WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1917, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

ANTI-SHOUTING LAW. Wellington, Wednesday. A great deal of interest is being taken here in the appeal to tlw Supreme Court against the conviction of a barmaid for a breach of the anti-shouting law. The contention of the counsel is that the police method of obtaining conviction in these cases is unreasonable. The usual procedure is for a couple of constables in plain clothes to enter a bar, order drinks and then watch for any shouting around them. If they see or think they see some man pay 'for another man's drink, they go quietly out of the house, and do not bring tlieir charge forward until a day or two later. The men are not called and the barmaid or barman naturally cannot remember what particular customers were being served at the hour stated by the police. Nobody pretends to believe that the anti-shouting law is enforced, at any rate in the cities, but this method of obtaining convictions seems scarcely in accordance with established notions of fair play. SECOND DIVISION ROLL. The last of the four volumes containing the roll of the Second Division has been issue!, anil all the volumes may be consulted now at any post office or recruiting office. The reservist who wants to save himself and the Defence Department trouble later will examine the roll and see if he had been correctly classified. If there is a mistake, he can remedy it at once by communicating with the Government Statistician, and so possibly avoid an appeal to a Military Service Board next year, CATHOLICS AND RECRUITING. One of the speakers at a meeting of the Protestant Political Association tonight suggested, without stating directly that Roman Catholics were favored by military, medical boards by being classed unfit, while Protestants were sent into camp. This is, the sort of falsehood that should be nailed down right away. Figures placed before Parliament last session _ showed that the Catholics, in proportion to population, had supplied their" full proportion of fit recruits, and nobody who knows the doctors forming the medical boards will believe that they are guided by sectarian bias in dealing with the men who come before them for examination. The rpoint is worth mention only because an innuendo of the kind uttered by the speaker may do much harm.