NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 937, 5 January 1911, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A Succkssion of tragedies and disasters abroad has cast a shadow over the recent holiday festivities. The public has almost come to expect a narrative of mishaps following any season of pleasure-making, however, brief; jostling crowds, overworked officials are general factors which combine to increase the risks attendant on travel. The last few where the railway train is proved by statistics to be “ the safest place in the world.” Although having no connection with the holidays, the Bolton collie’ry explosion in Lancashire, and the great American fires, at Philadephia

and Chicago, have amplified the toll of death, and perhaps caused many people in the midst of diversions, to reflect upon the limitations of human efforts. We in New Zealand are fortunate in being singularly free from wholesale disasters. In all Australasia this holiday time there has been little to mar the people's enjoyment. Certainly, Wellington has had to report a very sail occurrence, two men perishing in a boarding house fire. One of the victims, Cromhie, was under the influence of liquor when he retired, days have furnished a list of catastrophies that is truly appalling, probably constituting a record. Some ol these mishaps have been associated with the exodus from office and workroom, while others have contributed to the grim phase of industrial life. Of the former the railway disaster is the most painful affair, the like of which is seldom seen in Great Britain, and, although aroused when the fire occured, was evidently incapable of saving himself. Individual accidents and fatalities have occurred in other parts of the Dominion, but the sum of these is not such as to cause us, like many of the inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere, to remember with painful feelings the holiday season of 1910-ii. A cask having an interesting bearing on the moral phase of hotel conduct has been before the courts lately. On November 23th, Frederick James Bright, settler, of liketahuna, being desirous of obtaining a transfer of the license of the Telegraph Hotel,Otaki,applied for a certificate of fitness to hold such a license. Mr A. D. Thomson, 8.M., refused to grant the application, on the grounds that the applicant’s wife did not intend to reside with the applicant at the hotel. The Magistrate made it a rule to refuse a certificate of fitness, except in exceptional circumstances, to married men whose wives would not be resident at the hotel. The wife of the licensee should have control of the female employees for their own good. Bright’s character was not questioned, but it was imperative that his wife should reside with him. In the case under notice it appears that the applicant's wife and sou manage a farm belonging to the applicant at Fketahuna, an d have no desire to go to the hotel. Bright brought au action against the Magistrate, asking the Supreme Court to issue a mandamus ordering the issue of the necessary certi ficate. Yesterday Mr Justice Cooper delivered reserved judgment dismissing the motion with costs. In doing so he said the certificate required was not that the applicant was of good name and. reputation, hut that he was a lit and proper person to lie the licensee of certain premises. What the Magistrate determined was that because the applicant’s wife definitely refused to reside in the hotel, the applicant was not a suitable person to hold the license, though his name and reputation were good. That was purely a matter tor the Magistrate’s discretion. The Magistrate had dealt with the case on its merits, and there was 110 appeal from his decision.