THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT YOUR FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3753, 7 January 1881, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT YOUR FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1881.

Wb notice that a deputation including the Mayor of Greymouth waited on the Premier yesterday with reference to the construction of a railway to the West Coast, They proposed to undertake the work provided the Government could make a grant of land on the line of railway. The Premier promised to lay the matter before the Government at the earliest opportunity. The*?' Mayor of Greymouth has evidently found a new method of appealing to au unsympathetic Government and have devised this means of attaining the desired end. The numerous representations that have been made to the Government in connection with the formation of the Thames-Waikato Eailway have had no effect in gaining a favourable reply from them, and the patience of the Thames people is almost exhaustedThere isi however, a fresh avenue opon, and why should not the Thames follow the example of their Greymouth friends, and offer to construct the railway line in consideration of receiving a grant of land contiguous to the land through which/it will pass ? If some of the leading capr* talists were to take up the idea, the Thames railway might yet be formed, whereas, if no more efforts are made to induce the Government to proceed with the line, we may expect that the railway will be completed in the remote future—if it is ever formed. The Thames adds materially to the value of the colony, directly and indirectly, and it is a gross injustice that the claims of the district should be treated with such consummate insolence and disgraceful unfairness. We trust that the matter will not be allowed to rest, fid that the Thames people will not desist from applying to the Government. An old proverb says, " Constant dripping will wear away a stone," and no doubt constant applications will soften the stojay heart of a Government whose smiles and good things are lavished on favored districts (where in many instances there is no necessity for them), and which are wholly withheld from places really in need of them.

We are led to believe that the police have received strict instructions from the head of the department to use their utmost efforts in suppressing the Sunday liquor traffic in the district, „ We, hope that the publicans will take'"note' of this caution, and that there will be no necessity to institute prosecutions for the illegal sale of drink on Sunday. By sef|ion 38 of the Licensing Act, 1871, it is enacted that, "No person holding a license under this Act shall sell or supply any alcoholic liquor, or suffer the same to be drunk in or upon his house or premises, which must be shut between the hours of ten o'clock at night and six o'clock next morning, or on Sundays, except to or by bona fide travellers and persons resident thereat, and sleeping therein. Provided that the Justice's, or other persons authorising the granting of any! license as aforesaid, a may, at the*time of so authorising, also authorise the extension of time for selling from ten o'clock till eleven o'clock on Saturday night, and till midnight on other ordinary nights, upon payment of an extra fee of £10." „-A bona fide traveller is defined as a person having no residence within three miles of the licensed house. With regard to lodgers, it has been decided by several Courts that a lodger means a person residing in a licensed house and having a bed provided for him therein. We trust that after this caution publicans will be careful not to render themselves liable under the provisions of the Act.