RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 31, 20 December 1861, Page 9 (Supplement)

RESIDENT MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Thursday, 19th December. (Before J. H. Harris, Esq., R.M.) H. Tcwnsend, S. Clearwater, J. Wilson, J. Day, and J. Duboison, were each fined 20s for drunkenness. Townsend for a repeated offence was sentenced to 7 days imprisonment. Baths.—"We have often drawn attention to the strange absence in Dnnedin of what have from, time immemorial been considered a necessary adjunct to civilisation—baths. It seems an unaccountable circumstance that no one has had the enterprise to start a bathing establishment. We do not know to what portion of the community undertakings of this kind usually pertain ; but either there is a strange absence of the bath speculating element, or else the conviction must somehow or another have got abroad, that the people generally are not addicted to ablutionary practices. We believe that any such idea is a libel, and we are strongly impressed with the conviction that a hot and cold, fresh and sea-water bathing establishment, would prove remunerative in a commercial point of view. In Melbourne there are several places of the kind and we believe they pay well. The expenses here would be comparatively trilling. A proper site being chosen commanding deep water at low tide, a rough road to it could be constructed on piles. The place destined for bathing could be encircled with wire fencing to keep out the sharks, fastened to piles on the top of which would be erected suitable disrobing and attiring rooms. A platform would run outside these rooms round the interior space allotted for bathing, from which steps would descend to the water. A portion of the building could be set apart for the hot and cold plunging and shower, fresh water baths. The water could be led by pipes from a well sunk near the bath, at a very slight depth an unlimited quantity could be procured.

At the Police Court yesterday, Mary Aiane Archibald, was charged under the Vagrant Ordinance with not having any lawful or visible means of subsistence. This unfortunate woman has been convicted of drunkenness, obscene language, &c, about fifteen times within the last two months, and since the old Survey Office (in which she and another woman of the name of Allen have for some time past been living), she and her child have, been sleeping in the streets. The police stated that her child and those of Allen's were often without food for days together, while their mothers were either drunk or in gaol, and that there was no place where they could obtain refuge or relief. Archibald had a little child, about five years of age with her, and his "Worship said that it was impossible that he could commit the mother ant! leave the child to starve. The police, therefore laid a similar information against the-child,, and they were both committed to gaol for two months. His Worship remarked that he hoped the attention of the Government and the public would be directed to the matter, and that before the expiry of the sentence some kind of benevo-r. lent insitution would- be begun. It appears from a proclamation in the Southland Gazette, that the admission of cattle from. Australia to the Province has only been of a partial character. The proclamation states all cattle from Australia and Tasmania are prohibited, excepting those shipped from the port of Newcastle, New South Wales, on or before the 24th of December. Evidently this has been framed to meet Messrs. Wentworth's case, and it would be interesting to discover the process by which this spe-* cial legislation is brought about.

THE BELGIAN AND HIS PERSECUTOR. The Minister of Justice in Belgium, M. Tesch, has been made the victim of a singular piece of persecution. He some time ago dismissed a M. Mastricau from a post of clerk to the juge de paix at Brussels, and the dismissed official, having money and time to spare, resolved to be avenged. M. Tesch, having obtained leave of absence, proceeded to Ostend. On entering a railway carnage he was followed by M. Mastricau, who, after- bowing politely, seated himself by his side. To the hotel at Ostend, at which the Minister put up, M. Mastricau also went; when the Minister bathed. in the sea, he saw M. Mastricau doing the same at a few yards from him; if he took a walk on the dyke, Mastricau was seen to follow him; when he visited the Casino, there he found his pursuer; in short, wherever he went the discharged clerk either met or followed him. At last M. Tesch became seriously alarmed lest his persecutor should commit violence, and at his request M. Mastricau was placed under the surveillance of a police officer and a gendarme. But to be constantly followed by these two men seemed not to annoy Mastricau in the least, and he continued as before to throw himself constantly in M. Tesch's way, and to salute him profoundly afterwards, bowing with the utmost politeness both to the policeman and the gendarme. At length the persecution to which the Minister was subjected became known in the town, and excited much amusement among the visitors. Whenever M. Tesch appeared, with Mastricau in attendance, and the latter followed by the gendarme and policeman, the visitors wished to see the fun, and formed lines for them to pass through, at the same time laughing loudly. A few days back M. Mastricau, while pursuing his victim, took it into his head to salute the people on either side of him; this increased their amusement, and they raised loud cheers. M. Tesch, who, as may be supposed, was greatly irritated, hurried away to escape, but Mastricau kept close to him, and the crowd followed ; the Minister at last fairly took to his heels, but Mastricau ran likewise, the gendarme and the policeman following, and the crowd after them. Eventually, amid shouts of laughter, the Minister sought refuge in the Casino. In the dead of night he left for Baden, but to his horror and dismay the first person he saw on entering the conversation room after his arrival was M. Mastricau, who, hat in hand, and smiling agreeably, saluted him with great gravity. The Brussels journals go on further with the story.