LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1313, 16 December 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Our evening contemporary describes as yellow journalism the plain and accurate record which wo presented to our readers yesterday of tlio howling down of Sir Joseph Ward by the crowd assembled in front of tho Ministerial newspaper office on election night It also condemned mention of tho fact that an escort of police accompanied tlie Prime Minister to his Jionio in Tinakori Road. Our contemporary not attempt to question the accuracy of our report, and it knows quite well that tl:e?o two incidents in tho evening's proceedings were of outstanding importance— that those of tho public who wore not present were entitled to know what took placc on the occasion, and that it is the purpose and duty of tpe press to record such happenings. Wo are quite awrro that our contemporary has peculiar ideas concerning the duty of the press, as witness vu long suppression of "(lie sccret case," which would never have received the publicitv which it deserved but for the stand Tim Dominion tcM.ilc in tho interests of justice. In connection with this ease also, the "Post" was good enough to take ns. to task for the exposures wo made, and yet in tho end wo received tho support and approval of practically the whole of the rest of tho press throughout Now Zealand. We suspcct that our contemporary's chagrin at the downfall of its candidates and the defoat of Wardism is responsible foT its latest effort to make itself offensive. Mr. F. XI. B. Fisher has been deluged with telegrams of congratulation from all parts of New Zealand. Ho has' boon 1 styled by two of his admirers as "the Napoleon of New Zealand politic,?," while others havo intimater that he is a coming Prime Minister, and so on. But perhaps nono have given him more pleasure at the present time than those—some 3(1 odd—which ho received from members of tho company ho commanded in South Africa during the waT. Ono of the many cowardly attacks made on him during the election campaign was that he was unpopular with his company, owing to his bad treatment of'his men. Tho answer is contained in tho fact that so many of thorn have gono out of their way to sond him these oongratnlntory messages from different parts of the country. Tho authorities ad vies that the Maheno, which left Sydney at 4 p.m. on December 13 for Auckland, has nn Anstralian moil on board. The Wellington portion is due to arrive hero by tho Main Trunk express on Monday next, December 18. Tho postal authorities advise that English and American mails, via San Francisco, Tahiti, and Rarotonga, aro duo in Wellington on January i. A fire occurred in a two-roomed cottage in Holland Street, off Tory Street, just beforo 4 a.m. yesterday. The City I!ripade toon extinguished tho outbreak. The household effects, which were uninsured, wcro destrovod. Th* premises were owned br Mr. T. G, M'Carthy, and occupied by 111. Joktt Ucid.

Tim system of deferred press mo.'-flagofl between Vancouver mill New Zealand, in lml.li directions, via I In' IVcilic cable, cJiuim'Miced y&lcrdav .llmniiljor 15. Tho nib is Ijd. jm'!- word. Tho system (low not extend f/i press mrssa;;<.\s between Fiji (mil oilier parts of A uslrahiMa. A eoiil'eronoo of waterside workers and employers is lo bo held ut J)ll(l----<•<1 in shortly. 11 will bo attended by representative.; lrom 'J'iinnni, bytlelton, Wcstport, tiltd probably Wellington. A ballot of the, lo'ial union ha.s Ijeeli taken on this (|iip-slioii of cancelling regisiration, but the result is at present withheld, and the, serrclary (Mr. Farland) fctated yKil/'iday Unit nothing ilelinito would he done in tho mailer until alter the conlcrcnco nt Uunedin. Tlio principal banks throughout "New Zealand will clo.se on Wednesday, Dnteinbi>r "7, nnd on Tuesday, January 2, these being special bank holidays. "Powelka" has been captured, and is now In bo kept in strict confinement in tlio Wellington "Zoo." This particular l'owelkn is n large hair mill, which was captured by tlio crow of the Government training-ship Amokura, under the direction of Lieutenant Harnsdale, in ono of the outlying groups of islands from which the vessel lias just returned. Tho seal, which is of a particularly wary tribe, was taken, by means of a net, but onco in confinement on board tho animal gave so much trouble by its breakings away that it was christened Powelka. Tho creature has a voracious appetite, and thinks nothing of eating a dozon ftlb. bluo cod a (lay. Owing to the indisposition of the Mayor (Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.l\), tlio meeting of tho City Tramways Committoe, which was to have boon held yesterday, was postponed till Tuesday next, at 2 j).in. Tho next Commonwealth Jiifle .Match will lie fired at Hobart about Christmas, 1012. at ranges 300. COO, 700, and 000 .varus In connection with the match, the invitation is to be renewed to the National Rifle Association of England to send a team to Australia that year, and should this bo accepted, _ teanis_ from other British dominions will bo invited, nnd the match fired at Melbourne, five Federal Government cannot sco its way to mako a grant for ft team to go lo England in 1912, as it is considered that a team should go every three years. Application will accordingly bo mado lor a grant of JC2OOO for a team to visit England in 1913. Tho now Town Hall at Miramar will be opened at 3 o'clock' this afternoon by tlio Mavor, and ratepayers and residents of the borough aro invited to attend the ceremony. The Miramar Borough Connc.il decided last night to fmhmit to tho ratepayers a proposal that all rates should bo levied on tho unimproved value. Mr. Bowie, who introduced ths subjoct, said that Ins proposal referred specially lo water and drainage rates. In a borough liko Miramar, where an expensive water supply liad been provided, rates assessed on capital value wero a heavy bui'clcu on those ratepayers who built houses, because those who had no houses paid no water and drainage rates. Ho thought the rating oil unimproved value would lighten this burden. Tho motion was carried unanimously, nnd practically without comment, but it was decided lo defer submitting tlio matter to the ratepayers until other proposals relatiug to loans had been settled. December 7. 1911, will undoubtedly mark an epoch in Mr, W. A. Vcitoh's life (says tho Wauganui "Chronicle"). Oil that day the electors presented him with the expression of their approval, and his wife presented him with a son. Methods of .vote-roccrding in licensing a:id electoral polls have been made so simple in Xew Zealand that the number of informal votes cast in various districts is apt to caufo surprise. It has to be reiiionily.'rod, howiiver, that informal votes are not all due to mistakes on the part of elcctoi-s. Thero are in the community a number of small sects and coteries whoso members, holding views widely divergent from those of the great sections into which the general public is divided, voluntarily disenfranchise themselves by marking ballot-and :voting pajwrs in some informal way. Thus some Socialists write "Socialist" across ballot and voting papers. Advocates of State control will sometimes declino to vote either for or against No-License or National Prohibition.' Again some people having no particular preference for any one candidate declino to vote for any. A factor which adds to the total of informal votes, is that people who are desirous of voting in an electoral poll may be unwilling to voto on a licensing poll or vioc versa. Such people go to tho poll, but exerciso the privilege of voting only in reflect of one paper or set of papers, while • the others go to swell tho total of informal vote. Owing to the secrecy of tho ballot exact particulars of informal voting cannot be obtained, but the chances aro that voluntary (lisenfranchiscment accounts for a good deal of it. Certainly it accounts for a part. Tho Rev. E.' I. Sola, the dmt near of Eastbourne, speaking at a social on Wednesday evening, said he would like men to feel that they would bo wclcomo at the church on Sundays in tboir sweaters and flannels. They could worship God in while clothes as well as in blacK.

Through an oversight wo omitted to mention tho fact that tho article on Kenri Bergson, which appeared in yesler- ! ', 3 .sup, was mainly taken from the Christian World (London).