The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 365, 20 January 1880, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20.

By advertisement elsewhere it will be seen that meetings of householders are convened for Monday next, for the purpose of electing School Committees for the various districts. The meetings will be held in each case in the echoolhouee of each district, and where there is more than one Bchoolhouee, then the main school is the place of meeting. All householders are eligible to vote, and seven members must be elected in each case. The voting is cumulative, that is each voter can give any number of his votes up to seven to one candidate if he thinks fit.

At a recent stock taking of the books belonging to the Public Library here, it is much to be regretted to find that the

custom must prevail to a great extent of persons taking books away in the absence of the librarian. Whether the persons who so unwarrantably abstract them intend to return them or not is quite another question, and one which the going over the books again only can show. Even supposing the books are intended to be returned, the practice is a most daring and reprehensible one, and one which brings the offenders under the criminal law of New Zealand. We trust the Committee will have the firmness to bring to punishment any case thet may be reported to them, for the purpose, not only of punishing the guilty, but of being a warning to others. The conditions under which the library is open to the public, and the opportunities of exchanging books, are of the most liberal description, and if the present mode of people helping themselves continues, will require to be largely curtailed, and thus cause the many to suffer for the acts of a few. In the large free public libraries of the old country, few or any booke are ever missed or lost. In the Manchester free Library, during the first year of its existence, after exchanging upwards of a million volumes, its officers could account for all the books belonging to that institution with the exception of something lees than a hundred volumes. We do trust that it is not too late to educate the people of Akaroa up to the standard that there is a sacred property in books when they are left open and free to be read, rftt to be thievingly taken away. From the subjoined list of books so taken it will be seen that they are mostly works of fiction, which seems to corroborate Judge Johnstone's remarks the other day the Grand Jury in which he pointed out the pernicious effects much of the socalled light literature of the day had on the minds of the young. In the hope that the missing books may be traced, we give a list of them:—Tim Doolan, The Prophecy, Denis Duval, Tales of an Old Traveller, The Poacher, Phantom Ship, Bleak House, Valley of 100 Fires, World of Ice, Eugene Aram, Our own Fireside* Mademoiselle Mathilde, Alice, Katerfelto* Open Sesame, Lorna Doone, Brave Men's Footsteps, London's Heart, Paddy go Easy, Old Kensington, Katie Stewart, Davenport Dunn, Harry Heathcote, Mrs Wynyard (Wars), Mabel Vaughan, Thaddeus of Warsaw, Norris Seton, London Labor and London Poor, Day Dream of a Schoolmaster, Humorous Poetry, Ingoldsby Legends, {Famous Beauties, Two Paths, Essays on Criticism, Lyttou's Dramatic Works, Baldwin's African Hunting, Tales of 20 Years, History of British Empire.

A meeting of the Akaroa School Committee was held last evening in the schoolhouse. The members present were Messrs Meech (chairman), Billens, Missen, and Wiggins. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. Letters were read —From the Board of Education, forwarding four copies of elementary drawing books, supplied by the Board for the use of teachers. From the same, calling attention to sections 82 and 103 of "The Education Act," requiring committees to have their accounts audited by December 31st next. From the same, informing the committee that an election of three members of the Board would take place in March next, and requesting them to nominate two members on or before the 31st instant. From the Kaiapoi School Committee, explaining the procedure adopted by them in putting the compulsory clauses of the Act into force. Mr W. Sims was appointed auditor, and the fee was fixed at 10s, The other communications were referred to the incoming committee. It was resolved that the master be requested to furnish the Committee with the names and ages of children not attending school. The meeting then adjourned. The Committee agreed to meet half-an-hour before the meeting of householders, which is to be held next Monday evening, for the purpose of electing a new committee.

The sitting of the Middle Island Native Land Purchase Commissioners which was lately held at Christchtirch. is about to be resumed at Akaroa. The Commissioners will commence their session in this piece on or about the 2nd of February next A notice to that effect appears elsewhere.

By an advertisement in another column it will be seen that the Peninsula Jockey Club are about to hold a meeting at Wascoe's Hotel, for the purpose of arranging for their annual race meeting. The time and place are rather inconvenient for a large meeting of the public, but we trust those who take an interest in such matters will put in an appearance. The sport supplied by this club has always been the most successful of any race meetings held on the Peninsula. The course is a firstclass one, and is specially reserved for the purposes of recreation and racing ; it has also the advantage of being centrally situated between the plains and the Peninsula, thus enabling the Committee to appeal to a wider public for support. Under proper and judicious management, the annual meetings on this course should be quite sufficient for the whole district, and thus obviate the frequent little race meetings in every bay. We trust that the programme about to be issued will be as attractive as its predecessors, and that the meeting will be as successful.

The Standard (Eangiora) is responsible for the following : •— " Another judicial blunder, and a high judicial one at that, which almost puts the James forgery case, at Timaru (vide Henry VIII elaborate stupidities) in the shade. Some weeks ago, Mr Justice Prendergast—not at the best of times a very brilliant lawyer—sentenced a Blenheim schoolmaster named Doherty to nine months' imprisonment with hard labor, a local jury having found him— Doherty—guiltj of having libelled a fellow citizen. With the finding of the jury, we have nothing to do heie. It was a most silly and absurd one, as most juries' findings are under the aegidium of our bold British jurisprudence, but this neither here nor there. Doherty, whose case was, if ever there was one, one of justification, was condemned to bo ' caged' with hard labor tax nine months. Then came reflection upon the judicial mind. Text books were dived into and investigated, and lo! and behold, it was suddenly discovered by his Honor that the law of libel under which the unfortunate victim of the expression of ' gushing words' had been convicted to the hard labor in question had been wrongfully read, and that the conviction was not worth the paper it was written upon! A meanly-clad lawyer's clerk might of course have told his Honor Prendergast that. But what did it matter. Was not that elaborately grown-up gentleman—we speak officially, of coursehe who once made Sir George Bowen sign free pardons to criminate on blank parchment forms ? The law of criminal libel provides that the punishment shall be 'imprisonment only,' without hard labor. What a pity that Judge Prendergast did not reserve this decision of his for the consideration of what ie called the 'full Bench.' What jocular—if unearcastic— remarks would have then rained upon him from the oracularly distended lips of his judicial' brethren.' And this is, we again repeat it,' the way we live now,' in this doubly-distilled civilized ' Britain of the South' of ours!"

At a Canterbury R. M. Court, one M. Higgins, charged with a breach of railway by-laws, did not appear in answer to the summons owing to his being disabled by some broken ribs and sundry injuries received. The Bench accepted the letter, stating the above was sufficient cause for an adjournment. The case, therefore, was remanded sine die. Very kind of the Bench to consider " some broken ribs and sundry injuries" sufficient cause for adjournment of the case.

All wholesale dealers in winea and spirits, and brewers or dealers in New Zealand beer, who have not registered and paid the license fee of £1 for a renewal of license for the present yepr, and are therefore unlicensed, are advised to do so at once, as in a few days information will be placed in the hands of the police, to enable them to prosecute and enforce penalties.

Says " Chispa," in the Ashburton Herald , . —Amongst other precautions against the lot which is common to all, I insured my life some days ago. A friend of mine bent on the same errand went with me, and we were examined together. After the usual very important examination by the doctor of our backbones, collar bones, and every bone in our bodies, he proceeded to go into an oral examination of the history of our health. He had exhausted nearly all his queries when he asked my friend if he had "anything else" the matter with him. "Oh yes," replied my; friend, "I had once a very bad flesh wound." The doctor gave an electrical start, and said " Oh! where may I ask was that?" "In my arm," was my friend's answer. " How did you get it/ asked the doctor, after careful and minute memoranda on his official sheet of all the particulars as to the age of my friend when the wound wae received. The answer was given with great candour. "My mother took me to the doctor, and the old fool vaccinated me." Medico hurriedly deleted the history he had written of that wound, and expunged from the tablets of his mind the horrible dregs of disease the said wound may have left in my friend's splendid person. After a pause—"Anything else ?" " Yes, a great injury to ray toes/ "Ah ! how was that" (more writing and more particulars, and more mental calculation as to possible effect on longevity). " Wore tight boots, and crippled myself with corns." Sudden collapse of doctor's notes, and assurance that my friend owned a first-class life, and a very happy temperament.