DUNSTAN

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 251, 1 September 1874, Page 6

DUNSTAN

(FROM fUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) August 29,1874. At the hut meeting of the Town Council, in reference to the matter of bridging the Molynenx.it was agreed to send the Mayor and Cr H«zlett as a deputation to Dunedin to arranpj terms with the Government, and to take seps to raise the necessary capital. In refernce to the main road towards Alexandra, i considerable improvement has been effectec since I last remarked on it. The rocks fld boulders have been removed for a space >f considerable width, so that travellers will »ow be able to take a comparatively straiht course, without danger of being capsize'. The kerbing I then referred to as berg asked for by some, was, on a motion th)G it should be gone on with, negatived by tb Mayor's casting vote. The Clyde Waterworks Bill has been thrown <at by the Legislative Assembly, after passing he House of Representatives. We have not ret heard the reason which induced the Lords to take this course, after passing the - Cromwell Bill, unless it may have been a desire to imitate the Premier in the matter of the Northern and Southern Provinces, by making, as some of his opponents term it, fish of one and flesh of another.

An unfortunate accident happened to the Pneumatic dredge, which was moored abreast of the coalpit on the west side of the river, during the rising of the river on Tuesday night last. It is said that the dredge was left the previous evening with the cylinder sunk some feet in the gravel, and that her moorings kept her from rising with the flood, so that she settled on one side and turned over. • The crew have been at work ever since endeavouring to float her, and have succeeded in getting the cylinder pulled ashore ; but whether the craft will again float or her machinery be saved, is yet uncertain.

Her condition in the meantime looks that of a deplorable wreck, and this will no doubt put a crowning finish to the many reverses of the Pneumatic Gold Mining Compauy. ' ". Some little excitement has been caused during the past week through certain scenes being enacted connected with the elopement of a Mrs Ah Tong, of Queenstown, —though elopement is hardly the proper term, as it does not appear that there is any second party to the flight,—and to use a colonial term, I may just call it the skedaddling of Mrs Ah Tong from the protection and correction of her liege lord, Mr Ah Tong. From her own statement, it appears they have been married about four months, which have been spent in different hotels in the Province. She is a little over sixteen years of age, one of which has been spent in Otago ; was not v e ry comfortable in her situation, and a few presents of trinkets and fine dresses, and the prospect of a lady's life, induced her to enter the bonds of matrimony. Connubial bliss, however, did not long follow the union, their private room being principally the scene of the altercations. So after a severe scuffle on Friday night, she cleared out, making about eight miles before being overtaken by the coach, when, at her request, the driver took her up and brought her here. Mr Ah Tong took the coach the same morning, giving up chase after four miles of it. .On reaching Queenstown again, from information received, as the police say, he started in hot haste on horseback to overtake the fugitive. Arriving here about eight o'clock, the disconsolate swain commenced an unsuccessful search amongst the public houses. A reward of five pounds he offered to the man who would take him to the whereabouts of his dear lost wife. The bait took; the fugitive was sold, and the prize divided, one party giving the information and laying the plans, the other putting them into operation. The result was that Mr Ah Tong was driven out on Sunday night to Chatto Creek, to await the arrival of the morning coach, which contained the lost lady, whom they brought back triumphantly to Clyde. Though compelled to return, she all the while affirmed that she would no longer be subject to her lord. She was privately lodged in the house of her captor, but all the perseverance and ingenuity of Ah Tong was doomed to be baffied. He coaxed at one time and threatened at another ; he invoked the aid of several of the matrons of the town to persuade her to return ; the parson also was called in for the same purpose ; but the lady was inexorable. The breach seemed to get wider ; she hung his overcoat outside the house she stopped at, and when he called would shut herself in a room. "Jessie, my dear," he would say, "do come out; no one will harm you. Go down on your bended knees and say your prayers, and God will put a spirit in you, my dear," , ;The spirit" of resistance, however, was too strong to admit of the existence of any other, and Mr Ah Tong gave up the contest, and 'retuffted* to Queenstown alone. The lady has since left for a situation.