LEGAL COMPLICATIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2152, 24 April 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

LEGAL COMPLICATIONS.

A recent English Exchange says :—": — " It is not improbable that the case Reg. v. Ashwell, over which fonrteen judges have incubated for several months, may produce some peculiar consequences. One dark night in January of the present year Ashwell tired to borrow a shilling, and a sovereign was handed him in error. Later in the same night he discovered the mistake and kept the sovereign. Seven judges arc of opinion that larceny was committed, seven were of a contrary mind, and, in accordance with the usual practice of the court, the conviction has been affirmed. It thus becomes a part of the law of the land that conduct such as Ashwell's amounts of larceny, and this precedent has been wrongly established. Justices Field, Manisty, Smith, Stephen, Matthew, Day, and Wills will therefore administer the law as laid down by the Lord Chief Justice and the other judges of the Queen's Bench Division, although, for various reason, they believe that law to be laid down wrongly, and although they know that the weight of authority is as strong on one side as on the other.

A pretty little incident is told of a recent shipwreck. The captain's wife and children were lost. They had ou board a few tame doves. When the body of the wife was found on the shore a dove was on the body, and flew* to the house to which the body was conveyed, and, by pecking at the window, was given admittance. A Kentucky girl was struck by lightning while dres'ing for her wedding. She recovered in time for the coretnony, however, and less than six months after* ward her happy hutband thought a similar experience had befallen him when he came softly in at the front door about 3 one morning. A Bill called "The Land Cultivation Bill" (says the Dnnedin Herald) has hern proposed by Messrs Arch, Burt, Bradlaugh, and Lahoucherc, under whic'i any person who shall in an agricultural district hold more than one hundred acres in an uncultivated state shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and on conviction Commissioners shall eject him, and Jet the land in parcels to tenants, whose holdings' shall not exceed forty acres. What would our laud magnate*, such a Moore, Rhodes, Robinson, and Studhome say to such a law ? Notions about land are getting very unsettled, ami large owuers for their own sake should endoavour either by themselves or others to contribute more to the productions of the country. Wellington applicants for reduction! in the valuation of their properties under Property Tax Assessment Act have ap parently taken warning by the incident which took place in the Assessment Court at Auckland recently, when an owner 1 * statement that his land was only worth a certain amount was at once closed with. On Monday Mr J. M. Cleland w»s objecting to the valuation of a certain property of his at £570. After a short discussion as to the value of the property, Mr Pearce, the Chairinanjof the Board of Reviewers, asked Mr Cleland whether ho would sell for £570: 11 Well," Mr Cleland replied, " I don't know that I should." "That finishes the question," said Mr Pearce, " the objection was disallowed." The London Chamber of Commerce have resolved with a view of developing public opinion on the question of Imperial Federation, to offer a prize of £50 for the best essay on that subject, the same the same to be open for competition on the part of any British subject in any part of the Empire. In their annual report the Chamber refer to the action of Australia and Canada, in assisting 1 the mother country in Egypt as a practical approach towards Federation; and in view of the admitted principle that trade follows the flag, the Council and the Chamber regard this step as one taken towards the solution of a question vitally momentous to the commercial future of the Empire. Wong Ciiix Foo, the Chinese-Ameri-can journalist, writing on the subject of intermarriage of a Caucasian and a Celestial, says:— "The Chinese, as a race, are affectionate and domestic, making good husbands and fathers. They express these things in funny ways. For example : Lately, the following notice appeared upon a Mott street bulletin board : — I am 35 years old, have 4200 dollors saved up, and have a good business ; am good natured, healthy, and popular ; very lonely, and want a firstclass American wife. Any such marrying me can have tho 4200d01. to put in bank in her name, and can do 'alee samee ' Melican wife, only must be home after 9 o'clock in the evening. I speak very little English, and bo publish this notice. Anyone procuring such a wife will receive my thanks and a laige brokerage."