Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

South Canterbury Times, Issue 5011, 20 May 1889, Page 3

Three men were charged with drunkenness before Mr LeCren this morning, and dealt with in the usual way as “ first offenders.” A Tetnuka butcher last week killed two heavy sheep. One weighed when dressed 1641b5, the other 1781bs. The Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, after correspondence with the Government and Insurance Association, and inquiry of experts, recommend the erection of a lighthouse on the Snares, as a means of preventing wrecks on the islands and rocks south of New Zealand. We are informed by the trustees of the Wrecks Belief Fund that, as a reply to inquiries that have been made recently, an analysis of the seven years balance sheets up till May 14tb, 1889, .will appear in the Timaru Herald, The North Canterbury Board of Education has declared null and void the election of the Ashburton School Committee, because a ballot was not taken. Only seven persons were nominated and they wore declared duly elected without the nonsense (required by the law, however) of a ballot. Mr Haytcr the Government statist of Victoria, computes the population of the Australiasian colonies at the end of 1888 as follows Victoria, 1,090,869; New South Wales, 1,085,356 ; Queensland, 387,463 ; South Australia 313,065 ; Western Australia, 42,137 ; Tasmania 146,149 ; New Zealand, 607,360; total 3,672.419. In Otago this year 25 school districts failed to elect committeei. Twelve was the greatest number in any previous year. The board ordered a new election in one district because several persons voted at the election who were nob householders. Some householders at Palmerston protested .'against the election there on certain grounds but the board decided not to interfere. One member said be did not believe there was a single committee properly elected.

An amusing episode reaches a Wellington contemporary. A few days since a rallle of a horse took place in town, the shares 5s each. The lucky (?) winner who had dropped into possession of a tip top hack for the ridiculous sum of five bob, was 'enjoined by the company to “do the handsome.” This he cheerfully did to the tune of nearly £2. Next morning with an aching head and a light hear the went to inspect his bargain ; but alas, the gee-gee had, during the night sickened and died. This was bad enough, but the climax was reached when ho was ordered to pay for the removal and burial of his purchase.

Mr Gale, ex-Qovernor of Pentridgo, the big Victorian gaol says “ A reformed prisoner, I have never in my thirty-eight years’ experience ever seen one. If a man is sent to gaol, and docs not come up again, I do not call him a reformed criminal. But, if a man who is a hereditary criminal, and has boon in gaol a number of times, turns to honest pursuits, that would bo reformation, but I have never seen one of those yet. As a moans of reformation I regard gaols as positively useless ; as means of punishment they are all right ; as reformatories their effect is nil, Onoe a man gets into caol ho is lost to all intents and purposes. He is led away by others. Habitual criminals talk about crime and laugh at it, and then weak-minded associates are soon led into the same grooves. No doubt crime is a kind of moral inanity. If it wore uot, how do you account for the same men coming back again and ugaiu to gaol, They work for less food aud for less rations than they get outside. Yet they prefer to do so rather that to cam an honest living. There must bo something wrong with them in some way.