NEW ZEALAND GENERAL

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 48, 1 December 1904, Page 15

NEW ZEALAND GENERAL

Nearly a ton of whitebait ai rived in Christchurch by the e-\enmg train from Kaiapoi oh Thursday last.

The double express service, according to Sir Joseph Ward, is answering all expectations, arvd the returns friom Lt are excellent. It is not improbable that the service, if it continues no satisfactory, will be permanently rniaintarned.

Sir Joseph Ward states that the net revenue from the Hailway and Postal Departments is very satisfactory sio lar, and that tnere is no reason to anticipate any falling oft in the financial year from these branches of the service.

Speajking at Wellington at an early-closing meeting, Mr. John Hutohes-on, referring to the immigration laws, pointed dut that many men who woultd make good settlers were -now debarred from entering the Colony beca,iv&e they could not pass an examination test, but on payment of a poll tax Chinese were at all times admitted. Thisi meant that (the State tpok a bribe of £LOO fnom the alien, but strong-limbed, healthy European men could be rejected.

Duriing his recent visit to Invercargill Sir Joseph Ward informed a press reporter that the was very anxious to arrange that the second express should get into Inveicargill about 10.30 p.m., instead of 12.55, and was endeavoring to make arrangements to give effect to this. A good deal depenlded on the ability of the steamer service's 'of tine North Island to connect at Wellington earlier, anS enable the departure for Lytteltph to be made, say, a couple of hours e'jfrlier than at present. This would allow the through express to leave Christchurch

correspondingly earlier, and the benefit would be experienced all alqng the line. He was very hqpefiul of success in this matter, and in that of tihe new service.

At the Magistrate's Court, Wellington, on Monday, Dr. MacartUur, in dismissing a case against a hotelkeeper, said he would like to warn licensees that there is now iijot such thing as a bon'a Tide traveller i(n his esiimaiion. He had looked most carefully into the Act, and the coaickision he had arrived at was that the bona fide traveller did not exist. If he were the licensee oE a hotel he should certainly leave them severely alone. If a man was walking through New Zealand he could only demand meals and lodging. If he took a lodging he aught get a drink, but unless he did s.o Ihe was not entitled to a drink, he could not say even with his meals.

The following promotions have been made in the Post a,nd Telegraph Department :— Mr. M. U. CorHss, senior check clerk at Christchurch, to the officer-in-oharge of Wanganui Telegraph Office ; Mr. W. T. Scully, check clerk, to be senior check clerk at Chrrstch'urch ; Mr. W. J. Walslh, postmaster at Port Chalmers, ,to be transfeired to a similar position at Gore ; Mr" J. T. \vylie, postmaster at Lawrence, to be postmaster at Port Chalmers ; Mr. A. Clark, postmaster at Eketaiiiina, to be postmaster at Lawrence , Mr. W. Tregonnmg, postmaster at Aihaura, to be postmaster at Eketahuna ; Mr. C. M Piice, Wellington, to be senior clerk at Lyttelton ; Mr. J James, telegraphist at Dunedin, to be postmaster at Naseby.

Mr. James M. Bell, the new Government Geologist, was selected from 37 applicants Mr. Bell was ottered the position of geologist to the Britisth Antarctic expedition, and at the same time the position of expert to the Late Superior Power Campany, a large mining and development company operating in Central Canada, and accepted the latter in 1903. He was chosen leader of the Ontario .Government expedition to James Bay, and has been engaged an other geological expeditions of special l importance. Pr,ofessior H. Lloyd Smith, professor of mining and metallurgy, of Harvard University, ?ays: 1 Mr. Bell is one ot the most promising of the yqunger geologists ,of this continent.'

At tihe last meeting of the Ash bur ton Catholic Literary Society a letter was received from the executive, asking tor the names of the delegates who were to attend the annual conference. Messrs. S. Madden, N. McDonnell, and J. Moison were selected as delegates for Ashburton Two candidates were proposed. The programme for the evening was a debate, ' Has the Maori benefited by civilisation ? ' Mr. L. Madden opened the debate on the affirmative side, and Mr. G. Naismith took the negative. No less than 23 speakers took part in the debate, aoM some excellent speeches were made. The leader having replied, the ' ayes ' won by a large majority.

In a perjury case at the Supreme Court (writes the Wellington correspondent of the ' Otagio Daily Times ') Mr. Justice Cooper reterred to the prevalence of perjury in the Colony. He said people had in many instances shown a reckless disregard of the truth, and one could not avond seeing that trom day to day in the administration of justice there was false swearing committed by -witnesses. It seemed to him that the public conscience was not really alive to the extreme heinou&ness ot the crime. Our liberties, nay, our lives, might depend upon the truthful statements of persons called upon to give evidence in the witness box. The offence of perjury, to his mind, was one of the gravest known to the law. lt struck at the very roofc of the fabric of society, and unless those whose duty it was to administer the law expressed their sense of the gravity of the oftence and of the hemousness of the crime when sheeted homie to the person charged, then they were not doing their duty, 'ihe crime of perjury, he did not hesitate to say, was very often committed in our midst, and if persons were to be allowed to go free with only the nominal penalty of paying the costs of the prosecution, and the sitigma attaching to the crime, it would be striking a fatal blow at the administration of justice. Im the case before him he .administered a sentence of 12 months' imprisonment, with hard labor.