The Motueka Star PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. “Te Ora Mota Iwi.” FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1903.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 163, 13 March 1903, Page 3

The Motueka Star PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. “Te Ora Mota Iwi.” FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1903.

Nominations of candidates for the position of member of the Motueka Licensing Committee must be sent in to the Returning Officer by noon on Monday next, the 16th instant. The next monthly meeting of the Motueka Borough Council takes place on Tuesday evening. The programme of the Rivvaka Collie Club is circulated with this issue of the Motueka Star. As already mentioned, the public trial will take place in Mr Thomas Macmahon’s paddock on Saturday, the nth April. The prizes for the various events have been increased, which will, nc doubt, have the effect of inducing larger entries, not only locally, but also from Takaka and other parts of the provincial district. Mr H. Byrne, the genial secretary, is prepared to receive entries until Saturda}*, the 29th instant. Messrs Gray and Parker, dentists, of Nelson, will visit Motueka next Monday and Tuesday. The Registrar-General’s report of the last census taken in New Zealand, although somewhat late in being put into circulation, contains a large amount of 'statistical information which is not only valuable but interesting reading. The population of the township of Collingwood is set down as sixteen, an error on the part of someone. The population of Takaka is not recorded. A growing crop of 70 acres of oafs in Southland, was sold the other day for £3 per acre, after good competition At the Nelson Supreme Court sittings Bertie Francis Croker Stewart, charged with stealing a cash box containing money etc, from Brougham’s Hotel was found guilty and sentenced month’s imprisonment. Francis who pleaded guilty to theft from in Nelson received a like term of imprisonment, as did a lad from the Stoke Orphanage who was found guilty of stealing a bicycle. The civil cases are now being heard. Mr Gordon Ingram, the popular Boniface of Upper Monte re, leaves there next Tuesday on a lengthy visit to the Old Country. Mr Ingram, who was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, arrived in the C donv in 1831, since which time he has been located in different parts of New‘Zealand, principally, however, in the Nelson district. In common with us, his many friends will wish him a pleasant trip and a s ife return.

Some dissatisfaction has been ex pressed by the witnesses who went over to Nelson to give evidence in the case Rex veisus Croker Stewart that they were not paid a sufficient amount per day. Upon looking up the question we find that the allowances to prosecutors and witnesses for the Crown, per diem, are as follows ' —Medical practitioners giving evidence strictly as ex perts, one guinea ; prosecutors and witnesses, and, in addition thereto, for every night’s necessary absence from usual place of abode, four shillings. Witnesses residing beyond three miles from the town or city in which the Court is held are allowed their coach, railway, or steamboat fares. By railway or steamer second class fares are allowed to mechanics, laborers and persons of similar ranks ; first class faies to others. Receipts must be furnished for fares over ten shillings. Witnesses called for the defence are not paid by the Crown. We may state that the allowance to witnesses in the Magistrate’s Court ranges from 20s to ss, in addition to travelling expenses, accord ing to the nature of the calling or occu pation of each witness. A good story reaches the Bruce Herald in connection with a certain very very youthful and diminutive member of Parliament. Recently the honourable "gentleman was travelling b} T train in the wilds of Southland, when a guard asked him for his railway ticket, whereupon the member pulled out his gold pass. The guard looked at it scornfully and sarcastically inquired, “Yes, sonny, it is very pretty, but where did you pick it up, mj boy ?” It took the youthful member some time to convince the guard that the pass was his, and that he was really not a junior member of the community, but a real live senior member of Parliament.

The following record shows that for nearly 180 years Saturday has been a very fatal day to the royal family in Britain. William 111. died Saturday, March 8, 1702; Queen Anne, Saturday August 1, 1714; George 1., Saturday, June 11, 1727 ; George 11., Saturday, Oct 25, 1760; George 111., Saturday, Jan. 29, 1820; the Duchess of Kent, Saturday, March 16, 1861 ; the Prince Consort, Satuidav, Dec. 14, 1861 ; Fr'ncess Al : ee. Saturday. Dec. 14. 1878 ; and the Duchess of Cambridge, on Saturday, April 6, 1889. Negotiations have been opened with a view to holding a monster combined pit ri’c at Balelutha, representative of the no license parties in Clutha, Bruce, and Mataura.

The evening train from north on Feb. 23 'ran into a large mob of sheep : t Amberley, killing 15 and injuring a large number, which had afterwards 1o be destroyed. No damage was done to the train.

It is stated—on very good authority that a well-known West Coast bon if ace, who was supposed to have been drowned by falling between a steamer and the wharf at Nelson, is now alive, well, an 1 hearty in ’Frisco.

A story is being told at the expense of an East Anglian town councillor, which is almo«t as good as that classical joke about the Bradford councillor and the gondola. The councillor is a member of the finance committee, and one of the bills which came up for paj'rnent was for ribbons for the type writer. “She might be a very fi 10 <jiil/’ he objected, “but why sh *uld she be provided with finery at the expanse of the rates. —Press. Outdoor-relief has been granted at Stowmarket, Suffolk, t > a woman aged eighty eight, who is stated to have been born on the field of Waterloo <’u ing the buttle. Orders for 40,000 tons of new shippins, including Atlantic liners and carso boats, have been placed with ; Clyde firms during December.