General News.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7926, 6 October 1904, Page 6

General News.

"I can neither see you nor hear you," said Judge Edge to a solicitor (Mr Turner) at Clerkenwell (London) County Court the other day, when that gentleman, who was unrobed,^rose to oppose a barrister's application to have a case adjourned. Mr Turner began to put on his robe, but Judge Edge interposed: "Now, that will do," he said; "I will not have this court made a robing room of. Next case." Mr Turner protested that it was an in]ustice to his client, but the Judge ordered him to be silent.

It is understood in Wellington that J the Government contemplates handing over the control of Eesolution Island, which has for some time been kept as a reserve for native birds, and administered by the Lands Department, to the Tourist Department, which already h&s charce o£ Little Barrier Island, where numbers of rare birds are preserved. Mr B. Henry, who has lived a hermit life on Eesolution Island for a number of years, will remain in charge, and is at present in Wellington m connection with the transfer.

The New Zealandera who were so much exercised some time ago when the American authorities refused to allow Harper, the Aueklander, free and unfattored entrance into the " Land of the Free," will be interested to learn that; a member of an Australian amateur boxing team who came, over from Brisbane the otber day.'and who has black blood in his veins, was detained by the Customs authorities •ut "Wellington and pat through a aerita of interrogatories preocribsd by the Alien Immigration Act before being admitted to land. The individual referred to is a Brisbane business man in a large way, and he resented his detention very keenly.—Exchange.

"5.L.H.," in the Morning Leader, quotes from the Bangkok Times a notice which has been issued by the promoters of a Siamese paper :—'■ The news of English, oh crumbs, we tell the latest. Writ in perfectly style and -'most earliest. Do a murder git commit, we hear of it and tell it. Do a mighty chief die, oh crumbs, we publish it, and in borders of sombre. Staff has eanh one been colleged at d write.oh crumbs, like the Xippling and the Dickenfc. We circle every town and extortionate not for advertisement. Buy it, oh crumbs. Buy it. Tell each of you its greatness for good. Oh crumbs. Eeady on Friday. Number first."

A letter from an Aueklander engaged in eleotrical business in Birmingham states: —•' There is no doubt that^electrie traction is going to t*ka a baok seat in the nest few years, as far as new installations are concerned. There are now on order a hundred motor 'buses for London, and Wolverhampion is going in for them, and abandoning a concession they had to instal trams. I have taken great interest in these motor 'bus schemes lately, arid it ia my opinion that they must come to the fore, as those in Birmingham are running without a hitch and hsrdly make a bit "of noise not half as much as horse buses ~ and they carry more and go twice the speed. If a breakdown does occur it does not hold up the traffic, aa happens with electrio traction."

Los Angeles, (he second city of California, has just now on trial the "recall" system-perhaps the most extreme form oE the referendum. The "recall " is a Provision o£ the city constitution whereby the constituents of an elected official can, by petition, cause tbe seat to be vacated and a new election necessitated. Af ; recall petition signed by 25 per cent of the veters of the voters ot the constituency at once renders the office vacant A few days ago the provision waa first pnt into effect. A council man named Davenport was ," recalled" by a petition signed by 784 of his constituents, and a new election is about to be held. The principle is as yet only on its trial. Its opponents maintain that it is simply a veiled form of minority rule, and point out, what has undoubtedly been found to be the case in America, that where elections are frequent the electors vote m but small numbers.

An eminent lawyer, whose wife eloped with the butler, has taken her back to his home and reinstated her in her full marital rights. And this is his reason :—"lf I ever failed to comprea • j. c utterly desolate position of an offending, though penitent, woman—the hopeless future, with its dark possibilities.of danger, to which she is doomed ffhen prescribed an outcast—l can now see plainly, in the almost universal howl of denunciation with which she ig followed to my threshold, vhe misery and peril from which I have rescued the mother of my child. And although it is very sad for me to incur the blame of friends, and the reproaches of many wise and good people, 1 shall strive to prove to all who may feel an interest in me that if I am tha first man who has ventured to say to the world an erring wife and mother may be forgiven and redeemed in spite of all the obstacles in my path, the good results of this example shall entitle if- to the imitation of the generous and the commendation of the just."

Quite aa original lino has been struck by the Legislature of the State of Georgia in the discouragement of "race suicide," writes onr American correspondent. A-bill has been introduced mto the Legislature under which it is proposed that every father of six children will be given the title of colonel by the atate, and overy father" cf ten or more will be made a member of the Governor's staff. The dosire of the' !£ c"ge Yankee for a title, which Charles Dickens ridiculed so mercilessly, 18 still a ruling passion. The bill farther provides that all fathers will ba relieved of. the poll tax, and that bachelors shall not be entitled to vote in Georgia. But it is not proposed that the inducements shall be all on the one side Mothers, it is intended, will be entitled to vote, and nil mothera of cix children shall bo titled •• grand dame." Have not New Zealanders, says a contemporary, some little pet vanity upon which the politicians can play in order to maks ' the hand that rooka the cradle " more busy ? .