LOCAL AND GENERAL

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 63, 5 November 1887, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The B,s. Rotomahana leaves an hour earlier than usual to-morrow; The last boat leaves at 8 a.m. Mr E. Woon; agent lor the Public Trustee, has money to lend in sums from £lOO to £lO,OOO. Messrs J, Clarite and A Twohy have been ' returned unopposed to represent the Te Arai Riding in the County Counoll. The Salvationists hold a big meeting on Sunday next, in ths Theatre Royal, as a farewell to the departing officers, At a meeting of the members o£ the J Battery on Thursday night Sergeant-Major Sage was elected Bub-Lieutenant, and Lieut. Kenny as Senior-Lieutenant. The telegraph office will only open from 9 to 10 a.m. and 7 to 8 p.m. on Prince of Wales Birthday. A close holiday will be observed by the PoatJOffioe. Tho s.s. Manapouri arrived at 11.30 a.m. yesterday. She left Sydney on the 27th ult., arrived at Auckland on the Ist inst,, left again on the 3rd at 1 p.m., arriving is above; Nominations for the election of two members ta represent the Waikohu Biding in the County Council takes place at the Road Board Office, Waikohu, on November 11. In reply to a communication from Major Atkinson, the Victorian Premier has telegraphed that he has received no information respecting the cession of Raiatea to France. Attention is drawn to the Presbyterian Church s grand picnic and sals of work which is to be held on nest Wednesday in Mr Cameron’s paddock, Matawhero; The affair promises to be a great success, A telegram trim Wellington states that the revenues collected in the colony for last month amounted to £124,098; as against £lOB,BlO for the corresponding month last year. The beer duty shows a deficit of nearly £8,500, as compared with the estimates. In an article un Crown lands our contemporary says“ The question put by nearly everyone of the large number who visited the Herald office yesterday was not i “How is the Major going to deal with the Civil Service ? ’’ but it was “ What are the land firdhosals of the Government ?’* Verb sap I The (N.Z. Times) are credibly informed of a remarkable instance of the' keenness of competition in the shipping trade. It is stated that lately a cargo has bsen carried ■ by one of the New Zealand Shipping Companies between southern ports at the rate of 3s 6d per ton freight. The ordinary freight is 12s 6d per ton, “ To-day is the anniversary of the Gunpowder plot, and no doubt some of the youths of , Gisborne will show their condemnation of Guy Fawkes’ action, and their own partiality to noise and fire by the letting off of all the . fireworks that the money at their command can procure. Several lads in Auckland fired with an ambition to display their loyalty : broke into a shop and appropriated a few bundles of crackers. The police put a'stop to their loyalty by running them in. Our remarks relative to tho irregular way , in which the business of the Boiough Council was conducted has been productive of some good. Before the comme...-.of ‘ the Council meeting <>n Tuesday night the , Mayor said he did not want to adhere closely to the rules of discussion, but as exception had been taken to the manner in which the ; business had bean conducted he would aek members to epeak only once on any subjectspeak as long as they liked. But only‘once. ; It was net .that they did not know what were ■ the rules of discussion, but it was not always ’ wise to confine debate to the very letter.

When on the voyage between Napier and Gisborne one of the steerage passengers on board the s.s. Wairarapa accidentally slipped down and broke his leg. The unfortunate passenger was Mr Jacob Leshke; a Prussian; who was on his way to Auckland with a companion, Mr T. Wilson. They had Secured work at Mititai, and were proceeding there. When the steamer reached Gisborne the Union Company sent a doctor on board, who set the leg and made the sufferer as easy as possible; and on his arrival at Auckland his mate had him at once conveyed to the Hospital, where he now lies. Mr Leshke is a is a married man, and has a wife and three children at Christchurch. The criminal code of New South Wales is in sad necessity cf being modified, A person can be hanged in that colony for many offences short of murder. If we in New Zealand had a similar criminal code as New South Wales, Hall the poisoner would have been hanged by the neck until he was dead for the mere fact of his administering poison would be enough to condemn him to die Many persons would have suffered th s last penalty of the law under.the New South Wales code who only received a few years’ Z . eal , and ’ E «>Ple can, Luder the N.S.W. criminal code be hanged for administering poison, causing poison to be taken, administering a destructive thing causing a destructive thing to be taken wounding, causing grievous bodily harm! setting fire to a vessel, setting fl re to a chattel therein, getting flre to furniture, casting away a vessel, destroying a vessel; Betting fire to tackle, destroying or damaging a building bv gunpowder or other explosive substance, placing any matter or thing upon or across a railway, removing a sleeper or other thing belonging to a railway.

(decided in the B.M. Court yesterday) the plaintiff sued the defendant for £44 costs incurred by the plaintiff in connection with a subdivisioual survey of the Bahokapua block. It appeared that the defendant who had acquired the interests of all the native owners in the block had agreed in writing to sell to Joyce and give him *’ a conveyance free of all cost,’’ Mr Joyce instructed O’Meara to survey the land, and stated on oath that he hai done so, acting in the capacityof agent for the c’a'endant, O’Meara had sued Joyce and had obtained judgment. Joyce now sued Gannon for the survey fees and costs incurred. For the defence it was alleged that the defendant had given the plaintiff “a conveyance free of all cost,” that Joyce had become the absolute purchaser of the land, and that there was no undertaking or agreement with reference to paying for the survey. Mr J. O. Bana rd, late chief of the Survey department, gave evidence to the effect that Joyce had made written application (letter produced) as purchaser of the block for O’Meara to be appointed to survey the land After a good deal of evidence had been taken on both sides, his Worship r.on-suited Mr Joyce. Mr McDonald appeared for the defendant, and Mr Finn for the plaintiff. In delivering judgment in the case of Finlinson and another v Reid and others, a case heard at Oamaru. Mr Justice Williams gave a very important ruling upon the law of distraint, winch considerably alters existing ideas upon the subject. The Property Law Consolidation Act, 1883, provides that in every lease there shall be implied the power in the lessor to levy distress whenever the rent ja twenty one days in arrear. In the case in question it was contended that, notwithstanding his statutory right, the com-mon-law right to distrain immediately the rent became due still existed, This contention was based on a dictum of Coke on Littelton. His Honor, after discussing the legal point at considerable length, said that, in the case of statutes, the whole-scope of the statute could be looked at to see whether an enactment in terms affirmative did not imply a negative and take away any existing com-mon-law rights. The provision that the lessor might distrain whenever the rent should be in arrear for twenty one days was meaningless and delusive if the common-law right of immediate distress continued to exist; and if it was reasonable, looking at the whole of the statute, to apply to the maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius to give these words a meaning, then that maxim ought to be applied. He was of opinion that the effect of the section referred to was to modify the common-law right of distress for rent where rent was payable under a lease, and to make the right exercisable only after twenty-one days’ default. Presbyterian Church Services on Sunday next—Makauri 1.30., Matawhero 3, Revd. J. i McAra; Patutahi 2.30., Mr R. H. Scott; St. Andrew’s 11 and 7—Open Church—Revd. J,