GENERAL ITEMS.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XIII, Issue 1128, 24 July 1903, Page 1

GENERAL ITEMS.

Steps are being taken to identify several of the spots made famous during the Maori wars in the South Taranaki district. Mr J. P. Ward, one of those who Blept on the battlefield of Te Ngutu o te Mann on the night before the battle, has been examining the locality and it positive that the spot which is "pointed out as that where Yon Tempsky fell is not the corre^ me. As . the band of survivors oa ,«he famous engagement;i-« now rapidly lessening, Mr Ward intends to petition Parliament to appoint a commission to.tako cvi« dence and ascertain the exact sites of the actions of Te Ngutu o to Manu, Te Rua Rua, ar Te Pungarehu.

Tho law is though a man may marry his sister-in-law, lie cannot marry her daughter. James Smith, a West Melbowne foreman, married the daughter of his deceased wife's sister, but af.-er they had )ived together for 12 rlnys his wife left him on account of conscientious grounds. Mr Justice a'Beckett, in giving decision in an application for the nu'Mty of the marriago, said that if the respondent had been the sister of his deceased wife, instead of her niece, the marriage would have been 'valid under section 18 of "The Marriage Act, 1890," which provided that mania go with the sister of a deceased wife should not be voidable or iv any case impoachable upon the ground oF affinity. The daughter of a deceased wife's sister was within the prohibited degree of afP iity, but legislators had omitted to validate marriage with her. Doubtless they would have done so had the necessity of such a provision occurred to them Jl.irriago with a deceased wife-; riece having been voidable befo 0 thr marriage with a decease! . «-if.--'a. sisfer was made t'-umpeacbable remained voidable, and he had only to give effect to the law asat stood. It was no objection to a suit of this kind that both parties at the time of the celebration of the marriage were aware of the impediment. He declared the marriage null and void.

The Jhalf-ton cheese, which will foi n one ©f the principal attractions at the forthcoming winter show at Palmerston, has been manufactured at the Edendale Dairy Factory -by Mr James Sawyers, one of the leading chee3emakers of the colony. It con-

taiDß £10 worth of coins raj^ing from ha^-sovereigns to threepenny pieces, and slices of it wi 1 be sold during the show at one shilling a piece. The society should have no difficulty 1 in effecting a quittance of the entire cheese. A feature of the winter show will bo hockej' and footba' tournaments on the show grounds, for wHeh clubs from the majority of the North Island centres are entering, teams.

Miss Loie Fuller, the famous serpentine dancer, has offered to contribute to the St. Louis Exhibition an old cherry chest that was buried during the revolutionary war by her great-great-grandfather when he and his family were taken prisoners by the Indians and carried off io Canada. When they were exchanged and brought back they found their mouey and got all safe in th,e old. cheat, which has remained, in the family eyer since,

A. stout la^y named Mine.-Prud-htmme entered tho telephone callbojc in her shop at Lyons to ring ughcr banker P 7'.e became wedged in the bos, and 1 !ier ories could not he, heard in . the street through '_,,&& sound-proof door, was comp\?ffed fe explain her predicamitit over the telephone. She was released iv an exhausted con&t'ibn an hour later. I

In fairnws to Mr Seddon, it must, be said Hint, unlike his rival in precedence, the Premier ha 3 never at any , time in his career pretended to, regard monarchical inßtitutiftna op the acceptance, of titular distinction or the tin- j polled vanities of vice-Regal Courts , as incompatible with the profession ! of domocratic principles. He has' never gone round the country in,-.., yeighing against the accept«noe of, titles and de.pcrationst, nor can we him, as happened jn the ease ! pi the othor gentleman, presenting the awful spectacle to gods and men of being so overcome with tears and emotion as to be unable to express j his gratitude when the announcement i was made in the House of Represent-, atives that one of those despised tit^e^ had been conferred on him,. In these colonies titular distinctions are entirely the, reward of merit in some form, or of the services rendered to the people, and there is no more offensive, phase of snobbery and n.Q aj\ve* proof j of poltroonery th,ao, h. presented in th,s p,e^ip.d" o! Sir Robert Stout's j careerduring which he posed as theapostle of republican simplicity an,d, i the enemy of foreign titles ~ except perhaps, tbat melo-oramatic incident \a the w,hen h,e wept tears of jjoy a^nd tr^ed, i^neft'eotually between his. sobs to pour out his republican aoul in gratitude to his sovereign. In his present passionate strugglo for 1 'precedence,'his threats of resign v | tion and his cultivated, acquaintance with tliQ trxyialties of a pinchbeck pr^er of- Court procedure we are given a fitting f>ounte*pa"u to his earlier exhibitions of another kind.,-™ Tuapeka Times.

The "Club Chatterer," in «Today," fells a new Mark Twain story which may or may not be true. Hearing of the manner in which the miUioneire was giving away money, tb,e Yankee humorist sat down and wrote the following appeal to Mr Carnegie: -"Depv Mr Ca...iegie,—l see by the papers that you are prosperox^jj^want to get a hymn book ; itji^^^^Hlg^tfflH^UL send me