NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 December 1923, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

“f submit, sir." said er.uu.sel in a civil case heard bonne Mr F. tv. Hunt, S.M., on Tuesday. at Auckland, “that complainant took a hazard when lie accepted the order in place of payment in cash.” "You took a much lugger hazard in trying to get judgment for tbe defendant.” replied Me Hunt, amid much laughter.—‘‘Her-

"Except in the United Stales, there are more laws and more law-breakers in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world,” said Mr 11. E. Yailc on Tuesday, when speaking of bis impressions while abroad (reports the "New Zealand Herald.") Tbe reason lay in the fuel, lie added, that there was far too much official regulation in tbe Dominion. It would be a sorry day for New Zealand if contempt for law were carried here to the degree itbad reached in the United States. |

The Customs dues lie had to pay amounting to 3G per cent, ad valorem, on pieces of Italian statuary brought, to Now Zealand, were the subject of severe criticism by Mr H. K. Yaile on Tuesday (says the “New Zealand Ilerold"). No other country, lie considered. would tax so heavily the importation of what were purely works of art.

Since the war (remarks an exchange), business men have been both amused and astounded at the audacity displayed by German merchants in the advertisements which, almost as soon as hostilities ceased, they sent, mil to English and Xew Zealand firms. Here is the latest one received by ail Auckland linn, from a piano manufacturer in Berlin. After describing minutely the special features of bis instruments be com ludes: ‘‘Hie sound is of refined nobility, and if there ever was an instrument to make you forget the bitterness of tile, it is mine.” Ender tbc circumstances, it would possibly serve a better purpose in the Fatherland than anywhere.

“Openly the Germans are very good citizens, but- secretly they are bad,” said the Administrator of the mandated territory of Xew Guinea (Mr I'-. A. AVisdom), who arrived in Melbourne recently on departmental business. MiWisdom (says the 'Argus') is preparing bis annual report for the League of Nations, and lie will not return to Kalian! until .1 miliary 10. He has frequently complained of Gorman propaganda in the territory, and upon his arrival in Melbourne, he remarked that there were always “little things cropping up” which indicated that the propaganda was still active. There were about forty Germans in the territory. io addition to 270 German missionaries. Referring to the progress in the development of the territory. Mr Wilson said that the erection of many new buildings indicated the prosperity of the country. t ndei the new land laws 15.000 acres, including considerable new land, were sold on lease this voar. Some of this land bad previously been disposed of under permit bv the Germans and military authorities.

Mr William l.e Queux lia.s come forward with another theory about the infamous 'Whitechapel murders that filled England with sensation and horror in tiie later eighties of last century. The victims were all East End daughters of joy whose bodies were fiendishly mutilated; but the author was never brought to justice. Many rumours have got at)load about these mysterious London (rimes. It was said at one time that the 'murderer was n mad doctor, who lias since died in an asylum. Again, it vas w hisiKM'ed that the murderer was the degenerate offspring of a great family who came to a violent end in the toughest hinterland of the* Empire. Ai t oiding to Mr Le Queux he was a mad Russian doctor, formerly in a maternity hospital, who lied as his accomplices a Russian Secret Service agent, member of an East End anarchist club, and a disreputable tailoress of Jewish descent. Mr lx? Queux claims to have seen official documents, written by the notorious Rasputin, the monk who ruined the Russian Royal Enmity, and helped to submerge Russia. giving intimate details of the Jaek-thc-ftipper crime:,