EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27386, 11 May 1950, Page 6

EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

FROM THE FILES OF THE ©tago ©ail? Himes DUNEDIN. MAY 11, 1865. We were yesterday shown a very fine sample of potatoes, grown in a plot of garden at Wetherstones. Seven of them weighed a stone, and one of them measured no less than seven inches in length and four and a-half inches in breadth. % Mr Warden Wood in his official report from the district of Nokomai, says: —“The river claims are turning out well at the junction of Victoria Gully; below these the river has not yet been bottomed, but five large parties are at work. The water races are again short of water, and the workings on the Paddy’s Alley terraces are confined to six or seven parties. The river is again attracting attention. There is a marked increase in the quantity of gold that is being obtained.” We extract the following from the Molyneux Mail:—“ During the past few weeks a no'torious character has been committing a series of systematic plundering with a coolness and calculation that would do honour to a better cause. Commencing near Tuapeka, he paid several stores and hotels a nocturnal visit, and appropriated sundry articles in the way of cash, clothing and jewellery. He broke into Mrs Ferguson’s hotel at Moa Flat on the night of March 28 and then travelled with his mate up the country, 'stealing as he went, until he reached the neighborhood of the Shotover, where he committed a robbery for which he was tried and committed. In this instance he stole a large sum of money, but the only point of identity was a defaced sixpence. His mate has Hot yet been apprehended. Altogether Uie robberies number nearly 20.