LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1082, 30 July 1880, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The charge which Mr. Robert Cooper brought against Mr. W. L. Rees, broke down yesterday in the R.M.s Court, the prosecutor, before he had called all his witnesses, having asked to withdraw it. This could not be allowed, but the information was dismissed by the ' Magistrate as not having been sustained. The cruelty of these prosecutions lies in this : — The charges in themselves, even before they are called on, are in their very nature damning to a man's character.. It gets abroad that a man has been/sharged with the commission of forgery,- perjury, or some other grave offence. A man — every man has his enemies — and the world in the . concrete is uncharitable. "0," says the doubter, "you have been Charged with a criminal offence. You got off, it is true ; but who knows this should have been the case." In the matter of Mr. Rees there was not the shadow of a doubt from the first in the minds of those who knew the case that he was perfectly innocent. There was not a scintilla of evidence in support of the accusation. But the charge has gonethrough the land, and, here the pain and the contumely. There is not a man in the community but knows why the charge was made—in retaliation for charges which had been previously preferred against the prosecutor:'- 1 - I But then the outside world does notjj-nqw, this. Some of the mud thrown sticks, ana a man's character is soiled for very bftd and .very insufficient reasons. Let usjiereby hope- yfe have witnessed the last^jmch proceedinga, and thatf iUi law will be so amended that an inforni*tMn for a criminal offence not sustained shall be made to deal with the prosecutor as a criminal offender. In'another column we publish a letter from a correspondent signing himself " Common Sense," deprecating the existng custom of allowing licensed interpreters to interpret in their own localities in the Native Land Court. Doubtless there is much truth in the remarks made by our correspondent. With a suspicious race like the Maoris, the most immaculate of men, , even though they be Native Interpreters, cannot escape imputations of partiality, and especially so, where the interests of the interpreters or their European clients : are involved. For this reason we are disposed 'to think that the observations contained in the letter signed "Common Sense" are derserving of We once more remind our readers' -that the " Organ Recital " comes off to-night in Holy Trinity Church. Cards only will admit to the recital.

The employment of the telephone for the purpose of connecting, the various railway stations throughout the colony -.-Mis' been long advocated by many peopled £nd tomorrow Mr. Andrews will ask the Government a question on the subject. He. wishes the Government to cause iuforma-, tion to be solicited from all public bodies and mercantile' firms in the colony who now -.use the. respecting " expedition," reliability, safety, secresy, and economy in" transmitting all messages and commands?? lir. I.^1 .^ ' o '. Mr. M. Mc'Leod the contractor for the delivery of Kaiti metal, fa. evidently pushing on the works with commendable speed. The tram-line has now be^n laid as far as the Gladstone Rpad, and is. being proceeded with at the rate of 7 • to> 8 chains a-day. In a very short time we expect to sco the first truck load of metal deposited on the road. We are not aware whether the process of metalling will commence at the Borough boundary or at some intermediate portion of Gladstone Road, but we understand that this will settled at the next meeting of the Council. The following telegraph stations in Hawke's Bay are amongst those which are: not paying expenses, and At. which an extra rate of sixpence wiitj shortly be charged on all messages :— Hastings, Waipukurau.JMohaka, Pcjrangahau, Taupo, Tarawera, and Woodville. " ): ' ' There are lots of -ways of making a livingi According to a French paper, a. lady-resi-dent of ' *he; .Faubourg St! German is • credited with earning a good income by hatching red black and brown ants for pheasant preserves. One Parisian gets his living by breeding maggots' f -'oiit of tlie,. foul meats he buys off the chiffoniers, and fattening them up in tin boxes. Another breeds maggots for the special behoof of nightingales ; and a third wvrcliand d' asticots boasts of selling between thirty and forty millions of worms every season for piscatorial purposes. He owns a great pit at Montmartre, wherein he keeps his store. Every day his scouts bring him fresh stock, for which he pays them from 5 to 10 pence, per pound according to quality ; resellingthem to anglers at just double those rates, and clearing thereby something over £300 a . year. • ■ A great deal of unexpected amuseme&t£ was atforded at Wednesday's sitting iof jbb£j Ceristchurch^Police Court. A casjywasbeing hear# (the Times says) in which' -&. charge of embezzlement had been preferred against an ex-traveller employed by Mr. ■Francis Innes, of the Waltham Brewery. Mr. Joyce, the solicitor for the defence, produced two labels, and elicited the information that they were samples as used for putting on bottles in the brewery. The Bench asked to see the labels, and appeared to be much interested.' The public on hearing the labels read, laughed outright. One label ran as follows: — "Bass' India Pale Ale, First quality, M. B. Foster and Sons, 27, Brooke street, Bond street, London. Trade mark — a hunting horn, green, The other label referred to "Dublin Extra Stout." A gentleman who recently left , Dunedin for Edinburgh thus writes to a friend : — "Most of the people we meet are very' ignorant about New Zealand. A lady asked me quite seriously if we had any " burns" • out there. She thought' that the climate , was so dry that 1 the; streams would either be dried up by the.sun or disappear in the sand. One very common idea is that New Zealand and are synonymous terms. I have been asked moire than pnqe if I knew Mr. So and so, who went out . to Australia some ten years ago. One person going to New Zealand went to the shipping office for the purpose of ascertaining , when a vessel was about to leave for that Colony. The clerk told him that they had none going at that time to New Zealand, but bite was -going to Australia, which would do equally well, a.s ferry boats ran across every-three-hours." . The new Licensing Bill . only. . permits ; a brewer to be- the possessor of one. publican's license, aud the- measure being .once passed .will make a considerable difference to' some of the brewers of this country, who at the - present time are practically the possessors of many such licenses. It appears that Mr. Ehrenfried, the Mayor of the Thames, comes within this category, • controlling" quite a number of publichouses in Grahams; , town and Shortland. ;'