NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1622, 13 December 1912, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

(By Telegraph-Press AsMoiotion.)

MELANESIAN MISSION,

"ONE ANT OTHER MIGHT ENVY."

Auckland, December 12. The Melanesian Mission steamer Sou. them Cross lias returned from a lengthy cruise. Bishop Wood was a passenger Ho visited the whole of the mission stai tions, and is well pleased with the prepress of the work. He found 700 native teachers and twenty white people superintending them. Being familiar with mission works in other fields, he regards the Melanesian Mission as one any other might envy. The Bishop wns "warmly welcomed overywhere. He attends the General Synod at Nelson,' and remains in New Zealand until April.

AGAINST AMALGAMATION. Dunodin, December 12. A poll was taken in St. Kilda yesterday on the question of amalgamating with the city, the result being as follows: —For amalgamation, 570 votes; against, 1123.

ROYAL LIFE-SAVING SOCIETY. • Christchurch, December 12. The first annual meeting of the Dominion Executive of the Royal Life-Saving Society was held to-day, when all the head centres were represented. The report of the Provisional Exceutivo. was adopted, and tho following officers elected:—Patron, his Majesty the King; vice-patron, his Excellency the Governor (to be asked); president, the Hon. W. E. Massey; vicepresidents, the presidents of the head centres of the Dominion; chairman, Mr. K. Bassett';, vice-chairman, Mr. W. Johnson; hon. secretary, Mr. B. J. Ager; hon. treasurer, Mr. G. K Billson.

BURNT AT DUNEDIN. Dunedin, December 12. A fourrroonied house at St. Clair, owned and occupied by Mrs. Mary Galbraith, was burnt down last night. Tho house was insured for ,£350 and the furniture for .£l5O, both in the State office.

WESTPORT ITEMS. Westport, December 12. The Westport Library Committee ha« resided in a body owing to a, disagreement with the Borough Council. The fifth lire within sis months has occurred at Ngakawau, a cottage being destroyed. HIDES': INQUIRY ASKED. Auckland, December 12. A largo meeting of tannery employees resolved to draw the attention of . the Minister for Labour to the ill-effects on the industry owing to the systematic cornering of the raw hide markets of the Dominion for export, and to ask for an. inquiry into the methods which had been, adopted to crush one of New Zealand'a staple industries.

CONSTABLE*WADE'S INJURY. Waihi, December 12. By the aid of X-rays the bullet which struck Constable Wade during the disturbance on November 12, has' been located. The bullet is embedded between the ribs and the hip bono on the right side, and had penetrated five inches from the point of entrance. It is understood it is not intended to operate for tho time being.

POULTRY & "POTHER." Nelson, December 12. The annual meeting of the Kelson. Poultry Association unanimously resolved to secede from the South Island Association as an emphatic protest against the treatment 'of the Nelson Association . which for the third year in succession has been' ignored so far as championships are concerned. A movement was to en'dpfivonr to form a central association for Wellington, Marlborough, and Nelson pro. vinces, and a committee was set up to further the proposal. Nelson is already in communication with the Wellington Association in regard to the matter.

POINT FOR COURT OF APPEAL, Auckland, December 12. In the Supreme Court in the case of Edward Bourke, charged with theft of cattle, Bourke was found guilty of receiving and beaing a party to the sale of the same,' the jury recommending leniency, as there' was insufficient evidence to ehow that he actually stole the cattle. Counsel for the prisoner- submitted that the jury's finding did not show guilty knowledge, without which there was no offence Mr. Justice Edwards reserved the point for the Court of Appeal.

"THEY THOUGHT." Westport, December 12, Two men admit blowing-up the Mokihinui Bridge. They allege it was unsafe, and they thought it was the propertv or the Timber Company by. whom they were employed. They will be charged with unlawful destruction.

WAS THE VENUS OF MILO DISCOVERED ARMLESS ? —._. :'•■

Prom a correspondence which has ensued upon, an article by M. Aicard as to the original attitude of the Venus de Milo, it appears that the story of the. fight in which the intact yenus was broken is. mythical. There is still considerable mystery surrounding the matter, owing to the conflicting statements of M. Brest, the French Consul at Jlilo in 1820. But it now. seems established that the Veiius was already broken when it was discovered, for we now have the formal declaration of Ensign Vontier quoted, who was the first to see the Venus. He is explicit on the point that the Venus was armless. Ensign Duniont d'UrviUe, who saw the I statue soon after, and who made representations, together . with. Lieutenant Jlatterer, which resulted in the acquisition of the Venus for France, certainlydeclared that he had seen the arms, but it is now established also from bis narrative (published in "Annales llaritinies" in, 1821) that he nowhere said' that he had seen the statu© intact. Thus the substance of M. Award's much-discussed article is already disposed of—namely, that Dumont d'Urville and Matterer had seen the Venus intact with the left arm uplifted. The final blow to such a theory is the fact that' Ensign Vontier made a drawing of the statue when he first saw it, which. has since been reproduced in France, showing the Venus de Milo exactly as we have it now. Certainly from the confused narratives it would seem to result that the arms of tho statue were originally discovered with it, though already broken; and'their loss even in that state. is .sufficiently enormous without our having, dreams of .the Venus as it left the artist's- hands. The fairytale of the fight between the French and Turkish sailors seems to have arisen from the imagination oMt. Brest, who, expanded "with but small authority" (in. a letter of 1829) to a battle, of which he spoke in 18G7. Matterer's imagination seems to have been similarly affected. In 1842 he wrote: "The arms were unfortunately broken,'and tho end of the nose somewhat altered." In 1858 he wrote t "I have forgotten to sav that the statue had tho left arm uplifted," "explaining his forgetfulness by the diplomatic necessity of silence concerning the fight with the Turks. Thus history, is made.—"Westminster Gazotte."