LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1012, 12 May 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It is quite right that the Police should lay informations against persons offending against the Municipal By-Laws for riding on the footpaths, or allowing horses to stray through the public thoroughfares, or for the dangerous custom so common with drivers leaving horses attached to vehicles unattended in the roadways .of tha town. But these are comparatively unimportant matters as against the everyday offence of mounted riders (chiefly Maoris,) riding furiously through the streets of Gisborne. The offence is of the commonest ; but, not to our knowledge, has there been, within the last eighteen months, a charge of this nature preferred. Of course, a mounted horseman at full gallop while endangering the lives of people (his own really under the circumstances being of very little consequence) is not easy to stop at tho instant. The breach of the law is seen, but no sooner seen than the offender is out of .sight. But this does not say that he should not be traced out, and dealt with for punishment. It was only this morning that two mounted Maorics dashed along the Gladstone Road, at full racing speed, and in their mad and drunken career, a child of Mr. Birch had a narrow escape from being either killed or seriously injured. The horse, we may presume, was sober ; the riders themselves drunk. So when the horse came close up to the child, instead of riding it down, it leaped clean over, by which a life was saved. Butchers' boys gallop round the corners of streets, and appear somewhat to rejoice at having nearly ridden down some ' pedestrian, but rather disappointed that they havefailed. Furious and reckless ridiing through the municipality has become of late a common offence, and we call upon the Police to, at last, make some effort to suppress it. The law allows imprisonment for the offence, and a months' imprisonment to the first offender would act as a caution to others.

We are requested to call the attention of all Volunteers and Cadets, both of town and country, to the notice iv our advertising columns, ordering a parade on Her Majestys Birthday, at 10 a.m. We hope, on this occassion, that the corps will show their loyalty by mustering in full force to take part in the Royal salute. In the evening a Volunteer Ball will be held at Macfarlaue'a Hall, at which a very large number of residents will be present. The band is sedulously practising, and intend producing many new tunes for the event.

At the liesident Magistrate Court, yesterday, Hami Paekea, charged Wi Maki with stealing from him 12 one-pound notes, while in the Gisborne Hotel. The evidence of the prosecutor, substantiated by witnesses established a prirm facie case for committal, and the prisoner was committed for trial at the Supreme Court, Napier, to be held on the 27th June next.

At shortly after midnight last night, an easterly storm, accompanied by much thunder and lightning, broke over the town, waking sleepers from their rest, and causing no little temporary alarm. The lightning came iv a rapid succession of vivid flashes, followed by crashing thunder claps, but we do not learu that any damage was done to property.

There are nearly six hundred volunteers in and around Wellington, says a local organ, which cost the Government over two thousand pounds per annum, irrespective of salaries to multitudinous officials. The vounteera spend in uniform, ammunition, &c, just about twicr. that amount that the first year they join, and about half the amount every successive year, so that "playing at soldiers" in Wellington, costs, one way and another, ou au average, about three or four thousand a year, without Government salaries, allowances, &c. The number in the colony, taking the average per head (over £5), to which must be added the enormous amount for salaries in the defence office, for drill in3trnctor3, allowances, &c, gives a nice little expense for the game, and it surely must be admitted that it is not worth the candle.