MITCHELL V. ORBELL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 615, 7 December 1863, Page 10 (Supplement)

MITCHELL V. ORBELL.

{To the Editor ofthe Daily TrM_s.)' Sir,—Being detained in Waikouaiti last week, and having a lew hours to spare, I strolled up to the Court Hous3, hearing there was ah interesting ease to be tried before - Murdoch, Esq., R.M., Mitchell v. Orbell, for "illegally detaining a bullock." Having beard th*;. evidence adduced on both sides, I think tiiat in flurness to the defendant, the malicious statements recently made in a public journal tending- to traduce Or bell's character :■ Cills for the gravest censu-e. Such Cises should he -faithInly reported, or not published at all. Or jell is not only accused, but positively said to have sod the bullock to the butcher, and had it slaughtered after he had received the summons, uch is utterly false; the beast was sold before Mitchell claimed it. The butcher is said to have preserved the skin ; this was done at the request of the uerendaut and not at the instance of the bu -herIt is abo stated that several witnesses were called who traced the animal to Orbelfs possession. 1 ca__-! y .siy tfiafc out ot eight or nine witnesses examine Mot one eouklswear to the bullock. A brand- was produced in Court which-the plaintiff believed to be the one he lwd branded the beast with j this iron, upon -benigcompaied with the mark upon the be^SS found to be as totally different as possible/- the ™fi " i °'ay leinf1 einf to"-large; but instead■ of■ several luehes -Mart, they were; only one. To g<t over this difficulty, another was said .to beat the tuapeka. The blacksmith who made it, lipon oath said that.the letters were the. same, distance apart as the one produced, but smaller. ■ .Orbell.swore to having purchased the beast in Canterbury, and a witness .was called who.also swore to having agisted in driving it to Waikouaiti. Upon such evidence I cannot, possibly imagine how the bullock can have been traced to the defendant. 'But his Worship, upon summing up, said that he believed the' beast-was Mitchell's (notwithstanding the brand that was produced did. not correspond,) and' gave bam a verdict,,with costs,, believing that the brand at. the. Tuapeka-one that he had never seen, ana did not even know.ifit.was in existencehad been used to brand the animal-such was th= exR_?w % Uw Sion f rived at by the Waikouaiti Resident Magistrate. I understand the defendant has appealeu against the decision, so the case will again be tried at the next sitting of the .Supreme Court, when the whole affair wdl, I have no doubt, bs faithfully reported. ' • I must apologise for making use of so. much of your valuable co Uimn, but being a •LoVer of Fair play" could not allow such a onesided and untrue statement to be made without correction. I am, &c., Dunedin, Dec. 3. FAI* PIAT '.

,a race was run at._tjuuw££__r___* the year IftSS somethmg remarkable in the proceedings and resiihT of it. Tne race we allud. to was the King's Guineas for which two only started, namely Lucife? and Rockingham, the latter having won almost in a canter the Gup on the previous day. Three other horses where also weighed for, and although none of them actually started the circumstance, as also the uncerta nty that existed whether Rockingham would start or not almost up to the last moment, caused considerable fluctuation m the bettiug-the odds at one moment being laid against five nnimels, and shifting and only quoted against two.. Rockingham and Lucifer, hawff? 1/ 7T t„le^ ouly two comPetitors, and when they started the. betting was five to one on the first, and three and four to one against the secont. In the race Rochmghani ed at a mdderate pace, but at the dis-tance-post had completely defeated Lucifer, who was ten or a dozen lengths behind him; seeing this, and hearing Forth call out to the boy who rode Lucifer-Iwitchett-to pull.up, Robinson began to ease his horse under an impression, which was shared in generally by those looking on, that he had only to canter npto.the post. The rider,of Eucifer, howeveJ, insS of pulling up as ordered, kept his horse going, so that when Rockenham reached the stand, there-was not half the distance between the two that there was at the distance-post; and Twitchett, at this moment making.a desperate rush,.completely took Robinson by surprise within a few yards of the winnine-post and, before the latter could get his horse in actionS won the race by two lengths, to the utter astonishment ll^ir-f T worse! To show the forlorn chancer oi Lucifer's winning appeared at the distance-, post, we may state that a bet of^lOO to lialf-a-crown was actually laid on Rockingham at the standAn exactly similar case, as regards result, occurred between S Rogers and F-i-ham, the former m Wild Rose and the latter on Amy, at the New™ _?^t flw October Meeting of the past year wLn h,^ h * &St that it was some days befqre all the soothing Mis friends couM make George himself again. .-Mat Doncaster for the Great St. Leger o? 1862 a race I quite unexpected as to. result, accurred wnVn Tuv' Beta* T/heodore _ took it. into* Iria taJfto roTaSte contrary to the opinions of owner, trainer, tokeVSnd' everybody dse who entertained an opinion inontlie matter This horse it appears, bad rim w_ m_ two year,old, but his.performances just pSo™ toihegreat race had been so wretched, that Jackson h_ jockey, was wandering about the course itTs.mid servlceSh2 firs nSS 't FwS f ** also stated, had oe^^natelh^S^An^ betting-book with, a bonujbyT!dmf.ft overtop f^_nf?oete ?¥ Gd toXlt^rfflJ-ta lisKs, and. the. jockey's spirits were not enlivened liv hearing odds of a hundred guineas to a wS--stick ot the value of one sluing had been beer! &St the horse he was to ride. In tlie race itself TiwSE completely up,ct all previous calc«ESJr J^SJ" managed to get well off n t the start, k'ephfah__£ goihg- and finally amidst a scene of great excitement nu?g-pS; Ymmt»lm Statistics of Hitman Li_.*_The total number ot human beings, now on .earth is now computed in round numbers at one thousand millions They speak 3 064 now known tongues, and in which upwards oi 1,100 rehgions'or creeds are preached The average ag-e of life is 33£ years. One-fourth of tl c" SJ d,V\ be/° J' e ,l6y reac4i the age of seven years, and the half before they reacb>the-17th year. Out of 100 persons, only .six: reach the age of 60 years and upwards, while only one in 1,000 reaches the a„e of 100 year*. Out of 500 only one attains 80 years.B Qu ofthe thousand million living persons, 331,000,000 die annually, 91,000 daily, 3,730 every . hour, 00 evctra* minme, consequently one in every second. This lot' however, is balanced by the gain in new births Tali men are supposed to live longer than short ones Women are generally stronger than men until their 50 ; thyear, afterwards less so. Marriae-es arein it™ portion to single life (bachelors andspinsfers) 5 ~. Both births and deaths arc more frequent in the night than „i the day The more civilised life is, the more full of vigor, life, and health are the people? The notion that education enfeebles and degenerates te Fipteen Girls Bd-rneb to Death—lnfbrnmtmn reached Albany, New York, on the 17th August ofthe destmction by fire 0 f Hurt's Shoddy Mill at Dohoes, and the burning to deatli of 15 of the female operatives The flames fpread with fearful ra? pidity, and the only means of escape left the girls were K» Some were so terror-sti-icken E* they abandoned themselves to their fate; and perished * thY fi ng* therS fdl from the ™d°™ SS * the tire below, and many were badly injured by I jumping to the- ground. Twenty-five are missing, 15 * ot whom are reported to have been burned to death.