SPECIAL TELEGRAMS

Evening Star, Issue 12418, 3 February 1905, Page 7

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS

WELLINGTON, February 3. Two men were recently concerned in the theft of a trunk and a parcel, value about £lO &, from a hotel. One of them, named Ruff, is undergoing a sentence for receiving in connection with the affair; the other, William Charles Watson, was on his trial in the Supreme Court, and asked Detective Kemp whether Ruff had given information that led to his (Watson’s) arrest. Mr Justice Denniston disallowed the question. He said it was a rule that tho police should not be asked to give away persons who gave them information. That rule was supposed to be in tho interests of justice. He was not quite sure that he admired it, but he saw no reason in the present case to break it. Eventually Watson was found guilty, and in passing a sentence of five years Judge Denniston said that the prisoner had commenced his criminal record in 1891, when ho was about eighteen years of age, and each reappearance from gaol he seemed to have signalised with housebreaking or burglary. Prisoner had shown that he intended to live as a habitual criminal. The offence of habitual criminality should be an offence in itself, and it should be possible for a person to be tried for it, and _ if convicted locked up for life. That was not the law now, but that was what should be, as it was waste of time to treat a man of the prisoner’s character os a man allowed to be at large. Mr G. S. Munro, Acting Secretary for the Department of Industries and Commerce, left for tho South yesterday on business connected with the colony’s representation of produce and manufactures at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, which is beug held at the Crystal Palace, I/ondon, from May to October this year. The idea of Mr I'.lnnro is that the colony should be represented at this exhibition by a huge trophy, consisting of butter boxes, bearing the brands of all tho factories in the colony, and ho is approiichlng all those concerned in order to carry out that project. The Rev. F. W. Isitt, who has just returned from a trip of three weeks in the South, says tht the prospects of tho NoLicense party are very bright in Otago. From his point of view matters are most encouraging generally, and he is satisfied with tlie public sentiment iu Chalmers, Olutha, and Mataura, though concerning Port Chalmers he is not so confident as he is of the other districts. Its close proximity to Dunedin is considered more or less of an obstacle to the work of his party, and ■he is of the opinion that the police are not so energetic in their endeavors to suppress abuses as they are elsewhere. Asked to say what were the prospects for the next licensing poll. Mr Isitt declined the role of prophet. “ I won’t say what electorates we shall win,” he says; “ and it is rather foolish on the part of those of our way of thinking to indulge in positive forecasts. At the same time, the activity and determination of the party, and the public feeling as I have observed it, are full of promise for the success of the cause.” The forthcoming visit of Father Hays will be of great value, he says, because he has been enormously successful in Australia. Mr Isitt says that sly grog-selling is still prevalent in Ashburton. “If I chose,” ho said, “I could get a bottle of whisky from Ashburton in a week, from a source that is only a short distance from the post office, and the Minister of Justice or the Commissioner of Police could do it as easily as I could if either of them chose. But it is not tny business to detect sly grog-selling. ” Mr isitt denied a rumor that no was interesting himself in collecting funds for the Taylor testimonial fund.