MAGISTERIAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2235, 6 July 1908, Page 3

MAGISTERIAL.

SATURDAY, JULY 4. (Before Mr. AV. A. Barton, S.M.)

DRUNKENNESS,

Michael pleaded not guilty to being found helplessly drunk in Gladstone Road on Juno 26th. Sergeant Hutton and Constable Scott gave evidence that the man, who is a subject to fits, was helplessly under the influence of liquor on the day lie was arrested. The accused was convicted and fined £l, with cosff; 16s, an default six days’ imprisonment. John /Erickson was fined £l, with costs 2s, in default four days’ imprisonillent for a second conviction tor drunkenness) and, two first offender!; were fined 5s each with costs & /

-Mr J. Kimniins, waterman, who resides on Waterloo Quay: Wellington, when lifting a flounder-net near his boatshed, discovered that an octopus had entered tlie net, and was fastened to a- flounder with its tentacles. The octopus, which measured 10ft from tlfo tip of one- tentacle to the tip of the opposito one, sought to escape. It clasped its suckers tightly on to the bottom of a boat, but Mr Kimmins hooked the body with ail iron gaff hook. The octopus exerted its strength to draw away, and actually straightened the hook, which was a quarter of all inch in diameter. The octopus was given a number of severe blows and eventually dropped to tho bottom, apparently dead.

11l the wilds of tho North Island, amongst the members of the Arawa tribe, there.lives a Maori whose face in bygone days might have been his fortune, if it had not 'carried with" it conditions that tlie. owner is pleased’ were not fulfilled. Mr. Hamilton saw the mail when he was looking for good “subjects” for Mr Nelson Illingworth, tlie sculptor, and was struck with the elaborate tattooing on his cheeks, nose, and forehead. Mr. Hamilton at once selected him as a typo of the ancient .Muori. The members of the tribe, however, said that ho was a “nobody,” and did not deserve the honor of sculpture. They explained that lie had been a slave, and that his face had been splendidly tattooed in order that his head could be cold at a great price in the days when traffic in dried heads was a lucrative calling for chiefs and notables. The man evidently circumvented the commercial instincts of his masters until'the- gruesome traffic was abolished, and after that, of course, lias face was no longer a menace to his head.