CANTERBURY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 29

CANTERBURY.

When seen in reference to the proposal to remove the capital to an inland situation, Sir Joseph Ward said that the time had gone past when it was possible to make any change in that direction. The whole of the Government departments, including the head office of the -banking institution, were situated in Wellington, and it would be necessary to go back into the fastnesses of -the country to discover any place that was remote from the sea border.

The men-o'-warsmen off the warships now in port have been making their presence noticeably felt in Christchurch, On the 2nd a. number of them," all more or less in a state of inebriety, proceeded to break windows and smash things generally in a boarding-house on Moorhouse avenue. At the Opera House, too, some of the Jack Tars interrupted the performance to such an extent that large number of the audience left the building, and the programme could not be proceeded with. • At the Ashburton Magistrate's Court, before'two justices, Albert Sims was charged with, having, on the Ist inst., assaulted a young woman on the Main road between Ashburton and Fairfield with intent to commit a serious" crime. Accused pleaded "Guilty, "-and on application _of fche police was remanded for a week, bail being fixed at £500. Fifty=one births were registered in Ohristchurch on the last two days of 1907, being a record for the office, the average being eight per day. At the Magistrate's Court at Timaru John William Morris, alias Kid Kedde'l, was committed for trial for alleged misappropriation of $6 belonging to his former employer, the owner of a chaff -cutting plant. Morris was employed in August, 1906, as a general hand, and collected some accounts on his employer's behalf ■ during the latter's absence. He collected about £30, and then disappeared.- He was arrested at Wellington on Christmas Eve.