STAMPS ACT PROSECUTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2072, 6 May 1907, Page 1

STAMPS ACT PROSECUTION.

.John Court, at tho Auckland l’o lieu Court on April 20 th, was chargcd that on October 3rd, 1005, In neglected to duly and effectually cancel a stamp on a receipt in favoi of Miss Jackson for £l7 3s fid. .Mr, IV. Faltou said the case was the outcome of a civil action. The only question for the Court to decide was whether the stamp was effectually cancelled. A rubber stamp had been passed over it, but now, as. the receipt stood, the stamp could ho taken off and used again. Mr. 1 Manna, for tho defence, said it was admitted that the stamp was put on at tho proper time, and there was no suggestion that there was any attempt on the defendant’s part to defraud tho revenue. The receipt was given two years ago, and he contended that the ink of the stamp might in that time ho acted upon by tho pigments in the stain)). Under the circumstances his Worship would he justified in holding that the stamp, at tho time, was properly cancelled. Mr. Kettle said that it was not suggested that the defendant intended to defraud tho revenue. The only question was as to tho cancellation. In his opinion tho person who put the stamp on should initial the stamp and put the date on it.- As the 's’t.'vnp stood it could be taken off and used again. The stamp was lift effectually obliterated and cancelled by the person who put it on. A technical broach had been committed but under the circumstances, as this was the first case of the kind, he would not record a conviction. Costs wore allowed against the defendant.

TRAWLING EXPERIMENTS. THE NORA NIVEN’S CHARTER. The deep-sea trawler Nora Niven, chartered by the New Zealand Government to tost the deep-sea fishing beds off tho coast, left Albury last week, and is due in the colony at the end of the present month., Questioned as to the Government’s intentions with regard to the use of the vessel the Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister for Marine, stated to an Auckland Star reporter that the vessel would trawl along the whole of the East Coast of both islands. “She trawls,” lie said, “to a depth of 120 fathoms, and is the best-appointed and most up-to-date trawler that ever left England. After being overhauled at Wellington the Nora Niven will lf)avo at the end of May for the ■'South. Sho will steam to Stewart Island and will commence trawling there, finishing off the Mercuries, about the end of August, when her three months’ charter expires. She will zig-zag from the coast into the sea and from the edge of the banks back to the coast for tho whole distance, trawling everywhere within a depth of 120 fathoms. Mr Waite, curator of tho Christchurch Museum,

who is an expert icthyologist, and Mr. G. F. Ayson, head of the Marine Department, will accompany the vessel for the purpose of defining the value of the fish, many new varieties of which will in all probability he discovered. All banks in which supplies of fish are discovered will be carefully plotted down on the chart, and on the conclusion of the experiment this will he available for anyone who likes to make use of it.” “AYliat will ho done with the fish caught ?” “The vessel lias refrigerating accommodation aboard for 100 tons of fisli, and the owners of the vessel arc

under contract to take the whole of the supplies caught at market rates. The trawler carries 12 days’ supply of coal, and will run into port to replenish supplies and to dispose of the fish.when necessary. She has a crew of eleven expert North Sea trawlers aboard, and when on rocky bottoms they will fish with lines. An oyster dredge will also bo put down occasionally, and I think' it probable that beds of Stewart Island oysters will he discovered, for it is hardly likely that they exist only in Foveaux Straits.”

“She will not trawl in the Hauraki Gulf?”

“No, it lias already boon proved that fisli laid there and can be trawled up. I want to prove as many now grounds as possible, and there is no good going to grounds where fish are caught even’ week. IVc want to find where the fish are. It is well known that fish go off the land at .certain periods of the year, and I hope by this experiment to find, if possible, the. lands to which they go if they remain on the coast. At the cud of the experiment if it proves successful I may ask Parliament for authority to charter the vessel for a further term, in order to carry on similar experiments on the West Coast.” 1

Mr Millar/further stated that there was a huge bank at a depth of about 80 fathoms, extending from Stewart Island to the Chathams, and oil this ho would not be surprised to find Newfoundland cod. The blue cod, and red cod, and the liapuka, aim tiler species of the family, were found oil the coast, and bo hoped that it would he proved . that the bank in question was the feeding ground for the Newfoundland variety.