GENERAL NEWS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7790, 15 March 1904, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

In connection with the charge against a boy, •heard at the I'olice Court, Christchurch, last week, for smoking a cigarette, the following extracts from the Juvenile Smoking Suppression Act, 1903, are pertinent. Clause 2 says : " Every person who sells, gives, or supplies, ary cigarette, cigar, or tobacco, m any form, to any youth under Mie ago of fifteen years, shall 'be deemed to be guilty of an offence against the provisions of this Act, and upon conviction thereof, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £10." Clause 3 states : " Every j^outh under the age of fifteen years who, in a public place, as defined by the Police Offences Act, 1884, smoke a cigarette, cigar, or any part thereof, or tobacco in any form, sa>all ■be deemed to be guilty of an offence against this Act, and upon conviction thereof, shall be liable, for the first offence, to have a conviction recorded against him, or, for the second and subsequent offence, to a penalty of not exceeding ss.

On the subject of Cabinet reconstruction the Dunedin Star says,:— '' Reports have been in circulation i* political circles for some time past of prospective changes in the Ministry, and it hap been hinted that the Premier, in deference of the freelyrexpessed opinions of some of his party, intended to get rid of two of his present colleagues, who have been generally regarded as sources of weakness. AYe are in a position to state that there will be no change in the personnel of the administration. It will be found, we venture to assert, that the Premier has decided to meet the House with his present set of colleagues, and to takte the chance of defeat, because the known discontent of some members of his Party with the Minister' of Lands and Customs, Mr Seddon would probably not be at all displeased to find himself in a minority on a motion declaring the constitution of the Ministry unsatisfactory. T-hq ;dea appears to be gaming ground among the Ministerialists that there are more unlikely events than aii appeal to the country this year, though for our own part we hold strongly that ..dissolutions are things of «Hhe past. But apart from our view, there is a growing feeling in well-informed political circles that the Premier may prefer to dissolve Parliament upon such a vote as that indicated rather than court defeat either on the liquor question or on the freehold versus leasehold issue. However this may be, it can be said with certitude that the Premier means to compel his party to accept the Ministry, as at present constituted, or to boldly proclaim their dissatisfaction and take the enevitable consequences of such action."