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The primitive simplicity of Otago has certainly departed. We well remember the time when the prisoners in the gaol used to go about the town at liberty, after working hours, and the good old gaoler used to threaten to lock them out if they were not in by eight o'clock, when the whole duty of the few police we then boasted of, was an occasional excursion after runaway seamen, as far as the north bank of the Molyneux River; (we believe they were never known to cross it, and scarcely ever to succeed in capturing the runaways.) now, alas! things are very different; the gaol department consists of. gaoler, senior turnkey, matron, eight wardens, and an overseer of labour; and together with the police department, cost 3 the Province upwards of £13,000 for the half year.

Clause No. 12 of the terms for the purchase and settlement of Otago, entered into between the Otago Association and the New Zealand Company, reads as follows:— 44 In laying out the chief town of the settlement to be named Dunedin, due provision to be made for public purposes, as fortifications, public buildings, sites for places of public worship and instruction, &JBank) wharfs, quays, cemetries, squares, baths, and other places of health and recreation? How is it we would enquire, that the provisions of thi3 clause with respect to those portions we have italicised have never been carried out ? Where is the park and botanical gardens that the people of Dunedin can betake themselves to for their hours of recreation, —where are the public baths, which have become a necessary, not a luxury of civilised life? We by no means would advocate extravagant expenditure, but we are sure that no loss will accrue from carrying out the principle of " all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." It is hardly necessary to say that the Octagon is quite inadequate in point of size to come within the scope of a public place of recreation for a large town like Dunedin. Neither we are assured will any ultimate loss arise from the erection of baths ; on the contrary, commercially they would yield good returns. But even were it otherwise, the reproach should be washed away, that Dunedin alone of all towns of modern date is without those ordinary accessories of cleanliness, public baths and washhouses.

Amongst the specimens found by Mr. M'Crae, and forwarded by him to his Honor the Superintendent, were two of quartz containing gold. One is almost two inches long Irv half the width, and the other about an inch and a half square. Gold is dotted over and through both of them, and they appear to have come off a reef at no very distant date. They are not what in the ordinary acceptation of the term is called surface quartz, and the gold in one of them is well into the body of the stone. Accompanying these were some small precious stones, also found by Mr. MCrae in his prospecting tour. There are a few small rubies on garnets, such as are commonly found in connection with tin sand. There are also a dozen or so, large sized black nodules, which, o us appear to be stream tin, but which may be a magnetic compound of iron. A small fragment of iron pyrites (Mundic) is also amongst the specimens. We are glad to learn from the seat of Government that the Clutha has been proclaimed a Port of Entry, and that instructions will immediately be forwarded to the Collector of Customs to take the necessary steps to carry out the intentions of the Government. We understand that the Stuart Street Jetty will be at once proceeded with by the Provincial Government, a tender havingbeen accepted to cart in piles, of which the Government has a plentiful supply lying on the Pine Hill; and that contracts for the contemplated erection will be called for immediately.

It is the intention of the Government to commence operations towards improving the harbour at the earliest possible date. That street-line which runs from the present jetty, by Reynolds' bonded store, and the Clutha coal-shed, striking High Street below Messrs. Young & M'Glashan's store, is to be piled and planked, with the intention of reclaiming the road-line at once, and letting the seaward frontage* to that street, as soon as the assent of the Governor has been obtained to the Harbour Improvement Ordinance. This will afford those persons who are excavating for building sites in Princes Street, and are placed in a difficulty from having no place to deposit the surplus earth, an opportunity of serving their own object, and at the same time contributing to a great public improvement. If iany one were to doubt the progress that Dune&in is making, a glance at the Harbour at the present moment would suffice to convince the most sceptical. Thirty-eight seagoing vessels now float in the place where a ?ew short years ago the presence of the Gil Bias, the Star, or the Ann Jane, was regarded with wonder and admiration. A Patent has lately been taken out in Victeria, for the cure of foot-rot in sheep by a particularly. prepared ointment. Trials were made' with success at the Government Model Farm in Victoria. We understand the patentee, *Mr. Allen, is about introducing his invention here.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT18611115.2.17

Bibliographic details

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1, 15 November 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

Word Count
890

Untitled Otago Daily Times, Issue 1, 15 November 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

Untitled Otago Daily Times, Issue 1, 15 November 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)