CLINTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2199, 23 April 1896, Page 23

CLINTON.

April 21.— 1n this little town of Clinton it is seldom that anything happens to interfere with the even tenor of our way. .Recently, however, two things have occurred thafhave caused a little stir amongst us. The one is tbe railway collision that took place in this neighborhood about a fortnight ago. It will, I have heard, take £1500 to repair the injuries which the trains sustained. This is serious enough, but the wonder is that no lives were lost, and almost eveiyonc who speaks of the accident expresses a&tot;ißhment that there was not a serious loss of life. I understand a strict inquiry has been made as to how the accident liappened, but in the absence of any official information on the subject it would scarcely be right to refer at. present to mere rumours.

Stack Firing.— The other thing worthy of note is the trial last week.before the three local J P.'s, of the man Paterson on the charge of s«tting fire to three oaten stacks at Waiwera. No fewer than eleven witnesses were examined for the -prosecution. All the evidence led bore on the case, but it was only of a circumstantial character, as no one saw the accused setting fire to the stacks or putting phosphorus into them. The interest which people have been taking in this case arises chiefly from the way in which the accused is said to have set fire to the stacks— viz., by means of phosphorus. Phosphorus is a substance that is widely distributed among the farming classes and rabbitero, and it* destructive properties are well known, but probably it never before occurred to anyone in this locality that it mif ht be used for burning stacks. That it may be so nsei wm clearly taougnfrout at tho inquiry be*

fore the J.P.'s. One of the witnesses there gave details of experiments which he and Detective O'Connor" had made with phosphorus. Another weapon of destruction is therefore within easy reach of unscrupulous men. I hear that since the case was before the court several settlers have been experimenting with phosphorus, and that the results are much the name as were demonstrated before the ' bench. The Court, as you already know, committed the accused for trial before the Supreme Court. A Dangerous Experiment. —Daring the proceedings in the above case an incident happened which is worth referring to. Even Mr Haggitt, the Crown prosecutor, seems to have caught the infection of experimenting with this dangerout substance. Whilst the case was going on he took a stick of phosphorus out of a bottle that was standing on the table, broke off a piece, wrapped it in paper, and placed it on the floor. In a few minutes the phosphorus was on fire and throwing volumes of poisonous fumes throughout the room. This caused most of the people to cle»r out. For a short time the building was in danger of being burned down, but at last the fire was put out. Mr •Haggitt may know a great deal about law, but clearly he does not know much about phosphorus

Agricultural. — Harvest is how quite over. The farmers are either threshing their grain or carting it away to the station. They find that the yield is better than they expected before threshing, although not quite up to the average of former years.