THE Otago Daily Times. “lnveniam viam aut faciam.” DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1863.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22257, 9 May 1934, Page 13

THE Otago Daily Times. “lnveniam viam aut faciam.” DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1863.

SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO.

ON and after the Ist May, the several Banks in Otago will discontinue to allow interest on current account balances. Dunedin, 25th April, 1863.

Following in the short space of a few months on the murder for which Fratson wos found guilty, but his sentence remitted by recommendation of the Judge, we have a second murder more horrible, if possible, than its predecessor. In one particular they bear a striking resemblance —they were both committed in the bush, with no human eye in all probability but the murderers to witness them, and both, therefore, depend for their elucidation upon a minute chain of circumstantial evidence. To allow murderers of this kind to pass unpunished is to offer encouragement to the commission of like crimes.' In Fratsou's case we have the murderer's doom commuted, confessedly because his guilt was not satisfactorily brought home to him, and in view of the probability of a like result attending the second murder, we think we are bound to disregard the usual practice of the Press, of not commenting on cases under consideration and to draw public attention to what seems to us a portentious evil. ...

We understand that the Government have decided on the construction of Jetties at the Molyneux Ferry, to serve as approaches to the punt which has lately been placed there. ... It is stated that the amount of compensation to be paid to the owners .of sheep imported into Queensland which may be found to be scabby, and consequently destroyed, has been fixed at 15s per head. After a long interval, the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce held a meeting yesterday. Various subjects of interest were discussed—including the establishment of an Electric Telegraph through the Province, the Mail Service to Melbourne, the Debtor and Creditors Act, and the Pilot Service. . . . We take the following from the Argus of the 28th ultimo: —"A proposal has been issued for the of an association of traders who shall issue a certain quantity of guaranteed copper tokens to meet the want of copper coin. It is proposed that each subscriber shall issue LlO worth of these tokens, which are to be of the full weight and value of the Imperial penny, and that all these tokens shall bear on the one side a certain design, and on the other the name of one of the guaranteeing firms. These tokens are to be taken in payments by all the subscribers, and an office of exchange for them is to be opened. Wc fear the cost of this coinage would be more than its profit or the convenience of the public would bear. It will be better, perhaps, to await the arrival of copper coin from England—of which, by the way, a large quantity has-been imported within the last few days."