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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2424, 12 February 1909, Page 4

Last week’s Gazette contains a notification prohibiting the importation oi concentrated fluid preparations of opium. .1 he shorthand and book-keeping class in connection with the Gisborne Technical School will commence at 7 o’clock this evening. ,It lias now transpired that Mr. Frank Harris was the anonymous donor of the £-50 to the funds of the proposed Maternity Home, conditionally upon a similar sum being raised by public subscription. Messrs John Somervell and J. F. Sheridan were tho presiding Justices at the Police Court yesterday morning, -when a first offender for drunkenness was convicted and discharged upon his promising to leave the town.' The annual picnic of the Patutahi School was held yesterday at the Domain. The day was beautfiully fine,, and there was a large crowd "of me little ones and their grown-up friends on tho ground. A lengthy programme of sports was carried out, and altogether a most enjoyable day was spent-. In the souvenir programme issued in connection with “The Birth of the Empire,” there is offered a prize of one guinea for the best “Limerick” in appreciation of Malcolm’s auction mart, Gladstone Road. The efforts are to -he forwarded, with name and address, to the editor of the “Times,'' and the competition closes on Monday next. Tho annual race meeting of the Waiapu Racing Club will he held on the Mangahanea course on Saturday, March 20. Nominations for open events will close at the Tup aroa Hotel on February 27, at 8 p.m. Weights are to be declared on March 13. Acceptances for open events and nominations for district events close at the Tuparoa Hotel on March 17, at 8 p.m.

At tho Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, before Messrs J. Somervell and J. Sheridan, J.’sP., judgment by default was given in the following cases : —Robert Robertson (Air Blair) v. Gordon Witty, £2 12s and costs 10s; Rose Nancy Bushby v. Robert Campbell (Mr. Hoi),£l Cfe 6d and costs ss; Mary Jane Kirk (Air. Blair) v. Herewini, £7 15s 4d and costs £2 os 6d; Hauion and Smith (Air. R. U. Burke) v. Rudolphus Richardson, amount of promissory note, £l3 ss, and costs £1 10s 6d. Evidence was heard in tho case of Geo., Hall against Hejen Butler (Air. Blair), claim for ss, tho cost of repairs to a water-tap at the house owned by plaintiff and rented by defendant. Judgment was given for defendant without costs.

Solicitors practising, in tlio Gisborne district during 1908 numbered 19, a decrease of one on the number practising in 1907. The number of solicitors practising in the Dominion on December 31 Mas, as shown in returns supplied to the Law' Society, 841, as against 840 for the previous year. The variation in " the different districts is shown as follows (the numbers in parentheses being tho 1907 figures):—Auckland, 184 (ISO); Canterbury, 123 (119) ; Gisborne, JL9 (20); Hawke’s Bay, 41 (41); Marlborough, 10 (10); Nelson, 15 (15); Otago", 111 (123); Southland, 29 (29); Taranaki, 52 (48); Wellington, 240 (235); Westland, 19 (20).

“Oh. - yes, truly,” said Uriah, “if anyone else • had been in my place during the last few. years, bv this time lie would have had Mr. Wickfield under ; his thumb. Ah! great impudence,' Master Copperfield. It’s a topic that I wouldn’t touch upon to any soul but you. * Even to you I can only touch: upon it, and no moro; for it’s mitmog graters at twopence each at Parnell’s Popular Saturday Sales, 13th inst. only.”

Mr. W. D. S. MacDonald, M.P., has an advertisement in this issue thanking the electors for his return as a member of the Gisborne Haiboi Board.

Inspector Hugo, the .Government Inspector of Firo Brigades, will make his annual inspection of tlie Gisborne Eire Brigade at' /-dO p.m. to-day. Every member of the Brigade mus attend.

At the annual conference of the Rochabite Order at Master ton, the District . Deputy brought up the question of the membership m the Order. He stated that the Christ church Tent had increased by over 100 members. He considered that cue few members the Order had ivas disgraceful, considering the great ’temperance sentiment in New Zealand. Bro. Sussex spoke strongly on the matter, and urged all to do their utmost to advance the Order.

At the annual Itecliabite Conference at Master-ton, the District Superintendent of juvenile Branches presented* hie report, which stated, inter alia,,, that returns from various branches, with the exception of Christchurch and' eilington, .show decreases .in membership. Nelson had done solid work. The membership at last returns was 3G6; new members admitted, 114 ; total 480 ; transferred to adult tents, 36 ; members suspended, 170 ; present membership, 274. .Reference was made to the decrease in membership, and the following motion was proposed, by Bro. Frederick, seconded by Bro. Cooper, and carried without discussion —“That-. the delegates present at this meeting pledge themselves to bring before their respective Tents the claims of juvenile members, and in those places where Juvenile Tents exist to endeavor to increase the membership, and in those places where no Tents exist, endeavor to have Juvenile Tents formed.”

For the period of four weeks ending January 2 there were 10,305 passengers carried on the Gisborne railway line, against 7917 for the corresponding period of last year. The season tickets issued increased from four to 20. Parcels, etc., totalled 346, against 234. Sheep increased from 111 to 9937. There was a big advanced the quantity of firewood carried, 258 tons against 12 tons, while grain, merchandise, and minerals decreased. The revenue (£1214 against £914) was made up as follows, that for the corresponding period of last year being shown between parentheses: Passengers £587 (£448). parcels, etc., £43 (£35), goods £541 (£397), miscellaneous £lO 17s 2d (£5 8s 9d), rents and commission £32 (£27). Since April 1, 1908, when the financial year commenced, up to January 2,1909. the earnings of the line had been £6095 and the expenditure £4610.

An old man was apprehended at Little River station last week on a charge of issuing valueless cheques. He arrived on Bank's Peninsula about a fortnight ago. and proceeded to Akaroa, where lie is alleged to have represented himself as a wealthy farmer, desirous of purchasing a property. It is stated that a section was soon procured from a land agent, and that- idans for a seven-roomed dwelling, costing about £750. were prepared by a local builder. The man is alleged to have passed cheques for the deposit, and to the hotel proprietor, and to have victimised several of the local shopkeepers, after which he departed. On reaching Little River (says the “Press”) lie was seized with a fit, and lay ill for some days. On recovering, lie was arrested at the train on his departure for Christchurch. This brought on another fib. and the man is now lying seriously ill at Little River.

Dr Xortbcote Deck, from the Solomon Islands mission, retells the story of the narrow escape of Mr Jock London and his wife, when their boat was east up on a reef about 200 ui 300 yards off the shore of Malayta, on which island Dr Deck and Mr J. Coulfield are engaged in missionary work. He says that Alalayt'a can boast of tlie fiercest and most uncivilised natives in the Pacific, and there is practically a price on a white man’s head —a relic of the old recruiting days, as everyone who happens to have had a relative taken to Fiji or Queensland who did not return, thinks it is his solemn and sacred duty to “get even” on somebody 'white. The mission has about 1000 Christian “boys,” of whom 200 or 300 lived along the shore opposite where Mr London’s boat came to grief. The wild, hill tribes, however, regard a wreck as common property, and so they swarmed down to the beach, and canoe-loads of them surrounded tho little vessel in a dangerously threatening manner. If the Christian boys under Mr Caulfield’s direction had not' boarded tho vessel to resist the attack, Dr Deck is convinced that the novelist, his wife, and party would have paid the penalty for visitufg such an inhospitable coast. Our visitor states that tlio missionaries alone aro safe on Malay ta, simply because the native Christians are loyal to the last degree, and because — and this is largely “bluff”—the missionaries have never carried arms of any kind. But no white man has yet ponetrated into tho interior of the island. It would mean death from behind to attempt anything so foolhardy.' Dr Deck was present when Mr Sutton, the representative ot Patho Frorcs, took a number of kinematograph pictures illustrative of life in the Solomons.