LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8833, 21 January 1907, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr T. S". Weston, chairman of thei Electoral Boundaries Commission, has informed Mr H. J. Horrell, president of the Ashley County Local Bodies', As* sociation, that the Commissioners could not see their way to accede to the request of the local bodies and the petitioners for an alteration in the proposed new boundaries of the Kaiapoi, Hu« runui and Riccarton electorates. The eel-fishing performances of visiting Maoris have led to the publication of experiences of Carterloii residents. One of these recently caught an eel weighing 101 b in the not a very notable circumstance, but when it was opened it was found to contain two trout, one lOin . and the other 6in in length. The eel was co distended after thi/s meal that it was unable to move sufficiently fast to escape capture. Another resident in Rutland Road caught- an eel which yielded up a small gcsling when disembowelled." The resident had lest a number of young ducks and goslings, and was watching the pond one day when. he saw a duckling disappear, and further investigation revealed a bloated eel making frantic efforts to swallo\v the web feet of its victim, which were the only parts visible. The eel's skin wa6 hanging on an adjoining fence fifteen minutes later. A correspondent of the " Poverty Bay Herald," who is travelling through the East Coast districts, writes: — Talk about telephone lines ! I was amaze-d to find quite a network of telephone lines from Waipiro to Orete, in the Bay of Plenty, all owned and erected by Natives. In a year or two every settlement and nomesfiead of any size at. all will be connected by telephone.' The main line is completed as far as Orete, • and there are only a few branch lines waiting to be put up. At present there are twenty-nine connections, which number will be shortly increased. The line is well done, and every machine of the best. Very shortly the Revs Aperahama Tamihere, of Tuparoa, Poihipi Kohere, of Rangitukia, and Hone Waitoa, of Te Araroa, will have the unique experience of being .able to communicate by telephone with every member of their congregations. Mr Apirana Ngata, M.H.R., reckons that the Nga< tiporous have now one hundred and twenty miles of telephone lines, at the co*t of over £700. There were many changes* effected in the Victorian Licensing Bill before it became law. Following is a summary of the Bill as passed into law :— All hotel licenses now in existence will expire next March. In the meantime a Board of three members, receiving £800 a year each, is to be appointed. There are 1400 hotels in Victoria above the statutory number, and the Board will determine what hotels in each district are to be closed. Licenses will be ie« fused 1 to these, and the fees they would have paid will be distributed pro rata over thoes that remain open. To compensate the clcsed-up houses a conipen-. sation fund, is to be started. That will be got together by collecting 3 per cent on the gross amount of liquor purchased during the year by each house ; twothirds is paid by the owner and onethird by the occupier. This method .of closing up goes on for ten years; bb the end of that time it is supposed that' j all the 1400 extra hotels will be clfwed [ and local option will be resorted to for ! future closings. The compensation f und will still go on, and the clcsed-up houses will still be compensated. To guard against imposition the income tax schedules of the licensees of tie closed houses are placed at the disposal- of the Compensation Court, and the- basis of compensation must exceed two years' occupancy. Where the Bill i& stringent is in Tegard to Sunday trading and trading after nouns. Fines oi £2 are imposed on the drinker ac well ac on the liotelkeeper for each offence, and each sale is a separate offence. Anff senior constable can enter any hotel af any time after hours 3 take the names and addresses of all found on the premises, and if they are not lodgers, bcua fid© boarders, or travellers, the mere being there is to "be evidence that they, were drinking. Clubs are exempted from the "onus of proof " provisions, and 1 are not subject to police entry. Consequently they only nominally come under the early closing and Sunday closing provisions.

The University Senate will sit on iWednesday morning. A special meeting of the City Council frill be held to-night, to elect six managers to the Board of Managers of the Technical Classes. The Recess Committee of the University Senate met in Chrietchurch again to-day, and dealt with some subjects that. will come before the Senate this .week. The San Francisco mail is expected to Teach Wellington at 6even o'clock tonight. Ttfe Mararoa will leave an. hour later, bringing the southern portion of , the mail to Lyttelton. The Dust Abatement Committee of the Tramway Board will hold another j conference with representatives of the City Council at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday. The meeting will probably be in committee. At the annual meeting of subscribers and members of the Christchurch Musical Union, to be held to-morrow evening, special reference will be made to the resignation of Mr T. Garrard, who has acted as secretary to the Union tor the past fifteen years. At Wellington to-day, Ingram, a-n. •mployee of Te Aro House, who is charged with aiding and abetting Purvis, late secretary to the Wellington Benevolent Trustees, in the alleged misappropriation of the funds of the trustees by means of incorrect invoices, was committed for trial, He pleaded not guilty. Mr Josh Billings, in his inimitable commentary, once observed : — " There iz one thing in thie wurld for wich we ar never "fully prepared — and that iz twins." A Wairarapa exchange, boasting of the local birth-rate, remarks that no fewer than four families of Lanedowne, Majsterton, have experienced this unanticipated augmentation. Owing to the failure of the steamer to" connect with the train, at Njaw Plymouth Mr Hamilton Hodges, the Auckland vocalist, will not reach Christchurch until to-morrow morning, and will be unable to. assist the Auckland Orchestral Society >at its concert at the Exhibition this evening. Mr Hodges will appear at the remaining concerts of the Society in Christch.urch. -New Caledonia, as everyone knows, is the receptacle for the scrapings and refuse of the Paris Taubourg, St Antoine, and other well-springs of villainy in France. A visitor to New Caledonia, describing soriie of his impressions of this undesirable spot, avers that for any respectable member of the community to venture abroad after dark, is a veritable temptation of Providence. The convict system provides that malefac- i tors shall undergo a period of eight years' strict incarceration. At the ex- i piration of their confinement, they must Temain on the island for a further period of eight years, during which time they are knowit" »as " libres." These " libres " resemble, in status, the ticket-of-leave-man of early Australian days, but they are infinitely worse in their capacity for crimei /. They prowl about after dark, and woe "betide any wayfarer who has indiscreetly left the eafety of his roof. When the "libre" , has completed his probation— -save the mark ! — he is allowed to return to France, and th# criminal population of that country experiences an undesirable impetus.