WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 49

WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, November 28. Mr W. Fraser, member for Wakatipii. will be unable to be present at the opening of the Otago Central line, as he had to pay a visit to Auckland and could not get back in time. He is, however, going south this evening to attend the Gore show, where he will no doubt meet a large number of his constituents. In a perjury case at the Supreme Court-to-day Mr Justice Cooper referred to the prevalence of perjury in the colony. He said people had in many instances shown a reckless disregard of the truth, and one could not avoid seeing that from day to day in the administration of justice there was false swearing committed by witnesses. It seemed to him that Iho public conscience was not really alive to the extreme heinousness of the crime. Our liberties, nay, our lives, might depend upon the truthful state?meuts of persons caller! upon to give evidence in the witness box. The offence of perjury, to his mind, was one of the gravest known to the law. It struck at the very root of the fabric of society, and unless those whose duty it was to administer the law expressed their sense of the gravity of the offence and of the heinousness of the crime when sheeted home to the person,charged, then they were not doing their* duty. The crime of perjury, he did nob hesitate to -say, was very often committed in our midsr. and if persons were to be allowed to go free with only the nominal penalty of paying the costs of the prosecut ion, and the stigma attaching to the crime, • it would be striking a fatal blow at the ~ administration of justice-. In the case befora him . he administered a sentence oL 12 months' imprisonment, with hard labour. - Mr James Witt, of Messrs Sargood, Son, and Ewen, who is leaving the colony to be fancy goods buyer in London, has been presented with a solid silver card-box and an enlarged photograph of the managers and heads of the departments of Messrs Sargood's local branch. Mr Witt will go to London, via Auckland and Sydney, and will leave Wellington by to-morrow niqrning's train. November 29. The disease which has attacked the potato crops in Auckland, known as macrosporium, is an affection of the leaf, and is scarcely likely to be transmitted from plant to plant through the medium of the tubers._ The Department of Agriculture has not* thought it neoessary to prohibit the transportation of potatoes from Auckland to other; parts of the colony. .Spraying, if properly - carried out, will cheek any potato disease - at present known, and the department has ' issued a leaflet giving directions for the spraying of plants, which will be a use-, ful precaution- at the present time, besides ohecking any liability to in^ection^ The spray recommended improves tho general health and increases the yield of tlio crop. The chief ingredients are blue-, stone, lime, and treacle. After negotiations extending over many months, the Land Purchase Board has concluded the purchase of another portion oE tho Tablelands Esfcate, in South "AVairarapa,?^ amounting to 2600 acres. The 'resumption of the Tablelands and- Longbush property was retarded by a judgment of the Supremo Court, wwhich decided that there .was no power to take eompulsorily land, in which " Native titles are involved^ The new acquisition will be thrown open for selection under ■ the name of Hikawera.

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