EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26773, 17 May 1948, Page 4

EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

FROM THE FILES OF THE Otago ©att\> umea DUNEDIN, MAY 17, 1863. “On Thursday afternoon a ‘shot’ of 751 b of powder brought down 420 cubic yards, or 756 tons, of debris from Bell Hill. A three-inch hole was driven 30 feet deep, and the entire cost of the ‘ shot,’ including wages, powder, etc., was only £ll 16s, or equal to 6sd per cubic yard, for the stuff got down.” “A novel addition was made to the exports at Port Chalmers the other day. A speculator from the diggings made a purchase of a number of cats, which he conveyed away in a large case preparatory to their transmission up-country for sale, at high prices, to storekeepers and others to whom their domestic services are invaluable.” “It is said that Cobb and Co.’s booking offices will ere long be found at & Brown’s Corner,’ where excavations have for some days been going on, prior to the demolishing of the old store, which was, no doubt, considered a wonderful pile of building in the early days of Otago, buj has long been nothing but an eyesore. Cobb and Co.’s migration has been enforced because a great ‘bar,’ with billiard room, etc., is about to be erected by the proprietor of the Provincial Hotel. Rumor has / it that this bar will be a spacious and very handsomely decorated place for ‘ liquoring.’ ” “The muster at the Volunteer Drill last, night was exceedingly good, and there was a marked increase in the , number attending it. The services of a bugler who acted as field bugler with General Cameron through ,the Crimean campaign have been secured, and we believe that there is every *■ probability that a band will shortly be formed, provided that sufficient encouragement be offered the project.” “The promoters of the Dunedin Water Works Company, having now obtained a detailed report of the practicability of introducing water into Dunedin, together w,ith plans and estimates of the cost of the works, feel much pleasure in drawing the attention of the public to the fact thattjjere are no engineering difficulties whatever to prevent the works being * completed within 12 months. From the report, it will be seen that a supply of pure water can be obtained from springs issuing from Flagstaff Hill equal to about 700,000 gallons a day, a quantity sufficient for the require- ■ ments of 23,000 inhabitants at the rate of 30 gallons each per day.”—Extract from the prospectus of the proposed Dunedin Waterworks Limited Liability Company, as advertised in the Daily Times.