Untitled

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1912, 21 April 1874, Page 4

• A Sil*rG-TTI«AB APFAIR.— The North Wales Chronicle has fche following :— On the first night of the present year a poor woman, the wife of a labourer in the village of Aber, near Bangor, was delivered of twins. The first was born during the closing hour of the old year, and the second an hour or so after the opening of the new year. The peculiarity of this littlo interesting and double event, therefore, is, that the twins were not born in the same year, the same month, nor the same day — an enigma which wo\ild pose a good many acute people to satisfactorily solve. We wish the twins many happy returns of their somewhat singular birthdays." Fiji. — The Melbourne Argus says — :A correspondent from Fiji writes : — " It is a foregone conclusion in the minds of everyone here that the result of the commissioner's report will be annexation. After the statement of the commodore that the commission would take upon them to preserve law and order in Fiji, and also that they would get the King to promise to submit all the acts of his Government to the foreign consuls, in order that nothing might be done that was not perfectly fair and right, it seems as if the actual working of tho Government was to be taken into the hands of the consuls. All the leading chiefs have assented to annexation, and there is not any question about the minor ones, as they and the people are sure to bo of the same mind. Mr Gladstone has said that England could not annex without the consent of the chiefs and people. This has been obtained. Will she now annex us ? In the face of what has been stated in the Houso of Commons of the strong feeling at home and in the colonies on the subject of the necessity of regulating tho labour traffic, and of the letter of the commissioners to Cakobau, there cannot be any doubt of the issue being what tho people of Fiji ask for. Tho consul has issued regulations allowing labour vessels to carry a greater number of return labourers than they are allowed to import into Fiji. This is a great concession and convenience to the planters, as there are many labourers whose time has about expired, and shipping in the labour trade is scarce."