POLITICAL ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2090, 15 March 1894, Page 17

POLITICAL ITEMS.

Wellington, March 9.

The Post states that the Government intend to continue the work of legal consolidation by codifying the laws relating to summary procedure. They are also contemplating a circuit system among judges in order to prevent the ' possibility of these functionaries getting into local grooves. A bill will also be brought forward to define the relations between judge and jury, establishing the position that the former is to confine himself to setting out the law and the latter to deciding on facts. The Land Purchase Board has had before it offers of 560 (? 560,000) acres in Canterbury, Ofcago, and Southland. Of this only 200 (H 20,000) acres have been considered worth recommending to the Government for purchase. Negotiations for the Elothorpe estate, Hawke's Bay, have not been abandoned by the Government, but there is a difficulty over the price.

Replies have been received by the Government from other authorities to whom Colonel Fox's report was submitted. In the main they support the commandant's conclusions. Four of the big guns are to be shipped to the Armstrong works by the Doric on her next trip. There will be two each from Lyttelton and Auckland. The Tekoa will take one gun from Dnnedin.