NEAR AND FAR

Evening Star, Issue 14554, 1 May 1911, Page 8

NEAR AND FAR

The hisjli code of honor which t-hould be maintained in the legal profession was a theme emphasised by Mr H. R. Curlewis in a lecture on 'The Brotherhood of the Law,' delivered recently to the University Law Society in Sydney. He said ho was not sure that they were not a little tax in Australia, in this regard. If a man in the profession did sumething which placed him outside the pale of common decency they owed it to tho liunor of the profession not to do us was too often done—to treat him as he hud been treated before. In other countries there .seemed lo be a healthier tone. Men such as the man who defended the Tichbornc claimant —who tried to rob an infant of his inheritance and to fix shame on an honorable woman —ought to be east out, not only from the profession, but from the fellowship of tho profession. A man declared unworthy of the profession ought not to be allowed to canvass its members for signatures to a petition for his reinstatement. He would not advocate keeping a man who made one slip out of the profession for ever, but his pctit'O'i should be laid on the table of I ho Law Institute, so that those who wished to sic,n it could do so without canvass. Honorable men disliked hurting a- man's feelings, and for that reason oltcu signed petitions whtn canvassed. It was of tea said that the i.uv was a t!tti, evaporation—a unitvi. But the union of tiie !-iw. whatever it was designed for. worked for the protection of the public rather than for tho legal profession.

For the first lime in tho hi.-tory of Ashburton there appears to be almost a famine as regards milk, ard at least five retail milkmen intend to dtlivcr milk only once daily until further iriticc. Tho cause (rojKirts the he!', journal) in directly attributable to the dearth of vegetation a fewweeks ago, v. hich had tho effect of inducing the cows to dry off immaturely. Milk has been scarce in Ashburton for some lime back, and the new state of affairs—a oncedaily delivery—will causo mothers and heads of households, restaurant-keepers, and, indeed, all couf.uniors, much concern, as milk is an almost i.idispcnsable article of diet. Plastic surgery, an American innovation that created a little stir a few years ago, ;s achieving one of its greatest triuiuplis in the case ot Timothy Martin, of New York. On May 16 Martin fell, face foremost, into a set of revolving cogs. His whole face was lacerated, the oyeballs bandy escaping. Three doctors kneaded the tlesh, as it heultd. into u chin, and gave the oiitferer a. new mouth and iips. Ju.-t before the mail left they began the last stage of the. work, supplying a nose. Trie small l.'ii£'r ot the left hand was slit open, and placed where the nose sboiild be. The arm is l*anc!.i£od so tightly that the finger and face are tieid rigidly together. It will take s cue weeks tor them to knit, 'i iicn the tiinrel- will be amputated, and tiie " hc.-e " shaped.

Quile a (lilbertian story comes from Swansea. At the borough quaiter sessions there w.i" a case in which a man named I'rairgs was indicted lor stealing meat. When the case was called, the prisoner collitl not ha found. His wdicitor and oftiii'aJs oi the court hunted high and low, but it was some eonsidt rnbl" t: mc before Ci ages was discovered. Then he was found--;iino.'ii.'?t the (!rand Jury, helping to decide whether there was a. title lull against himself or not. To his solicitor Cragge ixplabied that lie thought the grand jurymen were all prisoners! Eventually Craggs v. as found not guilty of the charge. At tlie <jj'"ii-.'tir meeting on (Saturday evening the Kev. W. Slade gave an earnest i.ddi<:ss, based mainly upon his experiences as a mis-ioria'.y in Fiji. He said that the ealloi's indifference of many of the whites to the iiullcriiiL'6 caused among the natives hv gifts <>r of liquor was surprising. Just as with white people, the presence of intoxicants was always the undoing of a proportion of any native race. The cause of the drink evil was the presence and use of drink. There was no escape from* that basic fact ; hence total abstinence, Noiieer.se, and total Prohibition logically' followed. Mr G. P>- Xicholls said that there coud be no doubt but that at least 20,000 to 30,000 families in New Zealand were being cursed by drink. He bancd a strong appeal on the sacrilicc of his life by FrankSmith to save one chum for all workers to sacrifice the pleasure drink gave them to save 20,000 men at once, and probably 100,000 in the next fifty years. Several repeated the pledge, but none came forward to 6ign it.