NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 26, 1 February 1887, Page 1

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The temperance party would do a good work were they to address themselves to the consideration of the amendment of the

boundaries of some of the outside licensing districts. In more than one instance that w© know 01, owing to . offioia.l- blundering and want of local knowledge, or through come very clever "gerryrranoern.y" by the opposite side, the boundaries are so badly arranged that the bulk of tha residents live at a distance from the hotels for the supervision of which committees are elected by non-resident voters. Themethod of conducting the horets in these "gerrymandered" districts is not known to the voters. Committees are elected who act with more than justifiable leniency, which laxity is invariably taken advantage of, while a nuisance is inflicted on some adjoining district, which, for density of population iv the proximity of such hotels, should in justice have a say in the licensing. Tha essence of the present Act is local control, and there is no doubt that the porsot 3 resident in the immediate vicinity of a.,\ hotel, and who pass and re-pass it daily, are the best judges of whether it is properly conducted.

Russia has consented to withdraw Prince Nicholas, of Mingrelia, as a candidate for the Bulgarian throne, and to support : Prince George, of Leuchtenberg. , A diplomatic conference at Constantinople is now being held to settle the matter. Thai family of the new candidate for the Throne was founded by the eon of Napoleon' Bonaparte's wife by hor first husband, Viscount Eeauharnais. After Napoleon's, marriage with Josephine, her son followed the fortunes of his illustrious step-father, and greatly distinguished himself. He was rewarded by being made Viceroy of Italy, when Napoleon proclaimed himeelf king of that country. He secured his position by marrying Princess Amalie Augusta of Bavaria, and after the fall of Napoleon he i urchased from Mb father in-law the landgraviato of Leuchtenberg, and as Dnke of Leuchtenberg settled down among the nobles of Bavaria. His eon and successor married a i v ughtor of $b9 Emperor Nicholas, of Hueeia, and bis children—of whom Prince George is one— rank as members of the Russian royal family, and boor the name of Romanouski. rriuce George 19 therefore distantly related to tbe reigning Czar, and is an officer of the Russian army. His acceptance by the Powers as a successor to Prince Alexander - and we think this 15 now probable — will mean a decided ascendency of Kuesian influence. Still, Prince George cornea of an illustrious ancestry, and he may, like Pdnce Alexander, prove that he has ambition and a will of his own.

Theriiscom^k'od cnndMato, Prince Nichol&a of Mingrelia, is thus ro ferred to in a letter by a well informed writer published in tbo "London Times" :-- There is no Prince of Mingrelia in the sense of a Sovereign or oven a respectable .chieftain, but there aro hundreds of ;Princes in the seoee of a ragged peasant nobility, every descendant of every branch of every rapscallion who ever woe the chief of a tribe of Asiatic shepherds laid biiganda before Mingrelia became a Kuesian provinco calling himself " Prince." These fellowß, we are told, are to be found by scores in all sorts of humble cleical employments, their wretched rjrida debarring them from manual labour; and when they cannot pet a clerkship in a warehouse or a potty office under Government, they readily take to crime for wbafc they.deem an honourableliviDg...; There are plenty Bf'.'PriDces"in thegaol at fiatoum and other towns about there, and it nob uhfrequently happens that "Hia Highneps Prince So arid So " loses the number of hit mess for murder or robbery with wjoleuce. This writer says ho knows nothing aboutj-sßcince Nicholas to distinguish him from ordinary- Mtngrelian and he i takes it for granted that ha is some vagabond, or other ' whom; tha Russian Governnionti cbpose; to maikaj a tool ,of. He adds sarcastically "thai) rEurope must be 1 hard up for eovereifrns if an Asiatic has to be procured to rule over Bulgaria.