GENERAL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2577, 11 August 1909, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

Seme time ago a case in which the validity of a Maori marriage was in question was heard at the Auckland Police Court, by. Mr. C. C. Kettle, S.M. One Ngapipi was charged with wife desertion. It was alleged that he was married according to the native custom, which principally consisted in getting the consent of the relatives of tlie parties, and that the marriage was binding. The defence was that Ngapipi was -not married even according to Maori'custom. The case was mentioned in the Police Court, last week,, when Mr. Kettle said he had considered the question involved, and it seemed to him that the first consideration was whether those Maori marriages could be enforced, and the second whether this particular marriage was a valid one according to Maori ceremony. He would give judgment later. The necessity of giving judgment was, however, obviated (says the “New Zealand Herald”) by a statement being made in Court that the wife had only been concerned to gain maintenance for the child of the alliance, and the child had died since the case was heard. Questions bv the Magistrate elicited that the child had been taken away when it became ill. to be treated by T a Maori prophet. The Magistrate directed SubInspector Hendrey to inquire into the circumstances of the child’s death.

As an instance of how tli.e Alain Trunk line is tending to open up trade, f is stated that 'Waikato coal mines are offering coal to flaxmillors all over the Manawatu, right down as far as Levin. The coal is put into trucks at the mines, and is said to be delivered at Foxton, Palmerston North, and other places at less than two-thirds of the price of certain well-known coals which have held the market heretofore.

It has been announced in Australia that definite arrangements have been made for a largo party of wealthy American tourists to leave San Francisco for Australia, via Japan and China, etc., early this month. The party is due to arrive at Sydney on November 26, and to leave that city on the return ioAirney, after visiting Ncav Zealand, on January 1 next. The following extract from Captain Beardsley’s letter to Mr Suttor, the New South Wales Trade Commissioner in the East, is of special interest: —“This party, being the first that we have ever sent to 'Australia, avo are more than anxious they should come home with gloAving accounts -of their trip. The party is made up of very wealthy people, and they come from many different parts of the United States; and their good word when they return will be no mean factor in promoting further tourist business, to say nothing of tlie possibilities of interesting American money and brains in tho development of your wonderful land.” Mr Suttor remarks, incidentally, that Japan is making strenuous efforts to encourage tourist traffic, especially -from America, and that it has been authoritatively estimated that an annual sum of not less than £20,000,000 is spent abroad by American tourists.

There is nothing like making; the best ■of it. The other day, at Foxton, a man named Charles Henricks, pleaded guilty to being unlawfully in the Foxton School at night. The police stated that the man had been wandering about the town, and they bad ordered him to seek employment. Tlie teacher of the school, Air Adams, was attracted by a light in the school, and j on seeking the cause, found accused camped there. He bad lighted a fire in the centre room, and bad a large quantity of shavings as fuel. ITo had also a large quantity of butchers’ meat, includ ing sausages, and also some groceries, and had evidently prepared himself for a long camp. A list of previous convictions against accused was put in by the police, and he was sentenced to three’ months’ imprisonment. Later on, on inquiring how Henricks got his supplies, the police found that he had imposed on the butcher and grocer with a bogus order. Accused was again brought before the Court on the further charg* of obtaining the goods by false pretences. He pleaded guilty to this also, and received an additional cumulative sentence of three months. .

The Rev. C. F. Alced, who recently went from Liverpool (England) to a wealthy living in New York at what is known as the “Millionaires’ Church,V has caused a stir by a sermon vigorously denouncing worldly women. He described society as a huge scale, at one end of which was balanced the \woman deprived of all womanhood and dehumanised, and at the other end the frivolous woman of the world. “The frivolities of these worldly women,” he said, “make us .almost ashamed of the sex of our mothers. They are married, but they are not. wives. They , have children, but they are not mothers. They live in expensive houses and in costly surroundings, but they have no respect for the sacredness-of home. The newspapers wasto their space on them. Sarcasm does not affect them.”