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THE London and Brighton and SouthBrighton and Eastern traffic returns for last week are South Eastern. disappointing, and do not give much encouragement for the future. The Brighton return shows a decrease of £2,417 for the week, and the South Eastern a decrease of £1,268. It will require a large increase in the holiday traffic to cover the recent heavy decreases. At the same time, we must mention that the Paris Exhibition traffic, which will necessarily flow over these lines, ought to bring a considerable addition to their income, and enable them not only to maintain their ground, but to pay increased dividends. The London Chatham and Dover should also materially benefit from the same cause. The heavy line traffic will no doubt continue to be large, as the general trade of the country is unquestionably good.

THE half-yearly meeting of the Grand Grand Trunk Trunk Railway of Canada Company has Meeting. passed off quietly as usual. The prospects of dividend to the first preference holders still appear somewhat remote. We fear the traffics will not be so favourable as they have been for some weeks past. The early opening of the lake navigation in America will be prejudiced to the Grand Trunk, which is an all-rail line, and benefits largely from the closing of the lakes. Trunks are weak, on the whole, and any material improvement does not appear to be on the cards. Sir Henry Tyler is an able and astute man, but he has a hard task before him to enable the company to hold their own. On the opening of competing branches by the Canadian Pacific, which will take place within a year, their position will be further imperilled.

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CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY SHARES Canadian Pacific are firm, and likely to continue so. Sir Railway. George Stephen, the ex-president, who had been for some time in London, has left for Canada. He is well informed of the views of the principal shareholders in this with regard to financing the company; and the annual report of the director for 1888 may be looked for very shortly after his arrival. It is possible it may contain important proposals with regard to the common stocks and conversion of the fixed charges. The prices of the common stocks are at present absurdly low, and can only be accounted for by the directors having a heavy amount of floating charges hanging over the undertaking, for the conversion of which they are only waiting the favourable opportunity, and which will shut out the common stock from any dividend on the expiration of the 3 per guarantee of the Dominion Government in 1893. We have reason to believe that any such fear may be instantly dismissed from the mind, and that it will be found from the Directors' Report that they have framed a financial scheme which will deal satisfactorily with all fair and floating charges, put the Company on a firm basis, and at the same time materially improve the value of the Common Stock, the holders of which will be able to run alone, long before the expiration of the guarantee referred to. It is our firm opinion that a substantial rise awaits Canadian Pacifics within a very short period. The Mail Service of Steamers about to be established by the Dominion Government between England and Canada, and by the British and the Canadian Governments jointly, between Yokohama, Shanghai, and Australia, will materially assist the Canadian Pacific Company's receipts and draw general traffic to the line which is destined to become the trans-continental highway between Europe and China, Japan, and our Australian Colonies.

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per mile will rapidly rise to a par with those of the Caledonian, At present they are as about 5 to 7. From this improvement of position the holders of the deferred stock will largely benefit.

The Mining Market.

Since last week there has really been very little doing in the mining market, and there seems little prospect of any revival this side of the holidays. When people get together after the festive period we may expect a revival of the utmost importance. The fact that speculators have lately been more or less absorbed in Railway investments has conduced to a considerable extent to the present unexpected depression. I say unexpected for the reason that all of us have been looking forward to a period of considerable animation in ventures of this description. Those who are now holding Mysores should stick to them, or even increase their holdings; there is not the slightest possibility or probability of these shares getting much worse, and in the case of Mysore Gold there can be little question that the moment there is any business at all doing these will be the first to feel the benefit of renewed inquiry. Of course, these shares have already, especially during the past three months, risen very materially, seeing that prior to Christmas they were selling at 3, whilst at the moment they are very firm at 6, and have touched 63. It seems very strange that with the enormously increased output, this mine should even now be standing at a much lower figure than they were in 1886. At that time the crushings were merely nominal as compared with those now being returned, and if we might draw a comparison with 1885 and 1886, when £8 or £9 were being paid for them, then they should surely be worth as much now, if not more. We then have the Ooryum mine, than which there is not a more successful property in the mining world. They have been putting out an enormous amount of gold for the past three months, and though the quantity of quartz raised by the company is nothing like so great as that of the Mysore Gold, the percentage of bullion is much greater. The shares in the Ooryums are now selling at 12, or a shade over; their actual value is much more than this, and, indeed, they are certain to make a much bigger figure in the near future. There is no security offering in the Money Market at the present time, of which the future is so certain or is likely to be so successful. Main Reefs are once more depressed, and are now only fetching 128., whilst Nundy droogs, after being freely bought at £3, have dropped away to 30s. Of this mine I do not entertain nearly so high an opinion as I do of either Ooryum or Mysore Gold, still I certainly think they are worth an advance upon their present price. Amongst what might be called the knocked-out lot of Colar Mines, we think most highly of Indian Consolidated, first because the shares are well held and are in strong hands, which, when the right time comes, means a rapid advance; next, that the property is extensive, and is of proved auriferous value, and lastly, that it is an eminently well managed property. In Australian Mines, Day Dawns, after showing signs of improvement, have slipped back again, and are now freely sold at 128. There is a better time in store for these securities, and it will astonish us very much if they are not quoted over par before the end of the current year. Colombians are nearly all under a cloud, and with the exception of Colombian Hydraulics nothing appears strong amongst them. Colons in

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the near future may not unlikely prove pleasant exception, and judging from the people who have lately been buying are pretty sure to rally. They are a real good purchase at present price. In the copper share market dulness reigns supreme, and even Tintos are threatened to an extraordinary extent. Some financial authorities going so far as to say that they will drop from the present price 11, 113 to as little as £7 or £8. We do not quite believe it, we think at the moment they are as absolutely low as they can be, and the prospect of any important further fall does not in my estimation appear likely. With respect

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to speculation in this market, we can hardly advise any purchase in particular; generally speaking most mines are as low as they possibly can be, and if we advise any purchases they would most decidedly be Indians, particularly Ooryums and Nine Reefs. A further rise in Colons being likely, they might also be bought.

Circular.

Under the title of "Mr. Thompson's "that M. l'hompson's Mining and Investment Circular,' gentleman publishes a fortnightly treatise, dealing with the mining market, its movements, present prices, and future probable changes. The modesty of Mr. Thompson in styling his fortnightly issue a circular, is positively astonishing, seeing that this work is one of the most carefully written and skilfully compiled works on mining affairs issuing from the press. its forty or fifty pages is condensed some extraordinarily important information, and anyone who peruses this work must be absolutely astonished at the research shown by its author.

In

WE understand that Sir Francis Dillon Bell, K.C.M.G., Agent General for New Zealand, had expressed his willingness to act as a trustee for the debenture holders of the New Zealand Midland Railway Company, Limited, subject to the sanction of his Government. This sanction has been granted, but too late for the Agent General's name to be published in the prospectus.

MISS GRACE HAWTHORNE.-Mr. W. W Kelly, the manager of the Royal Princess's Theatre, London, cables from America that arrangements there for Miss Grace Hawthorne's tour next autumn are progressing most satisfactorily. Miss Hawthorne will open at the Union Square Theatre on Monday, the 17th of November next, and will play there for a month; her repertoire will include Camille and three new plays by important authors. Meanwhile she will appear at the Royal Princess's Theatre, London, in True Heart, which will be produced on or about the 20th of May next, at the conclusion of Mr. Wilson Barrett's present engagement. Miss Hawthorne will also produce Theodora previous to leaving England.

BRITISH

EMPIRE

MUTUAL

LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY,

KING WILLIAM STREET, LONDON, E.C.

Incorporated in the year 1847, under Act 7 and 8 Vict., cap. 110, and further empowered by Special Act, 15 Vict., cap. 53.

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Copies of the Report and proceedings of the Annual Meeting may be obtained on application.

Exchange Street, Manchester,
March, 1889.

GEORGE STEWART, General Manager.

SUBSCRIPTION

ORDER FORM.

To the Publisher of PUMP COURT,

London,

33, Exeter Street, Strand, London, W.C.

Please forward me, postage free, a Copy of PUMP COURT, Weekly for One Year from date, for which I enclosed the sum of Fifteen Shillings.

Name

Address

Date

The LISTS will CLOSE on WEDNESDAY next, 17th, at Four p.m., for both town and Country.

THE NEW ZEALAND MIDLAND RAILWAY CO.

(LIMITED).

ISSUE of £745,000 FIVE PER CENT. FIRST MORTGAGE DEBENTURES (specially secured as stated within).

LLOYDS' BANK (Limited) and the NATIONAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND (Limited) are instructed to RECEIVE APPLICATIONS for the undermentioned FIRST MORTGAGE DEBENTURES, at the price of £92 10s. per £100 Debenture. In Debentures of £100, £500, and £1,000 at the option of the holder, being part of a creation of £2,200,000, repayable at par at the expiration of 20 years, and redeemable by purchase in the market, at any price not exceeding £105, or by drawings at that price on three months' notice. No further issue will be made pending the completion of the line to Reefton, or until such issue is repaid in the terms of the Trust Deed.

Payable £10 on Application.

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* £22 10s.,,

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Allotment.

18th May, 1889. 15th July, 1889. 16th September, 1889

Applicants have the option of paying up in full, under discount, at the rate of £4 per cent. per annum. Interest for two and a half years (ie., during construction) will be deposited. Interest will be paid half-yearly the first payment being made on the 15th October next.

TRUSTEES FOR THE DEBENTURE HOLDERS. 1. Beaumont William Lubbock, Esq., (Messrs. Robarts, Lubbock and Co.) 2. Edmund Charles Morgan, Esq., DeputyChairman of the National Bank of New Zealand, and late Director of the Bank of Bengal.

3. Roderick Pryor, Esq., Hylands, Chelmsford.

4. Sir Frederick A. Weld, G.C.M.G., late
Premier of New Zealand.
SOLICITORS FOR THE TRUSTEES-Paine,
Son and Pollock, 14, St. Helen's Place, E.C."

DIRECTORS.

Thomas Salt, Esq., M.P., Chairman (Chairman of Lloyds' Bank, Limited).

E. Brodie Hoare, Esq., M.P., Deputy-Chairman (Chairman of the National Bank of New Zealand, Limited, and Director of Lloyds' Bank, Limited).

Sir Charles Clifford, Bart. (Chairman of the New Zealand Trust and Loan Company, Limited).

H. V. Hart-Davis, Esq. (Messrs. Hoare, Wilson and Co., London).

C. Shirreff B. Hilton, Esq. (Messrs. Miles Brothers and Co., London; also Christchurch and Timaru, New Zealand). Walter Chamberlain, Esq., Harborne Hall, Birmingham, will join the Board, subject to the sanotion of a general meeting, in accordance with the Articles of Association.

BANKERS.

Lloyds' Bank (Limited), 72, Lombard Street, E.C., and all Branches.

The National Bank of New Zealand (Limited), 71, Old Broad Street, E.C., and New Zealand. BROKERS Messrs. Coleman & May, 2, Tokenhouse-buildings, E.C. SOLICITORS-Messrs. Burchell & Co., 5, The Sanctuary, Westminster. AUDITORS-Messrs. Cooper, Bros., and Co., 14, George Street, Mansion House. ENGINEER-Robert Wilson, Esq., M.I.C.E. Joint Consulting Engineer to the Government of New Zealand, 7, Westminsterchambers, S.W. SECRETARY-Eneas R. McDonell, Esq., 79, Gracechurch Street, E.C.

ABRIDGED PROSPECTUS.

The Company was incorporated for the purpose of constructing the above-mentioned railway under a contract, dated 17th January, 1885, entered into by the Governor of New Zealand, on behalf of her Majesty the Queen, under Acts of the New Zealand Parliament, and since assigned to the Company, which contract has since been superseded by a contract with the Governor of New Zealand, dated the 3rd day of August, 1888, under which the Company has secured additional advantages. Of the share capital, amounting to £500,000, £250,000 has been fully subscribed and already expended on work which will form a part of the security for the present issue, as hereafter explained.

Under this contract the Government have subsidised the Company by a free grant of upwards of 2,000,000 acres of land. This land is not to be taken in alternate blocks (as is so often the case), but may be selected by the Company at their option, within a very large area of the Middle Island specially reserved by the Government for that purpose. The Government have guaranteed that should these lands not bring in £1,260,000 to the Company, additional lands shall be granted to bring up the selling value to that figure.

From the valuations made in the Colony it is anticipated that the land, when the whole line is made, will realise at least £2,500,000. All increase in value arising from any source belongs to the Company, without in any way reducing the above guarantee. Mr. Thomas Pavitt, of Christchurch, timber valuer, estimates that the timber alone on the 91,000 acres, in the vicinity of the line now to be built (out of a large acreage under timber included in the Company's option) is worth, apart from the value of the land when cleared, £635,000. The timber consists chiefly of red and white pine with birch, and there is a large and increasing demand for these woods in the colony and Australia.

The gross receipts of the Greymouth Government line, of which this line is a direct extension, were £3,602 per mile for the financial year ending 31st March, 1888, and when the accounts for the year eniing March, 1889, are published, it is believed this figure will be maintained. It is estimated that an annual gross receipt of only £1,100 per mile on the Reefton section would pay 8 per cent. upon the capital required for this work.

The security for the present issue of £745,000 will be :

Railway, already constructed, out
of first issue of Share Capital,
including rolling stock, sur-
veys, &c.
Railway, to be constructed and
equipped according to contract
out of the proceeds of this
issue
Land, about 300,000 acres to be
granted to the Company in con-
sideration of above expenditure,
and taken at waste land value
of 10s. per acre..
Timber on only 91,000 acres in
the immediate neighbourhood
of the line now to be con-
structed, separately valued at

£220,000

545,000

150,000

635,000

Total value of security.........£1,550,000 Interest at 5 per cent. per annum for two and a half years will be secured on the present issue by a deposit in the hands of the Trustees of a sum sufficient to discharge the same.

A draft of the trust deed, securing the Debentures, and a copy of the contract between the Governor of New Zealand on behalf of her Majesty the Queen and the Company, can be seen at the Offices of the Company. Applications in the form accompanying the prospectus, together with a deposit of £10 per cent. on the amount applied for, must be forwarded to Lloyds' Bank (Limited), 72, Lombard Street, E.C., or to the National Bank of New Zealand (Limited), 71, Old Broad Street.

Full prospectuses and forms of application can be obtained from the Bankers, or at the Offices of the Company, No. 79, Gracechurch Street, E.C.

12th April, 1889.

Public Companies.-To Solicitors.

Richard

Richard Jordan, 120, Chancery Lane,

Public Companies' Registration Agent, &c., Continues to render assistance to the Profession in all matters pertaining to the Formation and Registration of Joint Stock Com. panies.

MEMORANDUMS AND ARTICLES OF AssoCIATION entrusted to him will be carefully perused, and printed with accuracy and expedition.

DRAFT ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION, printed wide for alteration, 38. 6d. per copy. REGISTERS OF MEMBERS, and all other books required by Joint Stock Companies. A large assortment always in stock. SHARE CERTIFICATES, COMMON SEALS, &c., &c., engraved to any Design at the shortest possible notice.

Now ready, Twelfth Edition, 2s. 6d. post free
THE JOINT STOCK COMPANIES' HANDY-
Book. By R. JORDAN. To be had of the
Author, as above.

WM. CLOWES AND
AND SONS

LIMITED,

LAW PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS,
27, Fleet Street, London, E.C.
(Six doors East of Inner Temple Lane).

Now ready, demy 8vo, cloth 108.,
THE NEW LAW AND PRACTICE OF

Railway and Canal Traffic: Being the RAILWAY AND CANAL TRAFFIC ACT, 1888, and the RULES of PROCEDURE in the Court of the Railway and Canal Commission. With Notes and Cases, and containing References to other Statutes relating to Railways and Canals. By ROBERT WOODFALL, of the Inner Temple, and the South Wales Circuit, Barrister-at-Law.

AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS. Second Edition, Demy 8vo., cloth, 15s.; cash price, post free, 12s. 6d., The Agricultural Holdings Act 1883, and other Statutes, relating to Distress, Replevin, Notice to Quit, &c. With a Concise Summary, and Ninety-three Forms, being Forms of Leases, Substituted Agreements, Awards, Notices, &c. And an Appendix containing the Ground Game Act, the Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture, Scale of Compensatio approved by the Chamber of Agriculture, &c. By J. M. LELY, Esq., Editor of Woodfall's "Landlord and Tenant," and E. R. PEARCE-EDGCUMBE, Esq., Barristerat-Law.

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VOL. VIII.

Pump Court

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1889.

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PUMP COURT was not published on Wednesday this week on account of the Easter vacation. Everybody took a good holiday, and we hope our readers feel as fit as we do for the Easter Sittings which commence on Tuesday.

LAST week in our Law Reports columns we reported the decision of a majority of the Court of Appeal in the case of Re Dunn's Trade Mark. The whole question really turned upon whether the application of the term Fruit Salt by Dunn to his baking powder was calculated to deceive the Public into a belief that the constituents of the powder had some connection with the beverage so favourably known to the public as Fruit Salt, or with the proprietors or manufacturers of the same. In the court below Kay, J., decided that it was calculated to deceive, and at the time, now some weeks ago, we expressed our concurrence in the opinion. In the Court of Appeal that practical judge, Lord Justice Cotton, was also of our opinion, but Lindley and Fry thought that the baking powder was so different in its objects and purposes from the beverage that it was not calculated to deceive. With deference we submit that the two learned judges have taken too limited and narrow a view of the question at issue, and their observation of the fundamental principle at stake was very superficial. There is probably no such thing as fruit salt really in either case, but the happy idea of Mr. Eno in coining the term and in largely advertising it, made the public familiar with it, and they have come to associate with it rightly or wrongly very healthful properties, and are ripe for receiving with favour any commodity which bears the same name, partly on account of the merits of the fruit salt beverage, and partly on account of a belief that the proprietor of the same who has served them so well in the past must have something to do with the powder. It seems clear to us that the application of the title to some other article of human food is but a colourable imitation and a legal fraud on the public. We hope the case will be taken to the House of Lords. At present we have the judges equally divided in opinion, Kay, J., and Cotton, L.J., being of

No. 132.

opinion that the title "Fruit Salt " Baking Powder was calculated to deceive, and Lindley and Fry, L.J.J., being of the contrary opinion. We cordially hope that the judgment of the Court of Appeal may be reversed, and the judgment of Mr. Justice Kay re-affirmed. The tendency of later days is not to consider an author, inventor, or trader, at all, but merely whether the public are deceived by an imitation of his work, his invention, or his trade mark. It is only in this way that the former get, as it were by a side wind, any protection at all, and yet it is undoubtedly for the interest of the general public that, when a man has spent time and thought and distributed money largely in various directions, that he should be allowed to have all the benefits accruing from the same, and that no one else should be permitted to appropriate the increment which properly belongs to him.

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IN the preceding paragraph we were obliged to use the term abhorred by Lord Bramwell, not because we disagree with his Lordship, but because it is a useful term in written discourse to indicate that the word is used merely as matter of argument and without necessarily implying any conscious or intentional deception, nor therefore any moral turpitude. It is in the effort, with poverty of language, aptly to designate the thing done without including any aspersion on the doer, that this anomalous expression may be justified. We admit that it is not a logical phrase any more than are the terms bad grammar or bad law, but then the language is full of such anomalies, contradictions, and redundancies.

THE case of The Moorcock (PUMP COURT, vol. 8, N. S. No. 124, p. 199) is now reported at length, 37 W. R., 440, and is an undoubted instance of judicial legislation. The only previous authority resembling it was an American case of Carleton v. Franconia Iron Co., 99, Mass. 216, to which Dr. Melville M. Bigelow draws attention in his admirable work on Torts. In that case the defendants were owners of a wharf at Tide Water, and procured the plaintiff to bring his vessel to it, to be there discharged of its cargo, and suffered the vessel to be placed there at high tide over a rock sunk and concealed in the adjoining dock. The defendants were aware of the position of the rock and of its danger to vessels, but gave no notice of its existence to the plaintiff, who was ignorant of the fact. The tide ebbed, the vessel settled down on the rock, and sustained injury, and defendants were held liable for the damage. In the case of The Moorcock (ubi supra) the vessel was, by agreement with the owners of a jetty, in a river, moored alongside it for the purpose of discharging and loading cargo. The jetty could not be used by the ship without taking the ground at each tide. The owners of the jetty had no control over the bed of the river, which was vested in a Conservancy Board. While the ship was moored at the jetty she, as the tide ebbed, took the ground, and, in consequence of its uneven condition, sustained injuries. The Court of Appeal held that there was an implied undertaking by the owners of the jetty to take reasonable care to ascertain whether the bottom of the river at the jetty was reasonably safe for the ship to take the ground, and if it was not safe, to inform the ship owner thereof. Lord Esher, M.R., in giving judgment, was of opinion that the mere

fact of the jetty being in the river, and the bottom of the river an uneven spot, imposed no liability upon the owners of the jetty towards the public in general. But the plaintiff was not in the position of a bare licensee, for the defendants, though not charging directly for the use of the wharf, were, under the contract, to be paid a commission upon the value of the goods loaded or discharged at the wharf, so that they were in effect paid for its use. The wharf owner alone, and his servants, had the means of ascertaining the condition of the bottom of the river, and he was of opinion that the wharf owners were bound, though the bed of the river was not under their control, to either make it reasonably safe for any purpose for which they agreed the jetty should be used, or inform the persons using it that it was not,

THE long-expected decision in Beresford-Hope v. Lady Sandhurst has at length been given, and, as will be seen from a note of the case given in another column, the dicta in Flinthane v. Roxburgh, 17 Q.B.D. 44, have been upheld. The judgment of the Court was delivered by Stephen, J., and dealt with two points. First, could a woman be elected a County Councillor. Assuming that she could not, were the votes given to her to be treated as thrown away, that the candidate next on the list was entitled to the seat, if otherwise qualified, without recourse being had to another election. On the first point (on which alone we propose to touch) the reasoning of the judge was that, admitting, as he did, the words of the various Parliamentary enactments were inconclusive that women were under general commonlaw incapacity to vote or hold office, and that if the legislature intended to render women eligible for such an office, inasmuch as to do so would be to make an exception of a general rule of long standing, it would have done so in plain terms, but no such intention could be gleaned from language ambiguous and inconclusive.

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MR. JUSTICE KEKEWICH had a novel point before him recently in the case of Withers v. Purchase. Plaintiffs were owners of a mill on a cutting of water from the river Test in the county of Southampton. Defendants-mill owners further down the main river-had dredged and scoured the bed of the river for some distance above their own mill in order to deepen the course, the result of which was to diminish materially the volume of water flowing through the cutting to the plaintiff's mill. Defendants claimed, as riparian proprietors, the right to cleanse the river from the accretions imported by floods SO as to preserve the stream in its accustomed state as regards volume, velocity, and direction. We leave out of consideration other questions, for this was practically the important contention urged in the case. The defendants claimed to do so on the ground, first, that they had a prescriptive right to do so; secondly, that, independently of prescription, they had such a right as riparian owners. The judge was of opinion that the evidence failed to establish a prescriptive right. He was also of opinion that, even assuming the defendants to have the right of scouring, which they claimed as riparian owners, they had exceeded that right. But the value of the judgment consists, not in the decision, which is involved with very peculiar circumstances, but in the dicta negativing the existence of any such right to scour in a riparian proprietor. Kekewich, J., could see no reason against extending to the bed of the river the principal applicable to the banks, viz., that gradual changes by accretion inure to the benefit of the riparian proprietor to whose land the accretion attaches.

MR. RICHARD BLOXAM, the Chancery Taxing, Master, promoted to this office since the year 1859, having been for seven years previously Chief Clerk, has resigned. It is said that no appointment is to be made to fill the vacancy. It seems that the main objection of Mr. Lake, the president of the chief Law Society, to the

abolition of the solicitors' certificate duty, which was discussed at the last meeting of the Incorporated Law Society, and referred to in last week's issue of PUMP COURT, is that the Certificate duty is the only ground on which solicitor's can support their exclusive privileges in respect of the preparation of conveyances. If this is the only ground of the "privilege" we are sorry for the "privilege."

THE Court of Common Council has decided that the salary of the registrar of the City of London Court shall be reduced to £1,000 a year, and that he shall be debarrel from private practice. A legal contemporary decries this as ill-judged 'economy, which is absurd. The Common Council has decided wisely, and if they would set about reducing salaries of judges they would be doing also well. The salaries for instance for the judge and deputy assistant judge of the Mayor's court are simply flagrantly disproportionate to the quality of work required and done.

WE understand that Mr. Munton, who at one time was on the list of candidates for the appointment of Registrar, has retired from the contest. We are not sorry for this, as in our opinion Mr. Munton's practical retirement would be a loss to the profession, and we cannot conceive what induced him to think for a moment of shelving himself in the City of London Court. The recent announcement of the Council that the Registrar would have to give up practice was merely declaratory, for, as matter of fact, the Registrarship requires the undivided attention of the officer appointed for this purpose, and either the Court or the private practice must suffer if he attempted to serve two masters.

THE following solicitors, members of the Council of the Incorporated Law Society, have been appointed by the Master of the Rolls to act as the committee under the Solicitors' Act, 1888, to hear and report to the court upon all complaints of professional misconduct on the part of solicitors, viz., Messrs. Lake, Bristow, Markby, Saunders, Williams, Sir Thomas Paine, and Sir Henry Watson.

THE Committee of the benefit which is being organised for the well-known composer, Mr. Riccardo C. Gallico, have now definitely arranged the programme, which is an exceptionally strong one. The matinée will take place at the Avenue Theatre, on Thursday, May 9, and the following artistes have given their services:-Mdlles. Jessie Bond, Rosina Brandram, Violet Cameron, Sibyl Grey, Maria Jones, Clara Jecks, Florence St. John, Geraldine Ulmar, Florence Levey, Lilian Price, Eva Greville, Maude Wilmot; Messrs. John Beauchamp, Charles Collette, Arthur Cecil, W. H. Denny, George Grossmith, Robert Ganthony, E. J. Lonnen, Harry Nicholls, Courtice Pounds, Richard Temple, and John Wilkinson, also Mdlle. Trebelli, Mdme. Belle Cole; Messrs. Walter Clifford and Bernard Lane. The programme will include the second act of the "Mikado," with the Savoy company, a grand divertissement, specially arranged by Mdme.Katti Lanner, music by Mr. R. Gallico, with Mdlle. de Sortis, from the Empire, as the principal dancer. A scene from the new Avenue burlesque, one from "Faust up to Date,” and an old melodrama entitled, "Raymond and Agnes, or the Bleeding Nun of Lindenburg;" this latter performance will be all the funnier seeing that the parts are to be balloted for by well-known London actors and actresses. Mr. Stedman's choir of boys and girls will sing, and Mdlle. Berger, the celebrated cornet soloist, will make her first appearance in England. The orchestra will include the leading Covent Garden instrumentlaists. The business arrangements are in the hands of Mr. H. T. Brickwell, and Mr. Robert Soutar is acting as stage-manager. With such a programme, Mr. Gallico may certainly rely upon the great success he thoroughly deserves, and although the prices have been raised, the seats are being rapidly disposed of.

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