Liqnor in the King Country.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6891, 11 June 1892, Page 4

Liqnor in the King Country.

A ONE ACRE LICENSING DISTRICT.

By a recent Gazette proclamation the Government have constituted a single acre of ground, in the interior of the King Country, a licensing district, the object apparently being to enable the two half caste owners of the acre, to erect a public house fur the sale of liquor to the Native? and others. In a lengthy article the New Zealand Herald gives full particulars relating to the scandalous proceeding, from a summary of which in the Hawke's Bay Herald, we extract the following : " When the Licensing Act of 1881 was before Parliament there was some discussion about he prohibition of licenses to sell alcoholic liquors in Native districts. The result was that the following clause was added : — The Governor, on the application of the owners of any block or area of Native land on which no publican's license has been hitherto granted, may, by proclamation in the Gazette, declare that no license shall be granted within such block or area, and it shall not be lawful for the licensing committee to issue any license to take effect within any block or area so proclaimed. The special object of the promoters of this clause was to keep liquor out of the King Country. The Auckland teetotallers took prompt stßps to give effect to the claHse. A deputation, accompanied by the late Mr C. O. Davis as interpreter, went up to the King Country, and saw all the principal chiefs, including Tawhiao, who was much less approachable than he is now. They all signed the petition asking the Governor to issue a proclamation prohibiting for ever the issue of licenses in the King Country. In 1884, a proclamation was issued reciting the section above given, and declaring : Now therefore, I, William Francis Drumraond Jervois, the Governor of the colony of New Zealand, do in pursuance and exercise of the power and authority vested in me by the said Act, hereby proclaim and delare that no license shall be granted within the area of native land described in the said schedule. There is no provision in the Act for the revocation or alteration of such a proclamation, but the Chief Justice, who is an authority on constitutional law, apparently thinks that none is needed, for in his capacity as administrator in the absence of the Governor, he has signed another Order-in-Council, revoking the one just cited, and proclaiming another schedule with this alteration :—"excepting from the above described area, subdivision C of the Orahiri block, containing by admeasurement one acre." The preamble declares that the restriction is removed " with the consent and at the request of the owners of the land described." But, according to our Auckland namesake, the Natives who signed the prohibition in the King Country are still of the same mind. The phrase " owners of the land described," seems to apply only to the acre defined. These are two half-castes, and it is said they intend to erect a public house there. "The whole thing," says our contemporary, '• appears to have been done by the owners of the acre. We believe that if the opinion of the whole of the Native owners of the King Country were taken, it would still be in favor of keeping out any licensed house. If the Government has the power to proclaim any acre in any part of the Ring Country a licensing district, and to license a houso on it, then the former proclamation and the clause in the Act may be swept away altogether. The whole country had better, to save jobbery and corruption, come under the ordinary provisions of the Licensing Act."

In an article in the current number of the Fortnightly Review on the question, "How long can the earth sustain life?" Sir Robert Ball, the Astronomer Royal of Ireland, refers to the important bearing of the duration of the coal supplies upon the subject. "The fact," he says, "is that a very large part of the boasted advance of civilisation is merely the acquisition of an increased capability of aquandering. For what are we doing every day but devising fresh appliances to exhaust with even greater rapidity the hoard of coal?" "The coal of England," Sir Robert goes on to say, " may last a century or two ; the coal in other parts of the globe may supply our cellars for a few centuries more, but the exhaustion of this truly marvellous product is proceeding at an accelerated pace. Doubtless the end of the coal, at least as an article of mighty commerce, will arrive within a period brief in comparison with tho ages of human existence." A shocking case of baby-farming was revealed at an inquest on the body of an infant at Carlton, Melbourne, on the 17th insfe. The evidence showed that a woman named Elizabeth Perry lived in a filthy hovel where three children were found, two having been "adopted" by Mrs Perry ; for the third a weekly payment was received. A few weeks ago a fourth child, the subject of the inquest, was added, the child, about six weeks old, being adopted by Mrs Perry for £10. All the children were filthy, neglected, and in a half starved condition. Tha jury returned a verdict that the child died from insufficient nutriment and disease, induced by improper food. They found Mrs Perry guilty of manslaughter, and csmmitted her for trial. Says the Daily News : — Mr Bigelow is able to givo some particulars of Mr Edison's researches, as noted during a visit to the inventor's house. Mr Edison does not despair of being one day able to frighten microbes out of our lungs with electric currents and under-currents, for it is known that besides requiring a certain condition of external surroundings, they are extremely sensitive, and therefore easily affected. Mr Bigelow describes Mr Edison's storehouse of materials as comprising "samples of every substance ever used or likely to be used by man," which have been gathered together at a cost of about £40,000. As an example of the practical utility of these extensive resources, it is noted that before the right carbon for the incandescent lamp was discovered, it proved necessary to experiment with a large number of substances, until the thing wanted was found in bamboo from North Japan. Mr Edison declares that when he wants young men to train as assistants, he finds his best material, not in " college bred " young gentlemen, but in the ragged boys of JS ew York, who are " quick-witted, anxious to move up, and will do anything to get along." The Rev. J. Chew, preaching at Auckland on " How larrikins are made and mended," said the larrikin could be traced far back in history, for Job complained of him, saying : — " But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to net with the dog& of my flock. Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whem old age was perished ? Among the bushes they brayed ; under the nettles they were gathered together. They were children of fools - yea, children of base men ; they were viler than the earth. And now lam their song— yea, I am their by-word." A sensational incident occurred in Melbourne on bho 18fch inafc. Police Constable Heffernan, who lost £500 through the Larkin defalcations, was found lying on his beat in an intoxicated condition, and was removed by a fellow-constable to the lock-up On arrival ac the lock-up, he suddenly pulled out a revolver and fired at the arresting policeman, but missed him and was overpowered. He bare an excellent name prior to his misfortunes.

A young doctor commencing practice had among his first patients an nncommenly unclean infant brought to his office in the arms of a mother whose face showed the same abhorrence of soap. Looking down upon the child a moment, he solemnly remarked : "It seems to be suffering from hydropathic hydrophobia." " Oh, doctor, is it as oad as that V' cried the mother. " That's a big sickness for such a mite. What ever shall 1 do for the child ?" " Wash its face, madam : the disease will go off with the dirt." " Wash its face— wash its face, inieed," exclaimed the matron, losing her temper. " What next, I'd like to know?" " Wash your own, madam — wash your own." An interesting will case is exciting some interest in Melbourne. George Ant lioness, brewer and wine merchant, died on the 22nd of August, 1890, leaving property valued at L 171 ,691, which was shared amongst his widow and eight children. A few months ago Charles George Anthoness, claiming to be a son by a foimer marriage, put in an appearance, made a claim upon the estate, and is now moving for a revocation of probate. His story is that Anthoness was married in 1850 at Newcasfcle-on-Tyne to EHzabeth Wombwell, widow of the celebrated English menagerie proprietor. In 1855 Anthoness disappeared, the claimant having been born about a year before. Anthoness turned up in Victoria in 1856 and followed various occupations, but only sent LlO to his wife in four years. In 1860 he married Mary Eleanor Nixon, a widow, who kept a boarding-house at Beechworth. The English family continued to languish in poverty, whilst Anthoness blossomed out into a brewer's traveller, and eventually acquirred a brewery of his own. The ' first wife died on the 25th October, 1.887, i leaving a son and daughter. Anthoness had begged his sister-in-law, Mrs Sarsons, nob to make an exposure of his bigamous connection, undertaking to remember the children of his first marriage in his will. He did not, however, make a will until he was in a moribund state, and no reference whatever was made to the two who claim to be his only legitimate offspring. This will is now sought to be set aside on the ground of the deceased's testamentary incapacity at the time it was executed,