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Otago Daily Times, Issue 92, 3 March 1862, Page 1 (Supplement)

Drunkenness, Vice, Disease, and Death. —On Monday last the city coroner received information . that a European woman who had been cohabiting with a negro, at Neutral Bay, North Shore, had died , without having received medical treatment, and, as a , consequence, that no certificate as to the cause of death had been furnished. The coroner, therefore, pro- j ceeded to the locality referred to, obtained a jury, ] and went to view the body. The examination of the - tent iv which the deceased had lived, and the evidence adduced at the inquest, revealed the existence of vice, intemperance, disease, and misery, frightful to con- j : template. The 11051-0, who is known by the name of t i" Black Harry," is a native of the West India Islands, - and admits being sent out for life during the administration of Governor Gipps. The deceased, woman named Mary M'Grath, aged 35 years, became ac- . quaintedwith the negro in Duraud's-alley six years ,c ago, and since tbat time has been cohabiting in a tent IS in the bush near Neutral Bay. Some time after they j c removed there, they were joined by another woman, j who like the negro was sent out, and who confessed to '-'gettin: her living how she could." More reticently still they were joined by a girl of sixteen, who, I notwithstanding her youth, has been on the streets a! considerable time, and lias been an inmate of : . the House of the Good Shepherd. Latterly, ii the three females and the negro have been 1 living together in a small tent, the females still pursuing their immoral course of living, and then purchasing rum with the proceeds. Notwithstanding that the tent is situate about three quarters of a mile in the bush, it is said that shrieks > and screams have been frequently heard in the di-, i-ec-tioii of the tent at night. Sometime ago, the de-j ceased was treated in one of our public instituiionsfor, the cure of a loathsome disease, but she never tho-; roughly recovered, and this with continued debauch-1 cry! hastened her end. It appeared that latterly she: iiiii been suffering from diarrncea, wliich, combined; with drunkenness and exposure, had reduced her to a! mere skeleton, but still she found strength sufficient! to fight with the youngest girl a few days prior to her] ; deatl'i: gradually she sunk exhausted, and expired on Saturday; and when viewed on Monday hythe corn-1 nor and the jury, hor remains consisted of little more| than skin and bones. The jury returned a verdict of] '•'Died from vice, intemperance, and want of proper • nodical treatment." In a rider, the jury expressed! their opinion that the place was an abode of vice, was | a nuisance to the neighborhood, and that steps should be taken for the removal of the tent and its occupants. ' — Stp.lnry erald. Our Ftmale Servants. —The complaint of the scarcity of good female servants is a topic that n.itu--1 rallj crow, out now and then in the reports and evi--1 deuce collected aP'l published by the Education Com- ' mission, We aro reminded that, if servants aye dei moralized, some of the sime causes have been at work lainong their superiors abo. Intellectual have taken the place of domestic pursuits, and the upper and 1 middle classes no longer exercise that constant' super--1 vision over their household affairs which they used to ' do. It is regarded as beneath their dignity, and they - are incompetent for it; for the highest ambition of a , young woman is that which she least of all qualifies ) herself for—namely, to become a wife. Many influences have operated to change the character of domes--1 tic servants. There is the asserted growing insubor--3 dination and love of independence on the part of of the [' rising generation ; the larger demand for women in J other employments as well as in this; the love of > change and locomotion generated by the increased faf cility of communication ; and the multiplied temptation to gaiety which prove so attractive to the young.

But the school itself, it is said, by a too ambuious course of instruction, often tends to raise girls above domestic service while perfectly fitting them for it. The Uev. C. W. Proctor, of Devonport, in a communication made to him, refers at some length to the pupil teacher system, acknowledging it to be a great iniOTOvemont on the monitorial, but strongly object- , ing* to the tempting and stimulating girls in hiimbklife to endeavor to attain the power of answering such difficult questions as have been proposed at theexaminations for Queen's scholarships:—he says it furnishes them with an excuse for shirking commonsense everv-day domestic duties, und fosters the ides ' of becoming the lady in the family. He states that • resse< table Christian mothers of humble life, who would have their daughters live a modest, virtuous, useful life of industry, complain that the present system of female education is placing new and unlocked- ( for difficulties in their way. Jt makes young girls impatient and dissatisfied with home restraints and home circumstances, more attractive to the seducer ot . higher social position, and more susceptible of the influence of his refinement of manner and testes, and so more easily his victims, — The TiXnics, Sept. 20. Bushranging in New South Wales.—lt would seem, from what we heard yesterday, that other bushrangers besides the notorious Peisley, who, by the way, is reported to have been captured, are out. One day last week, we are told that a station belonging to a Mr. Green, on the Upper Billabong, towards the Lachlan, was stuck-up by four men, who quietly oidcred the men and women on the premises . into aVoom, and held them captive, while the whole place was overhauled. A traveller gpassing at the time, and unconscious of what, was going on, applied for hospitality, and was courteously ushered by one of the bushrangers into the place of confinement. Having helped themselves as freely as they I bought fit, the four freebooters cleared out without informing their victims whither they were going next. — JBeech\wnrth Constitution, Feb. 0.