MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 470, 23 June 1863, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Runaway Iloiisa on the Auckland Wharf. —An accident 'occurred yesterday, on the Qucenslreet Whair, which, considering the nature ot it, it was surprising was not attended with more serious c Mocnuences A horse and dray, loaled with some thousand feet of timber, aud belonging to Messrs GrilehiLst and Co, was proceeding aloag the wharf and when opposite the bottom T, and near where the Salcoiube U.istle is lying, the horse suddenly took f igiit and lushed up the wharf, detjing ;dl attempts "to stop it. On reaching the waterinens' stairs, where it endeavored to avoid the obst uctions put in it? wr.y, ths anim.ll with its entire load ran right off the wharf into tlu water, which at this place was about ten feet ncpp, aid about the same distance from the top i.f the v.lurt. It struggled violently in the water, ami it was. quits painful to see the exertions the poor bt.isl, was making to lid itself of its encumbrance. Just at that time vab mt 5 o'clock), the North Shore tfcin-noit happened to be at the spot, and the men m it bucceeile I by means t f the bouthooks to save the horse as it wui sinking, by cutting the harness away from it, ana towing it iishore. The timber which of course flouted, was saved, aud the cart wi.l probably be recovered at low water. Tuc horse was severely lacerated on the riffht fore leg, but did not suiter any other irjury. Considering the crowded state ot the wharf at the pr.sent time, it was most providential that* 110 casualty occurred beyond what we have recordaJ.— JS rew Zealandci:

Tar or Asphalt Wai//.s.—ln some recent mvmbeis Mr llobsou lias described the various materials of which paths and walks may be made, aud the principles of their construction. May I add, as a supplement to his remarks, an account, of Inc. tar paths which are at present much, used in this cifcy (Bath) by our surveyor of roads? The body of Uij pnth is made of the soft oolitic stone or other rubble, free of dirt. This is brought to a tolerably even surface with the rake, ■ and over it is laid about three inches think of a hard mountain limestone, know a here as Clitton Blank Kouk, which Las previously be n brokeu into pieces not exceeding an inch and a half in size, and thes3 passed over a three-quarter-ter inch riddle to separate the finer particles. The stones are then very equally mixed with enough coal gas tar to cover every stone, but not to leave more nuid tar than can be avoided. They are spread equally with the shovel over the softer founi'a'.i- n, and when levelled are carefully rol'cl with an iron roller drawn by two men, to give a smooth surface. This is then sprinkled with about threequarters of an inch thick of the finer panicles of black rock, whereby any flued tar is absorbed and a finer surface obtained of a hardness equal to the stones. Of course, a dry day must be selected, as all the m iterials must be dry, otherwise the tar will not adhere to the stone. Four men will lay down a very long piece per day—the more pains are tjken the better the path. At first the stones, covered with tar, were laid down without sifting; the result of which was that the path was never smooth, the larger stones cropping out and being uncomfortable to the feet Where barrows are. likely, to bs used, paving occupies the middle and the edges are tar paths, A batter path or one more pleasant, to use caunot be n ade, ami the more it is used soon after its first formation the better it becomes. The objection to it is, that for some months in warm weather there is the smell of gas tar. It is very inexpensive, lasts for many years, and acquires a dull grey color. One day's work is easily joined to the piece made in the preceding day. The (ear of the offensive odour led the <Jity Act Committee to order in some parts paths to be made of puzzolana, ground lime, and stone, but these are at least one-third more expensive, and are not so pleasant for fuot passengers. Blindfol.led, one could notice that they do not possess the elasticity of the tar paths; nor is it probable that they will wear so well, the whole material not being so hard, while it is more brittle, it cannot be laid so smooth, aud the j tints are never good. Some yeai-3 ago I laid down some tar paths, running between box-edgings in my kitchen garden. They were made with _ boiled tar and sifted rubble; but from further experience I should not now adopt them, for the box is killed where the tar surrounds the stems the weeds grow between the edge of the tar and the box, and the materials of the walk rise at the edge, so that the whole path becomes irregular in two years. This, probably, would not occur if slate or wcoil-edging were used ; but it must always be remembered that if the soil below the tar or cement paths be damp, the first hard frost will make it rise, and large patches will peel up. Paths of the above description answer best when flanked by a wall, and .vhenab/ve the level ofjthe soil; if before it, or not thoroughly drained, they soon perish.— Journal of Horticulture.

A New Industry.—Ham and bacon curing is a branch of industry that during the last twelve months has attracted the attention of severs', persons in this district, while the " home-prepared article " is daily becoming more in demand, to the certain exclusion, at no distant date, of the generally inferior English and Irish bacon sent out to the colony. We yesterday had an opportunity of inspecting Mr Searles's bacon curing establishment in Brougham-place, where a considerable number of sides were in course of preparation for the mirket. The sides averaged about 601b, and ths ham 3 141b. They were cut ana trimmed as neatly,as could possibly be desired, while the color and flavor were fully equal to the best English homecured. Mr Searles has only just entered upon the husiness, and the premises he lias at present are too small and. inconvenient for the largo trade which there is every reason to believe he will make for this article. His first experiment was with forty sides and twenty hams, which were immediately disposed of to a firm in town at Is per lb, aud at that price he states he has as many orders as he can well execute at present. The pork is country fed, as the color and firmness of the.ihsh amply testify.— Geelong Advertiser, June 3.. ;

The Oldest Markied Coupie in the World. There are living in Marulan, in this colony, says the Sydney Empire, two persons, husband and wife, aged respectively 111 and 107 years. The old man is stepfather to Mr O'Neil, publican and wheelwright, at Marnlno, and the old woman is his second wife. The former has entered upon his 112 th year, and the latter upon her 108 th. They both reside with-Mr O'Neil, and have ione so for many years. They are extremely feeble and bedridden ; but are in possession of both sight and hearing. They were able to move until lately, aad formerly were extremeiy active in their haMts. The old lady attempts to speak when she is addressed, but cannot make herself understood by strangers. Her utterance is so thick and inarticulate as to be little more than a few unmeaning sounds. The old man, hoHyeyer, although the eldest by iour years, and usually lying in an apparently unconscious state, rouses himself occasionally, and then can speak so_ as to be easily understood. On the o casion of a visit to him a f.-.w days since, of a gentleman who has known \im for many years, the old man, when his arm was lifted by a person in attendance, to show the condition to which he was wasted, suddenly remarked—" That was an arm once," and quickly relapsed into his usual state. The old couple are well cared for by Mr O'Neil, who fortunately is in a posiitiob to he able to afford them support in their exiieiae old age. The old man arrived in the first '•fl^et in 1788, and has consequently been seventyjflLye years in the colony.

f An unmarried lady on the wintry side of fifty, hearing of the marriage of a young lady her friend, observed with a deep sentimental sigh, " Well, I suppose it is what we all must come ta."

TIIIED J3Y OOUKT-MAKTIAL;

(From Tempie Bar.) Tn a barrnck-sr(unre, round a little low'arched floor, is a miscellany o/Cabs, Uhk j.H!ut,int<-cars, led horsen, loose idlers (chiefly of the unwashed tag-rag cuvler), officers in undress, and a stray soldier in. his fiillo t dress, armed with a light cane. Tiie little low-ai'cbed door is figured and numbered very conspicuously, like the collar of a policeman's coat, to distinguish it from innumerable other low-arched doors which run. round the square, also lettered and figured like a wardrobe of policemen's coats ; and it seems to' give inconvenient acces* to a rickety, hollow-souuding stair, suggestive of excellent and noisy ac ominodation for rats and mice. The stray soldier-with the cane, interrogated as to the purport of these signs of public interest, gives whatever information he is in possession of; and with an air almost of contempt for what he can only excuse as provincial ignorance, exjd tins that " the '' court-martial is " going on ;" that Ihe public are admitted to gratify their curio^ty, subject ouly to conditions of space; and that so rnai.y flights of the hollow-sounding stairs upwards, and so many turns to the right or left, will lead the inquirer to the exciting scene. After losing his way al out the second landing, and being considerately set right by two orderlies dressed in dirt and a loose deshabille, who are calmly recreating themselves with a very strong tobacco, the inquirer is at last luppily embedded in the outer fringe of a composite crowd, into which the lf&f of a door projects, like the sharp edge of a knife. On the other tide of this knife is comparative ease and comfort; but the probationer struggling forward has to grind his spine painfully against the edge before he can hope to lie secure in a tranquil harbour of repose. This temporary torture being happily passed through, as well as a violeut drifting round the bluft headland of a monster soldier, the weary adventurer, much heated with his exertions, gets hia garments back into th-iroriginal positio ■, find, refitting generally, looks upon the scene about him. The judicial arrangements are primitive, and somewhat of the simplest. The original function of the present court would seem to have beeti that of a soldier's schoolroom; for there are maps and elementary diagrams, and various rude nppsals to the tighting intellect in a low stage (;f intellectual development. The awe and mystery which wait on the sacred notion of a Bench is awakened by the happy device of a low, )oi>j>- table, covered with «reen b:\';:e, at which sit ju.lg'j and jury in a happy equality ._ The witness-box is no determined locality, but with a pleasant indistinctness travels to wherever the witness may be standing. The dock is ingeniously symbolised by a stiaightened aud inconvenient corner, into which, for the service of the p-isoner, a small deal table is introduced ; while, in defiance of all our acaccustomed notions and prejudices, two or three gentleman in black—darkly hinted at as counsel,.but supposed to be strictly invisible to the eye of the court—sit hei-ide the prisoner, and furnish him professional assist nice in a mysterious and surrepititious fashion. Judge and jury wear scarlet robes; yel not the scarlet which is cdg*l with ermine, but the scarlet which is bordered with gold anil lace. The whole would popularly seem to be a court with equal powers ; but in reality the fighting judge, who, froni vaiious little decorative tokens, appears to have helc bri.-fs in the Crimea and other pluc s, does tho wort and the talking ; the lighting jurymen, who are ii little strange and bewildered with their new functions arrf restrained to the lighter duties of looking pro found when a serious question is started; of shaking their heads wih gravity when a hint from the righting judge has shown them it is safe to do so; and ol tnkiner copious and illpgible not^s of the proceedings, Poor fighting jurymen ! Tht'.r time was before the evil days of probation by reading and writing, wher there was happily no walking barefoot over the hoi ploughshares of competitive examination. Pool fighting jurymen ! A ball, a flowpr show, playing al croquet ! —but to turn their poor honest brains loo3< among the conundrums and pitfalls of sham law ! — anything but this ! And yet in one respect this is t more rationnl court than the legitimate tribunals, The scarlet fighting judge wears no wisf or horsehair, and is thus so far irregular, being bereft of the mystic talisman which insures real judici d wisdom. H< who wears it becomes the true legal Fortunatus, ant the wig is the genuine cap of knowledge. The Dragoon captain in the dock has been on hi: trial for the modest span of some thirty odd days. The issues are, whether the Dragoon Captain has deported himself as an officer and gentleman ; terms, a! the world well knows, exactly convertible and interchangeable. Through that weary space has this scarlet inquisition been trailing these grave cha g.s on the track of this conduct " unworthy of an oflicei and gentleman." In an ordinary couit such delin quency would have heen pursued, hunted down, ant finally caught, or else discovered to be a pure will-o' the wisp, all in some three or four days at furthest But these scarlet huntsmen, onc° on the track have been decoyed a>ide at starting by a false scent and have diligently pursued that for many days until a second false scent came, and led them away t\< a zigzag' angle for many more days still; when j third, and a fourth, and a fifth false scent, and man) succeeding false scents, artfully laid on, and huntet to extinction with infinite diligence, have landed them in a strange country, miles away from when they startjd, and with the original game still to b< tracked. They then "try back," and start agair fresh, and are again led off by successive fake scents, With sueii pistime as this h::s the Dublin CourtMartial, recently concluded, been busy. Its legitimate end, to which it should have travelled steadily was whether the Draaoon Captain had bihuvel as at offic r and gentleman should. Instead, it struck-out wildly to tlie right, and searched whether Colonel A, had behaved as an officer and gentleman; to the left, to try whether Major li. had behaved as an officer ana gentleman; back to the righl agaia, to see whether Captain C. and Ensigr I), have respectively conducted themselves as officers and gentlemen. The crounds for Colonel A.'s uol being an oilicfr and gentleman arising out of a statement made by Captain E., it is surely allowable thai lie should ba allowed to call Lieutenant F. and Knsign G. to prove that what Captain E. has stated is false; who. in all fairness, should be allowed to call in the tstimony of Colonel H. and Major I. to substantiate his statement. So, respectively, Major 8., Captain C, Lieutenant D., and Ensign 8., would have proved satisfactorily that tho prisoner Captain was neither officer nor gentleman, had it not been insinuate! on respectable sworn authority that their imaginations hail entirely supplied them with these facts, and that therefore it was matter of grave suspicion whether they were officers and gentlemen. All, however, might have gone well and happ-Iy, being confined to mere harm'ess insinuations of reciprocal perjury, and the whole catalogue of mpan-ne-ses, but for the ill-omened intrusion about the fifth or sixth day of an instrument of calisthenic discipline known as the Backboard. Henceforth, for an indefinite period the Dragoon Captain and his delinquencies are abandoned, tmd the whole court, military chief-justice, military jurymen, witnesses, prosecutov, and all, start pell-mell, after the -Backboard. With a marvellous industry everything is searched out that nan possibly throw light on this painful engine cf the Graces, for such it may fairly be presumed to be. Everything givesplace tj the Backboard. Of a sudden it leaps into importance, lnarvellous to those accustomed to deal with such things in their ordinary prosaic field, and mere brute capacity of refining fie human person. It has become a sacred, a mysterious, a supernatural instrument. Men are fetched from remote parts of the kingdom to p rove —that is, to make contradictory statements respecting the JJackboard. The_ chief-justice flings away his military suit, and donning the scarlet of the chase, rides thirty miles to a hunt—riot for the pure earthy purpose ot pursuing fox or deer with hounds and born,'hub solely on urgent private affairs connected with —Backboard. There is ■ the hardest swearing in the world, all to save the reputation oftlie Backboard. At times its enemies prevail; and being dragee 1 under in the' storm, the world thinks it has seen the last of the faithful .Backboard, and mourns its loss. ' But'this, is only a temporary eclipse, and by and bye, in the very■ Chicle of some other conflict, and to.the great joy of the beholders, is seen to emerge the imperishable Backboard—a glorious risurrecti'^n ! -fresh, unconqnered, and enoying an eternal jouth. Wonderful instiument! The most delightful portion of the entertainment is the happy mimicry of the various details of a geguine trial, but all carefully distorted and misunderstood. The genuine Temple of Law is barely ten minutes' walk away ; and among the packed throng figure many faces barristerial, relishing highly this playing with lho edged tools of their profession. Lawyers, unwigged, chuckle over the sham lawyers in scarl.t. These are very precise and scrupulous, feeling themselves, as it were, trustees for the snercd constitutions of these kingdoms, and administer what may be called the wrong end of the law, or possibly the law upside down, with a scrupulousness and -gravity irresistibly comic. But tlioueh the Court becomes thus a spectacle to legal gods and men, the prisoner Captain has artfully provided himself with an engine of two-barristerial. power; and is in his dock, fortified by a real, genuine sergeant—not military— and a counsel of the outer Bar. He has attorney power, too, at 'his command. These persons are, as have been mentioned, invisible to the court's naked eye ; for in one respect it is colour blind, and can only see scarlet. But it is won derful to see what havoc these genuine iron-plated monsters of law —though only permitted to act vicariously, and;bythe agency of prompting—work among the poor wooden craft about. Armed with the terrible heavy iron prong of cross-examination they run ,riot among the others, raking, fouling, wheeling round them in circles, pouring in hot shell, and; finally rushing at them " full oa " with the heavy iron prong, and sinking them. Heaviest of I

heavy dragoons—felloes sudden and fierce of quarrtl, awfiii to regru-il, tremendous in rospe'-t of hair— '..ars as. ouiMrca in their- lianfls. They founder these great men-of-war iituJt thn terrible fire of paper questions. Tiicv irrow timorous and become a spectacle, yyairi.uuiiiing brethren of the profession, looking on from iifar among the crov/d, admire and applaud. The true actors staud out from among the pahtomimists. In the procedure of this scarlet tribunal there is a measured pace, a linked protraction long drawn out, a grave tediousnesp, which is a source of infinite nd-, 'miration to the beholders. The indecent haste of the regular courts of law may well be put to shame. The lioc-ns d practitioners ii these pluces iuay blush for their hurried scam paring, as it w. re, over tho nieriu of a serious case. Wo must admire the jealous cr.re, the fearful scrupulosity, of these doctors if military law. A little docket or oblong piece of paper is sent across through many hands, and at hist roaches the military chief justice. That is a question—the priFoner's question which is thus, as ir were, put to the judge himself first. That little journey takes someseepnds.. - Military judge proceeds to read to himself - rapidly if it be short, and iii a good flowing text; slowly and-with difficulty if it bo long, and in unskilful penmanship; still more slowly if it te an involved composition, whose beaiingis not altogether apparent on the surface—nil of which proceses consume a certain number of seconds. Possibly at this stage a scruple may strike our ju.lge's mind that its shape may not ba altogether legal—legal, at least, as seen'through a military hazs or atmosphere: and he will then address a friendly remonstrance to the deviser of th* question, exti'a-judicially, as ie were, and in a colloquial shape ; a pressure/ perhaps, gently* resisted by the proposer. Kitks and possibilitiss are then hinted^ as resultant upon the admission ot this fatal interrogation ; it may be fruitful iv antagonistic interrogations from the other side. Could riot something he done in this way of a little trimming and shaping ?.; Finally, it may be too grave to bo decided on a single responsibility; so, if you plea c, we must dear the court, arid "sit with closed doors — upon the little oblcng slip of paper. Busy. reporters, orderlies, counsel,; heterogeneous crowd, including the professional brethren listening as amateurs, are all huddled out, under circumstances of indignity. He-admitted after, say, twenty minutes' exclusion, the heterogeneous mass bursts in ungracefully, and with much scraping and stamping, strive for their old places. The council have decided; the momentary question may be put. Professional amateurs in the crowd -Jean forward eagerly to listen. Military chiefjustice reads aloud, a sonorous, imperative, tone, as though, upon parade " Question : Did Colonel Shako remark to you, in the hearing of Cornet Bridoon, that Captain Snaffle was not lit to carry garbage to swine 1" Upon which follows express rushing of pens over papers iv v dozen different quarters— by nimble reporters, hy president himself, by military attornc}'general, by prisoner and prisoner's counsel, by amateur note-takers —pens all racing for the bare lite. A handsome pause must be allowed for this operation, at the end of which time the question may be taken to be fairly, and irrevocably secured on pap civ We are now leatiy for tile answer. Witm ss—who Las been searching the corners of the ceiling, the wainscotting, the ventilators, and other suggestive sources of information—gathers Mmself for an effut aud says solemnly, " To the best of niy fecollection he did not." Again are the pens let loose, and are heard at their old break-neck pace, enrolling the De!pic response A pause again, and presently the scarlet attirneygeueral begins to read a'.ouci,-in a sjrt of plainchant :' ; "'/Answer: To the best of my recollection he did not." The little oblong docket has by this time travelled across to the fingers of the attorney-general, who has promptly impaled it on a ready fl'e; and so the whole transaction being, as it were, perfect and complete, and the mutual rela'ion of question and answer being Ihus happily established, we may now- take breaih, and get ready for another, which U already on its road to the finger of the president. By and by a stalwart colonel is being subject to this slow and leisurely process of examination j ant) to a question, which has passed through all the iegitimate stages—of travelling from hand to hind, of being chanted aloud, scribbled down noisily at racing speed —the stalwart colonel (searching, too, his facts, as before, in the coiling) replies sonorously, " I decline to answer." • Impetuous racing of pens as before. Pause, and plain-chant fwin the at'orney-general. ''.Answer: I decline fo answer." As before. Court, however, presses stalwart colonel, who still refuses ; and sn the room is cleared for deliberation as to whether stalwart colonel shall be compelled to answer. Ke-admission then, after lialf-an-houi's debate, with this result, that stalwart .colonel must answer. • vHush, then! Question repeated stentoriously fnra attorney-general. Hush.! perfect stillness for the reply. ■'■ _ _ ; ■ Stalwart colonel fixes his eye on a hook in the far corner of the ceiling, and, deriving support therefrom, replies, " I don't know !" and after the traditional pen-racing attorney takes up the burden of the song, and chants : '■ Answer:. I don't know!" . : There is no ovorcoloring here. This weary and punctilious dawciiing spins itself out over a month's span, and the only1 marvel is that at such a r.ite of progress the investigation could have been got into such a space. Compared with this the procelure of certain Scotch courts, very busy with a notorious marriage-case, stands out in m-itchle.'s contrast as a miracle of speed and despatch. It is stningc f-nt in the army, among the men of action and work, we sh6\ild find words, and circumlocution, and a tangle of red-tape miles long. It may be well conceived how the s'larp scalpingknife of cross-examination becomes blunted and almost worthless in this,diill process The whole spirit and vigor of this operation, as a te't of ttuth, becomes chilled by being fi.tered through written dictation, reading out loud, and long pauses. It was considered on the whole, even by pre fessional miuds v naturally supposed to be tinged with a pardoifaWc jealousy, that .the. gallant officer who played Chief-justice in tlii.s tedious inquiry discharged his duties with considerable skill and tact But iv two or three instances his lordship went sadly astaly in laying down the law. Tims, when the military pl-ilh'.ill'iii the rase, as the prisoner-! colonel miaht; fairly be styled, had finished Ills evidence, which was •'thd main support of the charges, it would seem naturfll, anl in the ordinary course of ligal procedure. that the prisoner should 'hen have the privilege -of cross-examining him. But the chief-justice '' ruled '■• that tbe <ross-exaniination must be confined strictly to the subject-matter of the charges; En I that, if the prisoner wished to extract information trom him on other subjects, he must call him hereaftpr as his own witness ! This might pass as a clumsy and primitive mode of an iving at about the same-result1; but the scarlet chief-ju-tice went further, and laid down that "".the rule of evidence, that you confine yourself, on cross-examination, to what the witness. stated before the court.'' And that this is not merely a military rule of evidence, may be assumed from the indignant repudiation, later on, of this being'*'an anomalous tribunal," or not being guided by the same rules of) other courts in the country, '"lets in" a wil 1 jumble; of conversations between third and fourth parties ; speculations and rumours which did not reich the. witness's ear, but the ear of another party, who told witness. - Out of which wild'and incoherent miscellany rises the fullest and handsomest testimony to the procedure of the old-established and regular, tribunals of the country. It has been customary for siofler.s outside the sacred ring-fence of the profession to be very merry on what they call the hocuspocus and coiijnring of the law^ and sptciallyion that portion of ?t which deals wiih evidence. Those rub's which have appeared chMish are now *riumphuntly vindicated ; and from this recant exhibition imay be learnt that nn affectation of perfect nnd-Polomon-like justice, in patiently hearing the " whole " of a case,- and a laborious entertaining of every fact, near or remote^ which may bear on the question, is, paradoxical as it may ceein. about the worst fashion in the world for bringing the facts or a case before the court.

It is high time that this amateur'- playing at. trials .•hould have an end, and that the.-o pranks, which are about asle^'U as the doings.of the sham judges and notaries who come on in the Operii^ thould be eprcssed. ..,'.,..