LAW AND POLICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6564, 30 November 1882, Page 3

LAW AND POLICE.

BANKRUPTCY. Meeting of Creditors.—A final meeting of creditors was held yesterday in the estate of J. S. Jackson, and the debtor was discharged. Mr. Thomas Macffarlane has betn appointed trustee in the estate of Thomas Moody and James Quinlan.

POLICE COURT.—Wednesday.

[Before J. Z. M.cJoonld, Esq., K.M.] Jewkllkry Roubery.— Richard Healy, Thomas Stewart, Peter Young, Joseph Roderick or Rodrigues, Benjamin Sutherland, John Deane, and John Errieksen were again placed hi the dock, charged with stealing ■ jewellery, watches, 4c, from on board the , s.s. Wellington. The evidence was read over to the prisoners, and they were committed for trial. I Delirium Tremens.—Jaine* Tanner, a ■ dishevelled (mt otherwise good-looking young ; fellow, was placed in the dock. He moved I his hands in a spasmodic way. He had variI ous rings of little value on his lingers. | Altogether his aspect was wild, and except Iby sheer force uncontrollable. Sergeant ■ White asked for a remand for a week, liej manded accordingly. ; An Old Tiiikf.—Thomas Mulvauey, an j elderly man, was charged with stealing a pair of boots, the property of William Davis. The prisoner pleaded guilty. There was a long list of previous convictions against the prisoner, and he was sent to gaol for six months. HocsE-STRiPi'lNf;.—Thomas Dewson, a youth of ten years, and Arthur l'cwson, his father, were charged with stealing from the house of Walter Stevens, Wynvard-street, 4-tlbs.of leadand acloset pan. The prosecutor deposed to missing the articles nwn his house the previous day. The arth !.-.- were intrinsically of little value, but it -.< ould cost i.5 to replace them. The pren:i-e- belonged to the Grammar Sehool Board. I-Mwin. Lightfoot, foreman in the establishment of Mr. Parker, Galvanised Iron Works, Yictoriastreet East, said the boy had previously come to him to sell lead. The m itness had received intelligence from the police that the lead had been stolen, c.:ii»..iji:eutly when the boy came again to sell load, witness resolved to detain him. The boy came the previous day with the arti-lcs produced, and witness sent ;'er ;. constable, who arrested him. The boy 1 nought a note to the shop to the following eth ot :—"Buy the lead of my.soii.—A. Jon-.sw.v, Parnell." When this note was shown to the elder prisoner, he said he cjuld not write. The note was written by the elder defendant's wife. Constable Jones deposed to the arrest 'A the prisoners. The elder prisoner said that his son had been to the beach and found the lead, which he brought home in a kit. Mr. Cotter, who watched the case for the prisoners, said the elder prisoner w:.s a carver, ..nd ask.-J that bail might be taken. The reason the name " Johnston" was used was because thepoople were in pooieavi'.niolances, and did not want it to be knov.u they were selling tilings. Sergeant White objected, unless substantial bail was oiicred. There had been several larcenies of the same kind committed, and there was a suspicion that the prisoners were concerned. The elder prisoners wifes dd they bad live ckihtivnathome. They had work to do for the mill by Thursday, which could be done if her husband were at home to assist her. If the work was not in there would be no money, and ' ; the children would go short." His \V'ii-hip said that the prisoners were chargeable with different oH'ences under the Larceny Act. One was a misdemeanour, the other a felony. The prisoners were remanded to Friday next. Fhwl Stkai.ixi:.—The charge preferred against William l'ulford by Thomas Oakenden was withdrawn.

CORRESPOND EN CE.

PUBLIC HEALTH i'EHSi'.S DOCTORS' SQUABBLES. TO THE EDITOR. Sit:, —"Whether it was from a noble desire to shield the man Nicholson from possible injustice, or whether it was from that natural instinct which prompts "the faculty" to take up diametrically opposite views on any given case, may be safely left to conjecture. At all events, it cou'ul hardly be considered in good taste for your correspondent, Dr. MeLeod, to publicly call in question the opinion of Lis brother professional. A child is taken ill in the family of a milkman at Devonport, with symptoms pronounced by the medical officer to the local Board of Health (Dr. Parkinson) to be those of typhoid. That gentleman at once reported the circumstance to the Chairman of the Board, who with the local Sanitary Inspector proceeded forthwith to make an investigationof the premises. Thechvumstance banie known and talked about in domestic circles, the rc.-ult being that Nicholson suffered a temporary loss of custom. Of course, this is a matter for regret, as he is a hard-working, industrious man. But to attempt to make a personal affair of it, as between himself and the Board is ridiculous. Most people know that when the public health is menaced, the preventive measures adopted in cases of fever, small-pox, cholera, Ac, nearly always involve temporary inconvenience and loss to private interests. As a matter of fact, however, the local Board have not forbidden Nicholson from selling his milk, as reported, their action being confined to a formal inspection of the premises. The question suggests itself, " Is a local body entrusted with tiie cure of the public health to remain apathetic and inactive because doctors differ ':" If there be even the shadow of a doubt in a case of this kind, it is surely better to err ou the safe side by taking prompt action, because while rival medicos are hurling technical terms and pharmacopieial thunder at each other, the disease, whatever it be, might become epidemic.—l am, &c, Chki.i eniiam. SOCIETY OF AKTS EXHIBITION. TO THE EDITOR. Sn:, — Last evening's paper contains a letter from Mr. A. Martin, who denies that the judges at our art exhibitions I were also exhibitors ; and this denial is true in the letter if not in the spirit. Mr. | Martin was one of the judges and also a large exhibitor, ar.d, setting aside tiie questionable taste and ir.; of snub ;>- combination, we all know how such things are worked here. Having gone the rounds with his co-judges, he gracefully retires to the anteroom while they decide on the j merits of his own productions, and of course they must be superhutnauly impartial or else the pictures be supeihuinanly ! bad, for an adverse verdict to be brought I against them. 1 trust we shall have some j common sense in the judging department I tin's year, so that amateur dabblers, anto- '■ diluvians, and new chums, who have never seen New Zealand bush, will not be foisted j into the position of judges to imperil the ! means ot livelihood of men who have grown ' gn-y :u the service of art. Until this is done i the bulk of our best artists will continue to ! hold aloof, as they have hitherto done, lest : their reputations should be sinittlecocked about by tyros or empirics under the name ■ 0I * judges.—l am, &.c, A Well-wisher. j November 2S, ISS2.

i THE COMET.

TO TUE EIJITOK. Sir, —In Arch deacon Stock's paper on the comet he says:—''Our present comet, in approaching the sun, moved directly, and now, while lervving the sun, its motion is retrograde." But as the Australian astronomers say its motion is '' retrograde," that is, from east to west, we must regard the direct motion—west to east—as ouly apparent. From Piazza Smyth's letter of September "24, that appeared in the Scotsman, the observations at France and .Aberdeen of the Monday previous showed a displacement of lines towards the red in the spectrum, from which he savs it was evident " the comet was going rapidly away from us, that it had already passed its perihelion, and was rushing off into distant cold spa.ee, to cool down its substance." Mr. Proctor, in a note on this passage in Knowledge, October 6, says : —"lt by no means follows that because a comet is receding from the earth it is receding also from the sun. A comet may be approaching the sun rapidly when recedirg rapidly from the earth ; or it may be passing its perihelion when so receding from us. I'ut as the comet's apparent distance from the sun was increasing at the time, it is more probable that the comet had passed its perihelion." I send you this note in the hope that it may recontile the apparent difference between the observations of the Government Astronomer at Wellington, and those at Windsor (N.S.W.), Sydney, and Melbourne. —I am, &c, J. L. Sinclair.