West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1881.

The Governmen t promise to introduce a Licensing Bill during the coming sessions, a measure which is much reqnired. Last year it will be remembered that Mr Dick moved the second reading of a Licensing Bill, which, on the whole, met with approval, but it was smothered by the flood of talk which distinguished that meeting of Parliament above all its predecessors, and was abandoned by the Premier at the last moment* There can be no two opinions about the necessity for a comprehensive Licensing Act. It need oaly be stated that it was proposed in a schedule to the deceased bill of 1880, to repeal forty nine acts and ordinances. Consolidation under these circumstances is obviously required. But there are other reasons why a new Licensing Act should be passed. Many new provisions are called for. The present manner of dealing with the licensing of public houses is unsatisfactory to the public, as well as to the publican. In some districts licensing courts have acted fairly enough with regard to the business which came before them, but in others, their actions have been, to speak mildly, peculiar and illogical. It may be fairly presumed that the new bill will not differ materially from the last one, which went as far as the second reading. In that bill the principle of local option was affirmed, and there is no doubt that the country has approved it. The clauses which dealt with local option provided that a poll should be taken every three years, to decide whether there should be any more public houses within a district or borough. If the decision is that there shall be no more licenses, then the licensing committees cannot permit any more public houses to be opened for three years. If the decision of the people is, that there shall be more licenses, then the committee (which is appointed by the bill) may grant them. The granting is however optional, as the committee can decide whether there shall be more or net. We can hardly see why it should not be mandatory on the committees .to grant these licenses if the people Bay, by their votes, that they want more^public houses. Of course, it iB obvious that the committees should have the power to refuse licenses in particular cases, where the character of an applicant is bad, or, where there is a iona fide personal objection of any description. But if the people affirm the general principle, that 1 they want more pablic houses, it should I not be optional with committees or magistrates, to say that they should not have them. The introduction of local option will be certainly the distinguishing feature of the new bill. There was another innovation in the defunct bill, which caused a good deal of discussion ia certain, districts It

was by clause 25, proposed to do away with bottle licenses altogether. These licenses exist only in Nelson, Marlborough, Otago, and Westland. In Nelson the bottle license fee is £40 in boroughs, ami £30 outside of them, in Marlborough and Westland £15, and in Otago £10. Thus in the larger portion of New Zealand the people get along very fairly without the bottle license. This fact furnishes one argument against it. It can also be fairly urged that this kind of license enables some mens' wives to buy bottles of grog from grocers, and have the liquor charged as tea and sugar. The outcry against abolishing the bottle license, comes from Otago, where there exists a large vested interest in this particular trade, and where, consequently, it may be fairly supposed that the people prefer to buy their grog from grocers. There is on the whole, it appears to us, reason to abolish these licenses. The arguments for their continuance are weaker than those in their favor, and they certainly should not be allowed to continue, simply because Otagan interests are involved to some extent. It might be possible, however, to apply local option to these licenses as well as to the publicans' licenses. The only other question which it is necessary to refer to, is the cost of the publicans' license. The late bill proposed that the fee should be £40 in towns, and £30 outside of them, and it will be conceded that these amounts are reasonable. We may remark that there are many persons who hold that the principle of local option should apply to existing as well as to new public houses. The Canterbury PresSt for instance, supports this view. Our contemporary says :-— •'Surely we have a right to insist upon having licensed houses conducted respectably. They are even at present not all mere drinking shops and haunts of vice. But a great many of them are. Their owners systematically break the law, and run the risk of paying the small fines that at wide intervals are inflicted upom them. Such establishments exist in every city of the Colony. There are glaring examples in Christchurch itself. At present the law pracr lically does not reach the offenders. They break it every day with comparative impunity. Moreover, the public who suffer injuries by those breaches of the law know all about what is being done. If the residents in a locality are to be consulted as to the granting of new licenses, they have a greater claim to make their voices heard when they have an actual daily nuisance in their midst; and it should certainly be in the power of the people to close houses which are notoriously little more than haunts of vice. Their owners have no moral claim to any consideration, and should, if the people so wish it, be made to suffer for their misconduct. But we are prepared to go even further than this. We hold that it should be in the power of, say a majority of two-thirds of the residents in a licensing district, to close all the public houses within its bounds. In such cases, of course, it would be necessary to make provision for suitable compensation." We do not think the Legislature will go as far as the Press would like in this direction, although there is much to be urged in favor of the principle. The chief objection is, that a considerable amount of injury might be done to innocent; persons with bad tenants, if existing public houses were liable to be closed, and local option made, so to speak, retrospective. In very obnoxious cases the police have sufficient power to bring offenders to book, and it is certainly fair that a distinction should be made between owner and occupier. If the local option principle is to be as widely extended as the Press hopes it will be, compensation would have to be paid in many cases, and it is a question to be asked, where is the money to come from ?

At the Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, before Dr Giles, R.M., the following business under civil jurisdiction, was done: — Enox v. Diedrich and Earnbacb, claim, £41, Mr {South for plaintiff and Mr Furkiss for defendants; adjourned for the evidence of Diedrich. Murphy v. E. Stennard, 14s 7£d; judgment for amount claimed and costs seven shillings. Cullen v. Hearn and Power, £85 9s Id; judgment for amount claimed and costs £2 7s. Johnston v. Hearn and Power, £16 16s 3d; judgment by consent with costs £1 ss. Johnston v. Moran, £29 2s sd; judgment for plaintiff with costs £1 ss. Pizzey & Co., v. M'Kay, £24 3s MrPurkiss for plaintiffs, Mr South for defendant; judgment for amount claimed with costs £1 9s, and professional fee £2 2s ; There will be a meeting of the County Council at two p.m. to-day. The order paper is published in another column. The Board of Education will meet to*morrow at two p.m. Friday being a holiday, mails per Eotomahana for Australian Colonies, will close on Thursday, at 8 p.m. The Sanson station will be closed entirely on Good Friday, the 15th inst. The School Commissioners met at the Education Office at 4 p.m. yesterday. Present— The Hon. J. A. Bonar (chairman), Messrs Giles, Mueller, and Duncan. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. The outward correspondence was read and approved. The iaward correspondence was dealt with as follows: — The report of the auditor, concerning the audit of the accounts to December 31st, 1880, was received. A letter from the Warden's Clerk, Eumara, stating that the Warden approved of the scale of fees for mining, &c, upon the reserve, was received by the Commis« sioners. From the Under-Secretary, General Crown Lands Office, Wellington, with reference to Crown grants for educational reserves. From Mr Howe, Kumara, asking to be allowed to occupy the Commissioners' Office at Kumara. The Secretary was directed to inform Mr Howe that the Commissioners could not grant the request, as they required the house for their own use. Ike Secretary was also instructed, to take

the necessary steps to secure the payment of rents due after the date fixed for payment. The following accounts were passed for payment:— Secretary, salary for March and April, £4 3s 4d; W, A. Spence, auditing, £2 2s; proprietors of Kumara Times, £9 4s ; Reid & Co., £2 4s ; total, £17 13s 4d.

With fine weather an enjoyable Easter race meeting for the public, and a profitable one for the club, must result from the unusual number of acceptances for the various events . I Q addition to the advertised programme, a hurdle race will be added to the second day's sport, for which event there will be several competitors. The horses are in good trim, and visitors may rely on seeing some excellent racing. The Southland Times is gratified to learn that the Mataura paper mill is again at work, and that on Saturday a supply of excellent brown paper manufactured therein was received in Invercargill, The machinery of the mill has for several months been under the process of complete renovation as well as of enlargement, and the result is most satisfactory to the proprietors. There will now be a large output of browa and grey paper, which we hope will find their way over the colony and establish a good reputation. But the alterations in the machinery of the mill j have all been made with a future view to the manufacture of printing paper, an industry for which the native material is supposed to be highly suitable. Patti appeared three times at Nice in the Trovatore, Somnambula, and the BarbiereShe received the unprecedented sum of £600 for each performance, and prices were raised in proportion, a seat in the pit costing 255. She has gone on to Monte Carlo, where she sings during the next month. To celebrate her arrival on the Eiviera, Madame Blanc has presented her with a diamond coronet, which cost £3000. Last week two boys out on Duaedin Harbor in a boat pulled up to a beacon one night to get a light for a pipe, and accidentally extinguished the signal light. They pulled off, and a steamer coming up the harbor shortly afterwards grounded. The boys were arrested, but as their action ,was evidently more due to thoughtlessness than wilfulness they were dismissed. By this act they were liable to a penalty of £200. Inspector Weldon described one of the culprits as a poor lad without a friend in the place who coiled himself up in the Devil's Halfacre at night and did whatever he could for a living.

In Greytown there are some wicked people who take advantage of the fact that the Government has withdrawn the local constable, to play practical jokes. The last one on record (says the Wairarapa Daily) is " the mysterious knocks." A family in the main street was recentty appalled by an irregular succession of knocks on the front door through a considerable portion of one dark night. Subsequent in vestigation proved that one end of the rope bad been tied to the knocker, and the other end had been attached to the neck of a Btray calf. A movement is on foot for the establish^ ment of a produce market in Dunedin. An armless woman who plays the piano with her feet is the latest monstrosity. At Madame Tussaud's Waxworks in i London is exhibited the gallows which was iv use at Newgate for a quarter of a century. Mrs Lewis, of Tenterfleld, a young lady in good circumstances, has died under the effects of chloroform while having a tooth drawn. Up to the end of Mdlle Sara Bernhardt's eleventh woek in America, the receipts had totalled up to nearly £50,000. All the Turkish Government departments some time ago received orders not to pay any salaries or make any other payments whatever until the end of March, the whole revenues of the State being absorbed by the military preparations in progress. The following is a copy of a telegram received by Albert White, the sculler, of Mercury Bay, from Duncaa, of Christchurch: — " Cannot succeed in making business arrangements satisfactory to match, so must stand out, leaving you and Hearn to meet each other. Posted letter full explanation.'" A. White is now open to row Hearn for £100 a-side, to come off in Wellington or Tamaki River, Auckland. If the match is pulled in Wellington, Hearn to allow White £25 in case he loses, and if in Auckland the same allowance to be given Hearn . This challenge Csays the Auckland Star) is not for Hearn alone, but for any other New Zealand man who likes to take it up."

The New York Times, commenting on the mobbing of the Berlin Jews by the Berlin students at the beginning of the New Year, says the date selected was certainly suggestive. "It is always at the end of the year that tailors and ready-made clothing merchants exhibit a disgusting anxiety to have their bills paid. Beyond a doubt, in the last week of December 90 men out of every 100 of the students of the Berlin University were informed that if they did not pay for their coats and trousers they would be sued. Judging from the appearance of the typical German student he always buys his cothes ready made. His coat is precisely the sort of garment which the Jewish dealer asserts will fit his customer ' sbust like the paper oa de wall,' and his trousers have all the elegance of the ' nishe pants ' of Chatham street. Now it must have occurred to the Berlin students that if they could drive the Jews out of the city there would be no more trouble on account of unpaid clothing bills; and had a rigid examination been made of every student's pockets on New Year's Day, the explanation of their riotous conduct would have been found in the bills of Moses and Aaron and Abraham, for coats and trousers furnished during the year 1880."

An English paper says: — "The trustees of the charity of Peter Lathom, once a beggar, of Mawdsley, near Preston, have just met. It was reported that the property, which originally coßt a few hundreds, was now worth £570,000- One block had recently been sold for £87,000, the fabulous advance in value being owing to the discovery of coal on the land. Lathom left the land for the benefit of the thirteen townships through which he begged, to keep and apprentice four lads, to further education, and other philanthropic uses."

As a dray was passing along Colombo street, Chriatchurcb, the other day, smoke was seen issuipg Icon a cask wntoiniDg

saltpetre, which formed part of the dray's load. Some paper which was intermixed with the saltpetre was found smouldering. It is a puzzle to explain how the substance ignited, as the driver was not smoking, and it is at variance with pre-conceived theories on the subject to surmise that spontaneous com bustion would have resulted from the jolting of the duiy. Perhaps, (says the Press) our savants can explain the incident.

Regarding the fine looking Fijian gentleman in attendance on His Excellency the Governor on hia recent visit, the correspondent of a contemporary says : — We have a real live Fijian prince staying at Government House, the guest of Sir Arthur Gordon, just now. I hear that he plays " lawn tennis like a Christian," and is in every way a very polished member of society. I believe he is going to enlarge his mind by travel in Europe, and that he is in fact now on his way to England.

Things must surely be mending, is the remark of a correspondent of the Christ' church Star, under the following circumstances;—Mr Steel, manager for the Hororata Threshing Company, in looking up hands for the machine a day or two ago, found on the station of the Hon. J. Hall eight swaggers ostensibly ia search of employment. He was however, only able to induce two of these to go to work at 12s 6d a thousand, which means to a good man about 10s to 12s a day. One of these, after feeding the machine for about an hour, put on his coat and shouldered his swag, saying the work was to hard for him.