LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 22, 19 September 1911, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At the anmial meeting of the Optimista' Club of New South Wales Mr W. M. Hamlei, tiie Government Analyst, gato the following recipe for the making of an optimist: Take a full measure of the flour of human serength, a cupful of the milk of human kindness, some of the sweetness of human delights, some of the butter of gladness, some salt and spice of adventure, a littk) of the leaven of righteousness. Take also of the water of life, mix in musical nrakjdy, and placa the whole into the fiery oven of human experience. Then

A case which recently came before the Magistrate's Court at Christchurch revealed a rather peculiar position as between the police and persons committing a breach of the Indecent Publications Act. Sections 43, 44, and 45 of the Police Offences Act, 1908, dealt with offensive publications, and the police have no longer power to arrest, or to commence any prosecution, without the leave of the Attorney-General. In other words, a police officer may catch j a man red-handed at exhibiting or sell-1 ing indecent pictures or cards, but be j unable to take any action until the At-torney-General has been consulted. Where an offender would be by the time a consultation was concluded is one of the problems the police have not yet solved. When the Waratah disappeared from human ken, Mr E. R. Waite, curator of the Canterbury Museum, received a letter asking him to decide a wager about a question relating to that illfated vessel. The question was:—"lf the Waratah sank in mid-ocean, would she drop right down till she reached the bottom, or would she merely drop down a certain depth till the pressure stopped her from going further, so that she would then be carried hither and thither far below the surface at the mercy of currents?" Mr Waite mentioned the matter at a meeting of the Canterbury Philosophical Institute a few days ago. He said the answer was that the vessel would sink down to the very bottom of the sea. The usual number of dead letters and packages was handled by the Post Office last year and in dead letters opened there were notes, cheques, drafts and so on for £11,863. Amongst other things that were -dealt with were nine go:d watches, fifteen silver watches, twentythree gold rings, six gold watch chains, three gold bangles, twelve gold brooches, sixty greenstone ornaments, one gold 1 medal, one gold neckchain, one jewelled pendant, one gold cross, three pieces of polished greenstone, two silver spoons, one passage order Sydney to Melbourne, fifteen pawn tickets, fourteen share certificates and thirty-four lottery tickets. In all, 179,850 letters were opened and returned to the writers through the I)pad Letter Office. 40.551 were returned unopened to other countries, 558 were re-issued, 24,200 were destroyed, 174,179 were returned bv Chief Postmasters, a total of 428,766 in 1909. A total of 21.672 newspapers were returned to the publishers, 1966 letters and 652 letter-cards were posted without addresses, and 99 letters with libellous addresses were intercepted. A cheque for £4BBO, at Christchurch. was posted in a postingbox loose. The 'Post' states that Mr G. E. Tolhurst. who for some 21 years has been inspector in New Zealand of the Union Bank, will probably retire from that position. Mr R. A. Holmes, until recently manager in Wellington, but who for some months past has been ac-ting-manager at Melbourne, will probably succeed Mr Tolhurst and Mr D. Stuart, at present acting-manager in Wellington, will be confirmed in that position (says a Wellington Press Association telegram).