Local and General.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3367, 6 November 1911, Page 4

Local and General.

The following revenue was collected at' the local Customhouse during the week, which ended on Saturday :-—Customs duties £l3-17 9s 2d beer duty £7l 3s, light dues £46 2s 9d, slupping fees £S 13s. other receipts £1; total. £1474 9s lid. Among the cargo brought from the eiouth bv the steamer ■ Regulus, which arrived on Saturday, was a consignment of fifteen tons of steel work to he used in the completion of the Otoko viaduct. An interesting fact about the sueoossful berthing of the Qo«i Co.’s steamer Regulus on Saturday evening was that the vessel was draw - ino- eleven feet four inches. She negotiated tire channel without touching four hours after high water, which speaks well for the improvements made in the channel recently.

r r j , TTtn’nn Co’s tender Tuatea go«s (m r fc rfp toSy fot »v«W and will probably be refloated to-mor-row. 'Huo-e was a No-license meeting at tile Siov»Tißht Memorial on Saturday iraiiug. Among the- speakers-were the Rev Mr Chatterton, Mr Hay, I> CV ‘ ?,* Grant, and Mr Howie. Compared with rtie meeting on the previous Saturday evening, there were practical!} no interruptions. \ horse attached to a vehicle bolted in' Sheehan. Street on Saturday evening and collided with a verandah post in front of Messrs Fiskcn and Ludwig's shop, damaging it considerably. The horse then turned into Ormond Road and continued over the \Vhataupoko bridge and along Peel Street towards the station, where it was eventually stopped. In; years gone past, when the elections came round, the itinerant orators who blew into Gisborne and out again, used to wax more than usually eloquent in their glowing prophesies of the millenium which No-License would bring about. Crime would disappear, and the policemen be thrown out of employment; asylums and mental hospitals would be emptied; our gaols con-verted into churches, and everything in the garden would look like Eden before the Fall. , Well, twelve places allowed themselves to be talked into embracing this beautiful soap-and-water bubble, and Voted No-License. What lias happened? Our prohibition friends are defied to point to any of the twelve no-license areas where the police force lias been reduced, on the contrary it lias been increased he the addition or the most objectionable element in our pajice system—the &pv and the informer in seareli of illicit liquor. Auckland, with its three no-license areas has no less lunacy on the contrary, tin* Avondale Asylum is shockingly overcrowded. The bubble has hurst, and the milJenium is still as far off as ever. The glowing pictures of the orator are only of such stuff as dreams are made of, and the people in Ashburton, Masterton, and Waihi are anxiously looking for the talkative lecturers who fooled them into voting No-License. Wise people can see these things now, and are striking out the bottom line on both ballot papers.*** The Dominion Meteorologist notified on Saturday that heavy rain is proliable. and rivers flooded, with winds changing to strong southerly, after from ten to sixteen hours. Mr A. Forde Matthews, a candidate for the Whataupoko riding of the Cook County Council, will give an address at Kaiti this evening and at ‘Whataupoko to-morrow evening. The Gisborne City band rendered an attractive programme of music from the esplanade rotunda yesterday afternoon. The Hon. Capt. Tucker and Mr W. E. Akroyd. J.sP. presided at the Police Court on Saturday morning. Harold Jarmev Weston was fined 10s and costs, in default four days' imprisonment for drunkenness. He also pleaded “guilty’ 5 to a charge of indecently assaulting a girl of 41 years, and was committed to the Auckland Supreme Court for sentence. Accused stated that lie had been drinking heavily, and knew nothing about the occurrence, but lie supposed there was something in it, and it was better to plead guilt}' and get it over.

A marked improvement was noticeable in the tone of Saturday night’s open-air No-License, meeting. It was obvious that the caution® and reproofs which followed the previous week’s meetings had conveyed the lesson intended. Tie speakers who liad displayed so much temper and lack of selfcontrol the previous Saturday were conspicuous by their absence, and the others refrained from personalities or mud-slinging, and stated their side of the case in quiet, rational, and temperate language. Their remarks were brief, and interjections were wisely ignored. Consequently the speakers received a fair and attentive hearing from the small audience, most of .whom were thinking men anxious to hear both sides, and have now realised that the only sensible vote is to strike out the bottom line on both eapers.***

The Management Committee of the Poverty Bay Cricket Association meets at 7.30 o'clock this evening, when matters _of interest will come up for discussion. It is. understood that an invitation will be extended to the Hawke’s Bay Association to send their representative team to Gisborne at Christmas time.

The annual Old Identities' Picnic will be held at the Patutahi Domain on Thursday next, and given fine weather this annual re-union of old identities should be more popular than ever. The picnic is supported by voluntarv donations, and the surplus given ‘to the Children s Creche. Last year the sum of £2l was handed over to this deserving institution. The Patutahi Domain is one of the most beautiful public rescues m New Zealand, and an ideal picnic spot. The new Domain Committee have shown commendable enterprise, in laying down a new athletic track and other improvements. Hot uater, milk .and paddocking is provided fiee. and the vehicle proprietors have arranged for special cheap fares. A fact which seems to be sticking m 'kvnnf peasant manner in "the tin oats of the local No-License advoYfio'nrin that while there are new over 1 0.000 or 15 per cent of our “’dry” areas, the dunk bill of New Zealand, per head is now 20 per cent higher than when there u o.ro no dry areas. The reason is. verv envious, ais the increased consumption <; liquor, per throat, i s simply due to tile iact that people in No-License areas are compelled to buy their grog by the barrel and the demijohn, when k? oic it was purchased by sixpennyworths. The figures quoted above are from _ the prohibitionists’ own ‘’‘experts, and the local clergyman who took exception to them on" Saturday night should blame his own friends if they are wrong. The reverend oentleniTin r contention that the Xo-License areas only consumed ISs wortli of grog while the others drank £i worth is ail moonshine v but fancy an ardent advo-Xo-License even admitting that Gisborne would consume £12.000 oi liquor per annum under Xo-License! But where lie was misled was in talcing only the official amount which went into No-License areas, through the Magistrate's Court, and our reverend statistician makes no allowance for the liquor which went in and went down unofficially. it is a pleasure to enlighten so polite an opponent, and to point out that any person can procure one quart of whisky or one gallon of beer per day in a Xo-License district without giving official notification, and quite a lot of people (even in a “dry”' district) are satisfied with a quart of whisky and a gallon of beer her day. But the people who think that, tafciivr it in sixpennyworths—instead of quarts and gallons—is the most leasdnabie way of drinking, will strike out both bottom lines and leave things as they are.***