THE SHARE MARKET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7659, 18 June 1896, Page 4

THE SHARE MARKET.

Auckland, last night. To-day's sales were : — Alburnia East B|d, Hnzelbank ss, New Alburnia Bs, .Norfolk 4s id. Occidental Bid, Puru Consolidated 4s Gd, Balfour Is, Maori Land Is 2d, Try Fluke 10s, Byron Bay ls 3d, Hercules lOd, Ivanhoe Is 4d, Sovereign Is sd, Stanley Is 3d, Storliug Is 3d, Talisman 17s 9d, Talisman Extended 2s lOd, Waihi Extended Is Id, Waitekauri No. 4 3s lOd, 'Bunker's Hill 10 j Od, Empress lOd, Four-in-Hand 2s 4d, Katie 7|d - Markham and South.

Ab the recent sitting of the Thames Licensing Bench a very important point was decided. According to the Thames Star a licensee applied for a renewal, bub the report supplied by Constable Donovan was unfavoraole. The question of the admissability of the constable's report was raised, as he was not an "inspector" within the meaning of tne Act, and only an inspector could make a report to the Licensing Bench. Section 176 of the Licensing Acb defines an inspector as j every chief officer of police and eveiy other officer of the police not below the grade of a sergeant ; and "chief officer of police " is defined as including any superintendent or inspector of police, and also the chief officer or ouly officer of police, other thsn auy suoh superintendent or inspector residing in or stationed in any licensing district. Under these circumstancss the adverse repoib could not be received, for Constable Donovan did nob hold the rank <of sergeant, and was not in charge of a district. The mistake occurred in a very simple way. Before the electoral districts were declared licensing districts there were a number of small licensing districts, and it was thus often the case for a constable to be the only and chief officer in a district. When the change took place, however, this important mabter has been overlooked, and constables have continued to send in reports from outlying places, and these reports may now be successfully challenged, and the end sought to be effected by them defeated. It is essential, under the Act that reports made lo the Licensing Bench must be made by an " inspector." Under the present conditions, when the electorate constitutes the licensing district, a sergeant or senior officer cannot delegate the duties of inspectorship for the hotels in the outlying parts, otherwise such report is invalid. The stock-owners of the colony are petitioning Parliament for the removal of cow-pox from the schedule list of the Stock Act, 1895, on the ground thab the disease is a universal one wherever cows are kept especially where heifers are milked for the first season, and that the disease is harmless to the milk no case being known of in the colony where such milk has affected the public health, and to prohibit the milk of cows morely showing cow-pox would render the business of dairying so unprofitable as to make it impossible to carry it on. As regards tuberoulosis the petition further prays that where action is taken under the Stock Act, 1895, compensation be granted out of the public funds of the colony for theßO reasons :— That destroying cattle for tuberculosis simply means ruin to the farmers ; that it may commence and exist in cattle at any time, and through no fault or carelessness or want of cleanliness of the farmer, and is purely a misfortune ; that no cases have come to light in New Zealand where milk from cows affected has been detrimental to the public health, such being merely assumed, and that as it exists in a more or less degree throughout New Zealand at the ptesent time the enforcement of the Act would mean the necessary destruction of one-half of the dairy cattle of the colony ; and therefore, as such action is taken for the benefit of the general publio, we consider the stockowner is fairly entitled to relief out of the general funds of the colony. The police in Denmark have a curious way of dealing with the drunk and incapable found in the streets. They summon a cab and place the patient inside ib; then to the station, where he gets sober ; then home, where he arrives sober and cad. The agents never leave him till they see him safe in the family bosom. Then the cabman makes his charge and the police surgeon his, and the agents make their own claim for special duty, and this bill is presented to the host of the establishment where the culprit took his last overpowering glass. The publicans, however, have in several towns protested against this system. They say the proofs are often insufficient, and the police surgeons too summary in their examination ; further, that many notorious evildoers sham drunk in order to get the landlord into trouble. They thereforo claim that they shall have their own doctor — a sort of advocatus diaboli — to examine certain cases and defend the publican interest. The intoxicated will therefore be submitted to a double inspection, and amusing results should follow.

The Prohibitionist has greater hopes of the advancement of the cause of prohibition from a Parliament of which Mr Seddon is Premier, than from one of which Captain Russell is the leader. Tho Union Steamship Co.'s steamers took away from Nelson during the month of May 136 bales of hops, 1869 sacks of barley, and 340 sacks of malt.