One life saved in first month

At the monthly meeting of the South Otago Hospital Board, held at Balclutha yesterday, Dr Stenhouse reported that since the Owaka Hospital opened on September 3, 11 patients had been admitted.

It had been found necessary to send one case of a fractured arm to the Dunedin Hospital to be X-rayed as there was no plant available in the district. This was a matter which could well be remedied. With the number of cases in hospital, and more particularly on account of their variety and the amount of work called for in connection with some of them, it was found quite impossible to carry on with a staff of two. Special cases called for extra nursing help, and this difficulty had been satisfactorily settled by the addition of a hospital aide to the staff. The hospital was doing good work, and it had already justified its existence, as a child patient which had recovered would have died if it had had to be conveyed to Dunedin. The people of the district were supporting the hospital, and a number of gifts for the comfort of the patients had been made.

A worrying trend

The attention of Mr H.J. Dixon SM was occupied for several hours on Monday at the monthly sitting of Milton Magistrate’s Court in hearing evidence on a claim by John Spencer Richards against William Reay for £74 17s 6d, being damages for 34 sheep killed and general damage to flock, alleged to be due to worrying by two of defendant’s dogs. Mr A.C. Hanlon appeared for plaintiff and Mr W.G. Hay for defendant.

Evidence was tendered by several witnesses, but there was no direct evidence as to the actual worrying. It was admitted by defendant that two of his dogs were absent, from home on the previous Friday night, and that he requested a neighbouring farmer to drown one dog — an aged and lame animal — on its return home next morning. At the conclusion of plaintiff’s case Mr Hay called defendant and another witness, and then asked for a non-suit on the grounds that there was no evidence to connect defendant’s dogs with the worrying.

His Worship granted a non-suit, remarking that in his judgment there had been several other cases of worrying in the locality (Waronui district), which could not possibly have been done by defendant’s dogs.

Whole and nothing but

"Tell the truth when it is convenient" appeared to be the family motto of a country witness who gave evidence in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

"The plaintiff’s witnesses tell me a different story", said Mr W.A. Moore when cross-examining, "what do you say to that?"

"They’re telling lies", was the reply.

"Is that what your family will do?"

"No, my family will tell the truth — to a certain extent."

This qualifying remark made a strong appeal to the sense of humour of everyone in the court, and the usher, remembering how dreary the proceedings had hitherto been, forebore to call for silence.

Biting in the Shag River

Trout appear to be fairly plentiful in the Shag River, and some excellent catches have been made in certain parts of the stream.

Mr F.A. Cooke has just returned to Dunedin from a 10 days’ visit to Dunback, during which period he fished the Shag from Palmerston to the Gorge.

During the first two or three days of the season fish were hard to get owing to the shortage of water, but after the heavy rain on October 5 and 6 the conditions improved and some good baskets of fish were taken. Fishing below the dam with minnow he secured 11 fish out of one ripple, and the two following days caught 20 and 18 respectively on the fly. Fish were fairly plentiful above the lime kilns and in excellent condition.

The most successful flies were the red-tip governor and Greenwell’s glory.

— ODT, 15.10.1924  (Compiled by Peter Dowden)