GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 908, 2 January 1872, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

The following is the text of the bill which has just been brought into the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales: —Every female subject of her Majesty, whether married or unmarried, of the full age of twenty-one years, being a natural born subject, or the daughter of a mother being a natural born subject, or who having resided in this colony for three years, shall have become a naturalised subject, shall, if qualified as in section 9 of the Electoral Act, 1868, is provided in regard to male subjects, and entered on the roll of electors, and not disqualified or incapacitated for some cause in the said section specified, be entitled to vote at any election for the electoral districts, in respect of which she shall be qualified. Provided that no female be qualified to be elected a member of the Assembly for any electoral district in the said colony. Dunedin harbour must be a nice place for one to bathe in, considering that sharks, some three or four feet long, are so numerous that the townsfolks amuse themselves by firing volleys at them. In reference to the measures being taken to form special settlements in the North Island, the "Wanganui Chronicle " has the following:—" Mr M'Lean may be expected in Wanganui in a week or to, to arrange with Kemp and other loyal natives, to purchase their interest in the confiscated land in the Waitotara district, with the object of locating some of the immigrants upon it who will soon be arriving in the colony."

INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFICERS IN BRITISH POSSESSIONS ABROAD.

BtEOPI&TIONS FOB PREVENTING COLLISIONS. I The following is the substance of an ftpinion recently given by the Attorney •General, the Solicitor General, and the ■Queen's Advocate, viz. I 1. That side lights and lanthoms, ■otherwise unexceptionable, fixed in Isuch a position that they may be obscured by the lower corners of the ship's square foresail cannot be considered to be fixed as required by Article 3 of the Regulations. 2. In the event of such side lights and lanthoms being so fixed that the lower corners of the square foresail can obscure either or both such lights the Surveyors or Inspectors may require the master or owner of the ship either to move the lanthoms further forward, and to fix them where the lights cannot be obscured, or to cut off so much of the lower corners of her foresail us causes or is likely to cause such obscuration. 3. In the event of such master or owner neglecting or refusing to alter Ithe position of the lanthoms, or cut paway such portion of her lower courses gas the Surveyor or Inspector may idirect, such Surveyor or luspector may report the fact to the Collector of Customs for the purpose of stopping the ship, and such Collector may refuse to grant the vessel a clearance under section 30 of the Merchant Shipping Act Amendment Act, 1862, tmntil he receives a report from the ■Surveyor or Inspector to the effect ythat his requirements have been comIplied with. | 4. If after a vessel has been passed |by such Surveyor or Inspector as 'carrying properly constructed and |fixed lanthoms and lights, the master foxes them in such a position that they |may be or so are obscured by the vessel's square foresail, and are not finder such circumstances visible for a distance of two miles from right ahead to two points abaft the beam, pn the respective sides, as required by Article 3, read in connection with Article 20 of the Regulations, such master will be guilty of a misdemeanour under section 27 of the Merchant Shipping Act A mendment Act, 1862.