LAW QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 48

LAW QUERIES.

[Answered by a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. x Letters and Telegrams must be addressed to " LEX," c/o Editor, Otago Witness, Dunedin.] “ Sinty Greenhorn ” asks. “ Would a row of electric power board poles upon which there are no wires be likely to be deemed an electric line under section 8 of the Electric Power Boards Act, 1927 ? ” Yes. M.' M. asks: “Is a husband, mutually separated from his wife, to whom he is paying a substantial maintenance out of his meagre earnings (£4 per week) liable for the hospital account for the treatment of his child? ” No, if the wife has the custody of the child. “Constant Reader” asks: “My neigbour wishes to plant a green hedge. What distance must he keep in from the boundary? ” No distance is prescribed by law, but the hedge must not be planted on or alongside the boundary without your consent in writing. “Argument” asks: “I am single, and my wages and private money bring me in an income of £2BO per year. Am I liable to pay income tax and should I put in an income tax return?.” No. If you are a farmer or in business you must furnish a return. If the department asks you for a return you will require to furnish one. “Boundary” asks: “Am I compelled to pay half costs of a boundary fence? I have lived ?n the house for eight years, freehold property, and have a plain wire and wire netting attached, and a live hedge. The man that is building alongside says that he is going -to erect ■a paling fence, and I will have to pay half the cost.” If the fence is a “ sufficient ” one you cannot be compelled to join in erecting a new fence. E. J. asks: “When my wife asked a J.P. to .witness her on a lands transfer form he deliberately read the contents of the transfer form. When my wife objected he stated, ‘ I am a J.P., and must look over to see if it is in order.’ Has he the authority to do so ? ” The J.P. is entitled to know the nature of the document which he is witnessing. It is not necessary for him to read over the contents of the transfer form,

“Inquiry” asks: “I have a Government j loan from the Advances to Settlers Office of £lOOO. The principal is now ; reduced to £4OO, and 1 am still paying ! the interest on the original amount. i Is there any way in which I can get i release from paying the original inter- I est? The loan was for 36 years.” | Under the Government loan the iustal- ! inents are the same throughout the ■ period of the loan, but these instalments include both principal and interest, and the interest is reduced every half year. If the instalments are too heavy for you you could obtain a fixed mortgage for £4OO for three years or five years. Mongrel” asks. “ (1) Can a land owner shoot a dog trespassing on his property without being able to prove it respon- i - sible for any damage? (2) If a dog is suspected of damage to sheep should not the owner be first warned before the land owner takes action? (3) la the owner of the dog entitled to damages if it can be proved that it was wrongfully destroyed? ” (1) The owner of any cattle or sheep, or any servant or person employed by such owner, may destroy any dog running at large amongst such cattle or sheep. If the dog is without a collar it may be de- I stroyed. (2) The land owner has no ' legal right to destroy any dog unle.s it is biting or attacking any person or any horse, sneep, or cattle, or is running at large amongst his sheep or cattle. (3) Yes. “Ignorant” asks: “A has first right to J tour heads of water out of a stream, B has second right to six heads take.) out lower down stream. C has third right to three heads, and D fouyth right ' to three heads. (1) When water is i short can A take all the water out of i the stream providing he does not take ' more than four heads? (2) What quantity of water, if any, is A compelled by law to leave in the stream when water is scarce? (3) Can Government irrigation races recently made upstream from A, B, C, and D take all the water out of the stream, or must sufficient water be left to allow of A, , B, C, and D receiving their full quota before taking any water from the stream? ” (1) Subject to the express provisions of the water race license A is entitled to a prior right to take his four heads -of water. (2) No water. (3) No.

Some time early on Saturday morning, burglars effected an entry into the premises of Mr John Watson, draper, George street, Port Chalmers, cut the bottom out of a safe, and stole about £ll4 in cash. By cutting a hole in the back door of the shop, the thieves managed to open the lock from the inside, and having gained entry, shifted the safe into a back room, and covered it in rugs and blankets to deaden any noise whilst they were working on it. It was apparent that the burglary was committed in the early hours of the morning, as Mr Watson left the shop about midnight, and, the key being noticed on the outside of the door by the constable on duty about 3 a.m., an investigation was made and the rifled safe found just inside the door. No goods were taken. The Port Napier, a fire on board which has been reported from Apia, has a very large cargo for Dunedin. The invoices to hand show that it includes a number of English packed provision lines. So far the extent of the damage, if any, to the Dunedin cargo is not known.

The Historical Association, said Sir Apirana Ngata, in his address to the Wellington branch the other evening, should avoid the common error of studying the Maori merely as a museum object, and dismissing him from the story of New Zealand as it is to-day, and as it will be to-morrow. A learned professor left New Zealand lately after publishing a historical sketch of the country. In other lands he was asked as a New Zealander, and as an authority, what contribution, if any, the Maori race had made to the economic progress of New Zealand. In other words, did the Maori do any work? He found himself unable to answer except in the most general way. Like a candidate in the examination room who had not crammed the particular subject, he could refer only to the literature, the arts, and the mythology of the brown brethren he had known here; but catching at .any straw, he recollected hearing of some Maori farming on the east coast of New Zealand. This exemplified a mental attitude not uncommon in the highest ranks of research. The investigations now being conducted into the part of the Maoris have taken and are taking in the economic life of New Zealand should do much to correct not only ignorance, but error, the error that too often characterises the Anglo-Saxon mind in approaching Native problems and facts. The impatience of the white settler together with the aloofness of the universitytrained intellect combine to affect the focus of the most friendly investigator. “ Writers of New Zealand history,” saij Sir Apirana Ngata to an audience in Wellington, “ harped on the picturesque elements in the Maori make-up, which one of them was assured would persist and become valuable in the characteristics of the future. New Zealander. The Maori who was fisherman, fowler, agriculturist, architect, canoe-builder, engineer, organiser, ruler, diplomat, and statesman, apparently ceased to exist with the first vigorous gesture of European civilisation.”

“You would be surprised if you knew the anxiety and hours and hours of deliberation caused the Taranaki Education Board by demands for compensation made by owners of land taken under the Public Works Act for school purposes,” said the secretary of the board, Mr H. W. Insult, in speaking to the Nevy Plymouth Rotary Club last week. “ They no doubt say to themselves: ‘ It’s a Government job and fair fodder/ and put in as big a bill as. possible.” ' .

The amazing thing about the Maori race, said Sir Apirana Ngata in the course of his address to the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Historical Association, is that contrary to experience with other primitive peoples who became subject to the influences of western civilisation and faded away before them, the Maori race seems to have recovered its grip oil life and to have become a living, if a minor, factor in the history of the’ Dominion. One is tempted to attribute t le inn acle wholly to the beneficent teachings and guidance of civilisation, deriving the liveliest satisfaction from the com templation of this well-earned result. But the honest historian will find upon a close examination of the case that some of the elements in the primitive Maori policy and in the Maori character have had their share in the present revival, and that civilisation would have failed as dismally with the Maori as it has with other races on the same culture-plane, if there was not in the Maori himself and in hij age-long experience responsive characteristics capable of adjustment to the new ordef of life.

Borough council meetings are not >'«i>ally over-exciting, but it is seldom that during the course of an evening’s business (says the Auckland Star) something does not crop up to bring a smile to the faces of what few ratepayers have enough interest in the administration of their district to be present. In the TakaP u ’. la . Council Chamber last week Mr J. Guiniven raised a smile • by his retort to a contention by one of his fellow members that, in speaking on a certain matter, he was out of order. “ You can’t bluff me, even if you are a lawyer,” he said. Mr Guiniven brought a still wider smile later in the meeting, when the council was dealing with a complaint concerning the damage to a hedge by horses. I have never heard of a horse eating maerocarpa; it would need false teeth to do it.” he commented.

“ The Land Transfer certificate, which declares an indefeasible title to a parcel of land, and is backed by an assurance ’fund, is a monument of simplicity and directness. How much history lies behind it? ” asked Sir Apirana Ngata, when addressing an audience in Wellington last week. £ Answering himself, he went on to say: “It has behind it’ the chequered history of the North Auckland Peninsula, of the clash of cultures in and around the Bay of Islands, of claims preferred by whalers, Sydney merchants, adventurers, missionaries, and Crown agents, superimposed on contending claims from the aboriginal occupiers. The last-named ran the gamut of native history, a most complicated one to disentangle without the aid of genealogical charts, back two or three centuries before the earliest white settlement of the Bay of Islands.”

The number of pupils at the five schools under the control of the Auckland Grammar School Board was 2921 at the close of Last term, high-water mark having been reached on March 1, when 3065 were attending. The roll numbers of the various schools were:—Auckland Grammar School, 912; Mount Albert, 549; Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, 556: Epsom Grammar School, 581; and Takapuna Grammar School, 323. At the monthly meeting of the Otago Area United Temperance Reform Council, the following resolution was adopted: —“ This council emphatically protests against the use of the National Flag on advertising hoardings on Government properties by the liquor traffic in their advertisements. As patriotic citizens, we deeply regret that the liquor traffic, whose business always tends to the bondage, slavery and degradation of the people, should be allowed to traduce this national emblem on properties owned by the people. We feel sure that this matter was perpetrated without the Prime Minister’s consent, and we respectfully request that steps will be taken for its immediate cessation.” Owing to the high prices obtained for fat cattle at the Burnside and other Otago and Southland markets for some time past, two leading butchery firms operating in Dunedin recently made inquiries in the North Island with the object of securing additional supplies. The inquiries proved satisfactory, as last week the two firms purchased a line of high-grade cattle north of Wellington. The animals were killed and dressed at the Wellington freezing works. The first consignment of beef reached Dunedin on Saturday by the express goods train. The Health Organisation of the League of Nations has just issued as one of its publications a pamphlet entitled Public Health Services in New Zealand. The preface states: “As the work of the Health Organisation of the League of Nations is strictly international, the primary aim of this body should be to remedy as far as possible the difficulties arising from the diversity of the sources of information. The Health Organisation has accordingly decided to publish a series of monographs describing the organisation and working of the health administrations of the different countries. For the writing of these reports it has enlisted the services of experts occupying important positions in the various health administrations.” The document relating to New Zealand is excellently compiled (says the Evening Post). Part I, which is evidently based on information supplied by the New Zealand Health Department, gives a carefully prepared outline of the nature and scope of the activities of the various divisions of the department. The second part deals with the official vital statistics of the. Dominion. The publication should prove useful to the Health .Section of the League of Nations in the preparation of its reports on international health