence being that the steamer took her departure without the gallant M.H.R. The Guardian has a very strong leader in this morning's issue, but it is fairly expressive of public opinion, re the Reid trial. It says that " Viewed in any light, the treatment of deceased was inhuman, and fiendish, and that wherever and whenever the accused, but now acqutted, mistress, may go from this community, her memory will remain a thing of shame, and her name be a bye-word and warning." At first three of the jury were favourable to a conviction. One of these gave in at an early stage ; the other two remained obstiiiate till the Judge spoke of locking them up again. No verdict ever given here has caused such thorough dissatisfaction.