THE COURTS-TO-DAY.
CITY POLICE COURT.
(Before Messrs R. Watson, T. M. Wilkinson, and J. E. White, justices.)
Drunkenness. — One first offender and Jaw Wong Ah Tack (who had not been before the Court for nearly four years) were convicted and discharged.
A Hard Case. Mary Withers was charged with having broken a pane of glass, valued 1s, in a house belonging to Mrs Gill, in Peter street, Caversham. — Sergeant O'Neill stated that accused had been in the Benevolent Institution at Caversham, but had left there and gone to Wellington. The Charitable Aid Board of that city disclaimed any liability, and promptly shipped her back to Dunedin. The Trustees declined to readmit her to the Institution here, and she had been stopping with another woman at Caversham. This woman got tired of her, and tried to get rid of her, when a dispute arose, and accused put her umbrella through the window. She had no home to go to, and was over seventy years of age. Mr Wilkinson: Won't they take her in again at the Institution? I don't know what to do with her. —Sergeant O'Neill then suggested that she should be remanded till Thursday to see what could be done with her, and this the Bench decided to do. -Evening Star, 23/7/1898.
LATE TELEGRAMS.
(By Electric Telegraph.) by our own correspondent. (Received at 10.30 a.m.) Dunedin, August 6th.
WITHDRAWN. The case of Mary Withers came before the Police Court again yesterday, she being charged on remand with breaking a pane of glass. The police stated that the Benevolent Trustees had agreed to assist Mrs Withers to the extent of 5s weekly and a lady connected with one of the charitable institutions had also interested herself in the case The police therefore asked for the charge to be withdrawn, which was granted. Mr Carew mentioned that he had received a telegram from the Mayor of Naseby, sending £3 for Mrs Withers. -Mount Ida Chronicle, 5/8/1898.
No gift could have been more gratefully accepted than was the sum of £3 which the Mayor of Naseby sent down last week to Mr E. H. Carew, S.M., for Mrs Withers, widow of the finder of the Rough Ridge reef. The old lady had been in gaol for a week pending arrangements for her keep, and when she appeared, on remand, in the dock at the Police Court on Thursday last, and the Magistrate read the telegram he had received from Mr Hjorring, the tears of gratitude at once welled up in her eyes. The Magistrate asked her if he should hand the monev over to Miss Nevison, a lady who is engaged in benevolent work in town and arranged to look after Mrs Withers, the reply in a broken voice was, "Oh, thank you, sir; I have not a penny in the world." -Mt Ida Chronicle, 12/8/1898.
It will interest old residents to know that Mrs Mary Withers, who lived for many years at the Rough Ridge reefs, died in Dunedin on July 23. On March 25th last, previous to which she had been living in one of the Salvation Army homes, she was committed to Seacliff Lunatic Asylum. She had then for some time been suffering from epilepsy and was in a very demented condition. -Mount Ida Chronicle, 3/8/1900.
Mary Withers' story might have been bypassed by me, except for the reference to Rough Ridge. The road along the Ridge is one of the route of access to that isolated place, the Serpentine Diggings, and the church there, as well as the quartz mine and largely intact stamping battery, (owned and worked by Mary's husband) have been on my "one day" list for some years.
Mary's husband, Edward, was a storekeeper, miner, agriculturist and old identity in the area and his death led to Mary selling out the property and leaving. Her life from that time to her death seems to have been sad one.
She died at Seacliff asylum and was buried in a common grave.
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