The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 1882.

Kumara Times, Issue 1737, 25 April 1882, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 1882.

To-morrow one of those ridiculous proceedings called {lolling under the local option clause of the Licensing Act will lake place in Knmara. So far as experience has shoWn, with perhaps one or two exceptions, the public care vety little ahout the local option clause—in many places the number of votes polled have been so insignificant as to hold the principle Up to 'ridicule. In one district in which there Were, over 400 ratepayers only two votes were polled and the.se two mollified themselves by voting in opposite directions. The principle is not a bad one. It is not only a piece of expensive machinery to work but it is going rather too fat to pttt it in the power of a few to say whether there shall be or not any licenses issued in a particular district for three years. No doubt the principle in itself is good but the carrying of it out makes it an absunliry. The usually monthly inspection of the Kuinara Rifle Volunteers will ne held this evening at the Drill Hitll, All accounts against the Kiimifa Bene- 1 voleizt Society jtre requested to be sej& in not later than to-morrow, Iti the evening a meeting irf the above society will be held at the Town Hall when al members are requested to attend. Under one of the provisions of the new Licensing Act, any publican may apply to the Licensing Committee of his district to be exempt from the necessity of displaying a light outside his premises. The Westport Times recommends that the school districts of Westport, Reefton, and Charleston should be formed into a new district independent of Nelson control. A communication has been received from Mr Weston, M.H.R., to the effect that he will visit the Grey Valley early in May to confer with the electors. It appears that he intends to address the Reefton electors on the evening of the 4th May,

The New Zealand Wesleyan for last month has the following:—"One of the examiners in Church reports having given the question, ' What was the nature of the Pragmatic Sanction 1 and having received the comprehensive reply, 'The Lord knows.' The examiner does not dispute the statement of the examinee, but fancies the young gentleman will know better next time."

There are 224 boat and shoe factories in San Francisco, 187 of which are owned and worked exclusively by Chinamen; also 410 laundries that employ 5,107 Chinamen. There are 179 white cigarmakers to 8,500 Chinese cigar-makers; 1,000 white tailors—wages £3 per week—to 7,570 Chinese employed for the manufacture of clothing, who receive £5 to £G per month. The shipping companies of San Francisco employ 350 Chinese as waiters, &c, and there are 573 vegetable vendors, besides over 600 employed in the fishery business ; and all of these are.outside the busy hive of Chinatown.

A parcel of quartz recently sent from Smith's prospecting claim at Collingwood, to Dr. Hector, yielded at the rate of Bozs. 13dwts to the ton. This reef was discovered some 21 years ago by a party of West Coast prospectors, but is only now in a fair way of being worked.

Mr Revell, R.M. has received two months' leave of absence.

The following are the characteristics of the colonies, as viewed by Victorian tourists : —Sydney—Too argumentative ; nothing but "our city," "our harbor," "our wool," "our coal!" Queensland—Too hot. South Australia—Pretty girls too scare. Tasmania Pretty girls too plentiful. New Zealand—Everybody's there.

During the hearing of a charge of forgery and uttering at the Supreme Court, Wellington, Judge Richmond remarked, after Chief Detective Browne left the box, that the detective's inquiries had been made in what he considered a model way. The police appeared to have given the prisoner every possible facility for proving his innocence by trying to find out if there was any truth in the statements he had made. He wished to say that he entirely approved of this way of conducting the business of the Detective Office, and thought that these kinds of facilities should always be afforded a prisoner, If it had happened to be an innocent man, they resulted in his liberation, while if he were guilty they turned into evidence against him. Sometimes a prosecution failed because a detective officer seemed to forget that it was his business to get evidence that would tend to a prisoner's discharge. In summing up to the jury in the same case, his Honor again referred to the subject, saying that he had seen many miscarriages of justice through the prisoner not having been offered facilities for proving the truth of statements made by him. A policeman might think a prisoner's statements made inprobable and not worth inquiring into, but a jury might not. His experience was that a jury would be inclined to believe anything probable if it was in favor of a prisoner.

Mr Jolm Bright is given to violent candour on occasion, but the following sentence uttered by him recently on Irish affairs, at a public meeting, is a trifle "hot" for the Cabinet Minister surely : "He did not hesitate to say that if the present policy failed, there was only one alternative to pursue, and that was to declare that the resources of statemanship were exhausted, and that if we cannot govern Ireland to its satisfaction and the will of the they should resolve to let them go and establish their independence."