EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26904, 16 October 1948, Page 6

EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

FROM THE FILES OF THE ®tago 2>atl\> tftmea DUNEDIN, OCTOBER 16, 1863. The Tuapeka correspondent of the Daily Times states that great excitement prevailed at that place concerning the new diggings at the Taieri, and a large number of persons had left for them. A fine lot of saddle and harness horses imported by the schooner Eclipse were landed to-day in better condition than any lots' which have been landed in Otago for a considerable time past. Mr Johnstone, who is the owner of the Eclipse, Kate Waters and Lombard, now all specially engaged in the stock trade, had them selected from his own run in Gipps ■Land, and the circumstances of their being conveyed in a vessel specially adapted for the trade, and the care of Captain Adams, who has had long -experience, account for their landing in such condition, notwithstanding .their having been 14 days on board Ship.

?"• The enlisting offices for Volunteers for New Zealand have been reopened in Sydney for another fortnight. The latest telegram from that place states •that in the council the question was masked what steps hpd been taken for -.the departure of the military to New i 'Zealand. The Chief Secretary replied -•.that the troops were at the disposal of Major Bowdler. Considerable sur- : prise was expressed that they were not .off before.

’-The news from New South Wales is full of bushranging items. Gilbert and his gang were causing great apprehension in the Bathurst district. One night they robbed Stephen’s store at Caloola, taking away a quantity of goods and destroying the remainder of the stock. They shot horses in a paddock. The Government had ordered additional police to that district. The police have discovered a ‘-plant” containing 2000 notes belonging to the Joint Stock Bank, which Lowry took from the Mudgee. Cummings, Lowry’s companion, had been convicted of bushranging. Gilbert, o‘Meally, Hall, Burke and Vane had subsequently stuck up three troopers near Carcoar and taken their arms, horses and accoutrements. The troopers were specially sent to capture them. A Mr Wilding, of Borrowa, had shot one bushranger dead and mortally wounded another who attempted to stick him up. Jamieson and Daley, bushrangers, had been convicted .a 1 Goulburn. It is not often that the old adage “ Honesty is the best policy” received so forcible an illustration as is supplied by the following item of news contained in the telegrams:—“John Jamieson, the bushranger, who has been sentenced to 15 years on the roads, is heir to £22,000 by the recent death of his father. The money will pass to the Crown.”