BRINGING IN A VERDICT.

Western Star, Issue 1077, 30 October 1886, Page 4

BRINGING IN A VERDICT.

At a little backwoods settlement in Vancouver’s Island, an Indian bad been stealing potatoes from a farm belonging to Mr Sproat, tho local justice. One day, in order to frighten the Indian, the man in charge, who was a western backwoodsman, fired his gun vaguely in the direction of the potato field. To his astonishment he found that he had shot the native dead. An inquest had of course to he held. The woodsman did not look upon the slain Indian as a very great affair, and several came to Mr Sproat and said, “ You are not going to trouble Henry about this, are you,sir?” Mr Sproat being not only the mm’s master, but a magistrate, had to reply that however much he felt for tho man’s misfortune, he must let tho law take its course. But where was a surgeon to he found to make tho post mortem examination ? A careworn looking man stepped off a pile of lumber where he was working and said be was a surgeon. This statement being naturally received with some hesitation, he produced from an old army chest a commission, his.decree, and* ample proof of not only having been a medical man, but of having once been a staff surgeon. He performed the post mortem, and soon produced a shot from the lung which proved that the Indian had died from gun-shot wound in the chest. Other evidence was forthcoming, one

of the witnesses testifying that the prisoner had said, “Jack, I have shot an Indian.” The Judge laid down the law to the jury, which was composed of tiie most intelligent of the men, and they were sent into another room to consider their verdict. It was nearly an hour before they returned. The foreman then said; — “ We find that the Indian was worried by a dog.” “A what? the judge exclaimed. “ Worried by adog,sir,” said another juryman, thinking that the foreman had not spoken plainly. Assuming a proper expression of magisterial gravity, his worship pointed out to the jury the incompatibility of their verdict with the evidence, and again went over the case, and calling their particular attention to the medical evidence, and the production of the shot by the doctor, found in the body of the Indian, he again dismissed them to their room, begging them to come back with a verdict reasonably connected with the facts. They remained away longer than before. When they at last returned, the judge drew a piece of paper toward him to record their finding. “ Now, men, what do you say ?” Their decisive answer was.— “ We say that he was killed by falling over the cliff.” The Judge shuffled his papers together, and told the jury to go to their work, and he would return a verdict fur them himself, The jury was not so conscientious as another in the same part of the world, composed of the friends of some people accused of stealing pork: “ We find the defendants not guilty; but believed they hooked the pork.” Skinny Men, —“ Wells’ Health Eenewer,” restores health and vigor, cures dyspepsia, impotence, sexual debility. At chemists and druggists. Kerapthorne, Prosser and Co., agents, Dunedin. The body of a woman has been found in tbe Thames river. It is supposed to be that of Mrs M’Clivor, of Wairongowai, but it has not boon positively identified. “ Rough on Corns.”-Ask for Wells’ “Rough on Corns.” Quick relief, complete permanent cure. Corns, worts, bunions. At chemists and druggists. Michael Oleary, 73 years of age, was killed on Monday at Blenheim, by a fall from a yoilng draught horse. “ Rough on Itch” cures skin humors, eruptions, ring worm, tetter, salt rheum, Hosted feet, chilblains, itch, ivy poison, barber’s itch. A private letter from Edinburgh says that a much-respected citizen of that city had offered to finish its University at a cost of about £50,000; and this mail brings news of a well-known Scotsman (Mr Carnegie), a New York merchant, a native and still large manufacturer of Dunfermline, offering it £25,000 towards a free library, as he expresses it, “ to show in a tangible form his affection for Scotland and his admiration for Edinburgh.”

‘‘ Rough on Catarrh” coirects offensive odors at once. Complete cure of worst chronic cases ; also unequalled as gargle for diphtl.erin, sore tin-oaf, foul breath. Thirteen thousand three hundred and fortyone tons of fish were delivered at the London Billingsgate mirket in July, and over 121 tons were seized as unfit for human food. The food supply of tiie great ,-iiy is approximately guessed at by such stdistics. “ Rough on Tiles.”—Why suffer piles ? Immediate relief and complete cure gnarante. d. Ask for • Rough on Piles.” Sure cure for itching, protruding bleeding, or any form of piles. The half-yearly mooting of the Bank of Now Zealand took place at Auckland on Wednesday. The report showed 'the result of last year’s operations to bo: —Net profit, £7J,ldl us 3d, which, with the balance from the last half-year of £30,G19 13s, gave an available total of £107,110 17s sd, which it is proprosed to a pur op hate as follows ;—Dividend of 10 per cent, per annum, absorbing £50,000; bonus of 2s 6d per share, absorbing £13,500 ■ carried to bad debt account, £33,5' 0 ; earned to profit and loss account, £11,150175. “ Rough on Ratb” clears out rats, rui-e, roadies, ilies, ants, bed-bugs, beetles, insects, skunks, jack-rabbits, sparrows, gopheiv. At chemists and druggists. When the Gam'ng and Lotteries Act was first passed and men were fined for entering into private lialf-crowu sweeps, and no one knew whether it was safe to ask a friend whether the Queen’s shilling had a “head” on one side and a “tail” on the other; when monkeys and canaries were banished from racecourses and doodle-cm-bucks went dejected by the way, a race-meeting was about as amusing and not half as instructive as let us say, a panorama. Then it was that publicans’ booths fetched high prices and the mournful frequenters of iaces took to drink to drive away melancholy. Now that a return to reason has been made (says the Napier “Telegraph”) there is less drinking and more fun, as was seen ic'joucly at the Park Racing Club’s meeting.