CURRENT' TOPICS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7448, 24 May 1911, Page 6

CURRENT' TOPICS

FINES FOE CRUELTY. At last night's meeting of the S.P.C.A., Mr Seed, the society’s inspector, read a clipping from a Home paper, which stated that a man had been sent to prison for three months (the maximum penalty) for gross cruelty to a dog, the cruelty consisting of kicking the dog in a brutal manner, and swinging it round with a handkerchief fastened to its neck. " The lines here are not heavy enough," said the inspector. An example should be made of. those persous cruelly treating animals. They keep cruelty down in England by inflicting punishment." Members expressed the view that offenders brought before the court should not have the option of a fine. BANKRUPTCY EXPERIENCES. The late Mr James Ashcroft had a humorous vein. In some reminiscences of his position as Official published in the "Times" a few years ago, he wrote: A trader once said to me, "The only fault we have with you, Mr Ashcroft.- is that you are too kind to the bankrupts." Well, I have no pleasure in kicking a man when ho is down. I have arrived at the conclusion that two-thirds of the bankrupts are honest bankrupts, and such as the Act is designed to relieve. They may bo all sorts of fools, but not rogues. The other third includes a nice assortment of very doubtful characters. Now and then 1. have had to show severity, “pour encourager les autres," as Napoleon said when he had an offender shot. But a good many have/slipped through, mainly because it takes a very strong case to get a conviction. Jurors have that “fellow feeling" which “ makes us wondrous kind." As to bad bookkeeping, they know they don't keep proper books themselves. The cheerful element has often been very useful in dealing- with creditors, and I have often sent them away laughing. I remember once at the close of a meeting,, where a good many w r ere present, representing various classes of Wellington traders, I said, “ Before you go, gentlemen, I will tell yon a story." A man once was in the habit of using a set phrase, and used it so often that he did not quite know when he used it. The phrase was "such as it is.” He would ask his friends to dinner, and say, “Will you have a, bit of my mutton, such as it is," or ‘‘Will vou have a glass of wine, such as it is." One day ho was parting with his guests, and smiling, benignly, he said, “Well, good-bye, gentlemen, I thank you for your company, such as it is—such as it is." The retiring creditors duly applied the story and retired smiling. On another occasion, when things had got pretty hot, and there was a good deal of cross firing between irate creditors, I said, "Gentlemen, I’m going to smoke a cigarette, and if you’ve got your pines you might follow my example." This was at once acted on,, and for a few minutes we were all puffing the weed, when everything cooled down and all went off smoothly till the close of the meeting. I have had more trouble with irate women than with men, but generally by a little tact, combined with firmness, I have been able to smooth things over. As a rule creditors are wonderfully patient, and take their losses philosophically, and sometimes lot off the bankrupt quite easily. Once I had a country carter, who, as one cause of bankruptcy, stated he. had lost within a short period four valuable horses, worth from £4O to .£SO apiece. I said, “Well, gentlemen, we-all know it’s hard enough to work out one dead horse, let alone four." And they let : him off. WORK AT THE EXHIBITION. A supplementary “Gazette" was issued last evening suspending the provisions of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, Factories Act, and Shops and Offices Act, so far as they relate to the hours of commencing or of ceasing work, or to holidays or closing of shops, so fax as they affect the Commissioners for the exhibition.. Clause 2 of section 9 of the Exhibitions Act, 1910, reads:—"Nothing in .this section shall authorise the working by any person of a .greater number of hours in any day or in any week, nor the payment to any person of a lower rate of wages, than ia provided for ordinary work or for overtime under any Act, or any award or industrial agreement under tho Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1908." WORK ON THE WHARF. According to a statement made by an applicant (a woman with two children) for help at yesterday’s meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Committee, work is scarce on the wharf. The woman said her husband has been out of work for some time. He had repeatedly tried to get employment on the wharf, but without avail. Other work, also, he was unable to find. Consequently the family were in bad straits. The committee decided to grant relief, but tho chairman, Mr McEwan, urged the applicant to get her husband to look, persistently for a situation. . SICKNESS AMONGST MAORIS. At tho monthly meeting of the Taranaki Hospital Board Dr Valmtine, In-spector-General of Hospitals, announced that Cabinet had approved a new arrangement regarding supervision of sanitation and measures to combat sickness amongst Maoris. The whole control of these, matters would now be under the Public Health Department, which would enforce measures to safeguard the health of the natives, the same as it did amongst pakehas. The department would have control of the annual vote of £3 600 for this purpose, and it was proposed to appoint about seventeen nurses, who would visit the kaingas, report upon

and attend to tlio sanitation and sickness amongst C "is, and strive educate the Maori! j, these, directions. Instead of havingtnis branch ot the department controlled from Wellington, then, would be local control, in the hands ot the hospital boards, as boards of health. Tho department would pay tho salaries, etc., to tho nurses, but the nurses would be under 'tho control of the hospital boards, to whom they would report and under whose orders they would work. Ho proposed to station one nurse in the combined Stratford, Hawera and Patea dis. ‘riots, where'there was a native population of 1,083. . In North Taranaki, with a native, population of 2.007, two nurses would probably be stationed. 'Where two nurses were stationed in one district, one should, if possible, be a Maori. The nurses would be directed to encourage and assist any young Maori girls who showed aptitude for nursing.