DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVLL, Issue 4275, 14 September 1895, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

[Own Cobbespondent.]

A well-known detective, whom Dungdin knows no more, once told me that the most successful of Melbourne "magsmen" once, under police pressure on the " other side," turned up in Dunedin, and though he " worked" the city industriously day by day for a month he failed to hook a single fish. " There's no bloomin' confidence in a Scotchman ; he trusts nobody, and before he parts he consults all the members of his family and, still full of suspicion, he goes to the Police." This was the confession of a crack Melbourne confidence man to my detective informant. We had a fine illustration of this here a few days ago. A man named Stewart, a Scotch shepherd, was the intended victim. The confidence men were Eastwood, Miller and Hudson. Eastwood, professing to be a farmer, arranged; to take Stewart into his service, and while thenegotiations were proceeding adroitly extracted from the shepherd the information that he had something like £200 in the Bank. This was in the Bay View Hotel, and promptly but, of course, all by accident, appears on the scene a man just returned from the South Sea Islands to inherit a large fortune left by an affectionate old maid, who had recently joined the immortals. After making wondering reference to the scarcity of money in New Zealand, he offered the other two £100 if they could show £800 between them. Eastwood suggested to Stewart to bring along his £200 and he would himself find the balance. Finally, it was agreed they should meet at an hotel at Caversham next morning. But when Stewart left he began to think hard over the matter, and the more he thought the more distrustful he became, and eventually he consulted his friends and then the police on the matter. The result was the arrest of the three men mentioned. Eastwood kept a registry office in this city, and had been under police surveillance ; Hudson was at one time well-known in this colony as a champion wrestler, but has since been in Melbourne, where he has made a record of another kind ; and Miller, who pretended at one of the interviews to be a butcher in treaty for a mob of sheep with Mr Eastwood, acted as tout and " devil " for the latter. No need among the pawky countrymen of Burns to append the usual moral.

The decision of the Compensation Court as to the value of the Ardgowan estate, has failed to satisfy either the ownersj the Government, or those people who had determined on settling on the land. The owners of the property claimed £45,890, and, agreement becoming impossible, the machinery of the Compensation Court was put in motion ; and, after much evidence, inquiry and deliberation, the Court decided the value of the land to be £34,600. This is, of course, final and absolute, and from it there is no appeal. The position now is a very peculiar one— one without precedent in the history of any country, I believe. The Company are in an attitude of helpless revolt against the award ; the Government consider the property has been outrageously over-valued ; while those who wish to settle on the land protest that at such a valuation they could uever think of settling on it, and are about to petition the Government recommending the rejection of the Court's award. But, one wishes to know, whether the terms of the award are not as binding on the Government as on the Company — are not binding in an pqual degree upon both the appellant parties ? To me it would seem the most monstrous thing imaginable were the Government able to go round the country dragging the owners of land into the Compensation Court and afterwards refusing to agree to the terms judicially decided on. No doubt in this instance the non-acceptance of the award by the Government would not in itself annoy the Company ; but they may have reason to think they have suffered prospective loss by the inadequate value placed on their property. The expenses also are very heavy, and will the country quietly submit to the costly blunders of the Minister of Lands ?

The Otago Mining Association, I am glad to say, has so far succeeded in its benevolent endeavors as to be able to send out into the mining districts four parties, consisting of thirty men, each party beiug under a competent leader. The pity of it is that the Association, owing to a slender exchequer, have been compelled to confine themselves to assisting single men only. But, perhaps, by-and-by, when practical proof has been vouchsafed of the permanency of the work accomplished by the Association, a wider and a more generous sympathy than at present exists among the public will manifest itself, and assistance may also be extended to indigent workingmen and their families. Such assistance should, indeed, be primarily, if not exclusively, for married men, not only because of their circumstances, but because they constitute the most difficult feature of the unemployed problem, if not the entire problem itself. The Association have necessarily exercised great care in the seleotion of the men they have equipped and sent out, and particularly in the selection of the leaders. The latter are known to be practical miners of long and varied experience. One party has been sent to work some auriferous ground in the ranges at the back of the Waitati township; another to work a quartz claim at Hindon, on which a battery is erected. This claim has been worked, but does not seem to have paid, and it seems exceedingly doubtful whether it will even satisfy the modest expectations of the unemployed. This is a risky experiment. Another party .are at work on one of the creeks in the Hindon district, and the fourth are on the same creek. In both of the latter instances there is this great advantage — that there is plenty of land for occupation in the district. I imagine the Association should make this the single basis of all their calculations, because of the great uncertainty of the men being" able to make even moderate wages mining. Under such circumstances it is not to be expected they will remain. But with land to settle on they would be tempted to make homes and gradually become rooted in the soil. The series of return football matches between Canterbury and Otago, which began in 1877 and ended for the time in 1893, because of Ofcago's disagreement with the New Zealand Union, were resumed on Saturday, and it is expected the annual exchanges will go on now as they did down to last year. There was a very large attendance on the ground, and much interest was manifested in the game, though, I must say, it was not by any means the kind of play to excite enthusiasm among the general public. At times it seemed to me there was a good deal of unnecessary roughness used by the players, and no less than three men were at intervals rendered insensible almost. So violent was the treatment they reoeived, indeed, that it was necessary to stop the game for some minutes until they recovered. The teams seemed pretty evenly matched, and though Otago came off the winner by a couple of points, it would be wrong to say they were in any respect superior to their opponents.

Horse-racing, with its accompaniments of gambling-habits, loose associations,and moral deterioration generally, has nailed another victim. He was until some little time ago secretary of a large financial oompany in this oity, in whose employment he had been from his boyhood. His salary was a large one, he

enjoyed the entire confidence of the company, and apparently deserved it until, drifting from stage to stage, he found himself on the turf and the owner of several trotting horses. Some little time ago certain stories describing the doings of their trusted secretary came to the ears of the directors, and, having verified what they heard, they turned to their ledgers and began to investigate. Then in the course of a few days they disrated the secretary, put him at a desk in the office until the work of exploring the books and setting out the balances had been completed. But before they could do so, the suspect fled, and put the sea between himself and the law. His defalcations amounted to close on £3,000, and, I am told, he has also borrowed heavily everywhere he could do so.