May 12. The Btreeta in the business portion of the town were flooded last night fully two feet deep, but the water has all subsided now, and no damage is reported, as it did not enter the shops.

A few days ago, says a Ballarat telegram in the Age, an advertisement appeared in the Age from Mr Cullmer, solicitor, of Chancery I lane, London, inquiring for the address or whereabouts of Henry Mottlee, as the sum of £17,000 was awaiting payment to him by the Court of Chancery. The man adver. tised for is, it seems, a resident of Ballarat, and to-day he became acquainted of his good luck in a Bomewhat singular manner. Mott« lee, who, together with his wife and family, ocoupiea a Bmall house on the Smyfchesdale road, sent one of his ohildren to a neighbouring shop to purchase a tallow candle. The candle on being purohased was wrapped in a piece of .the Age, whioh contained the " missing friends " advertisements, and on the girl taking the candle home Mottlee picked up the wrapper after it had been thrown on to the floor, and oommenoed to read it. It is almost needlessa . to mentiou that he was surprised when he read that he had come ia for a fortune of £17,000. The lucky man has to apply personally in London before August 30th,

By the way, talking about retrenchment (says the Mercury), it is in high fashion just now in a certain bank. A new general manager is making matters extremely uu. comfortable for the unfortunate employees, and certainly some of the oases of whioh we have heard seem to be very hard. In one instance on this ooasfc, a teller, who has been over twelve years in the bank's service, has had his salary reduced from £205 to £176. He is a married man with a family, a must able clerk, and faithful servant. How can the bank expeot a man in bia position to live decently on auoh a salary ? Judge Biohmoud onou aaid that he would rather see a eon of his breaking sionea on the road than enter a bank, and oertainly, if •' retrenchment ran rabid," of the kind we have referred to, is to become the gaueral rule, then the proapeots of a bank clerk will be far from promising. Referring to the Premier of Canada, Sic Arthur Gordon strikingly remarked, "At the lime when Louis Napoleon was Emperor of the Frerioa, when Bismarck had not been beard of, when Lord Palmerston was Prime ! Minister of England, Sir John A.^ McDonald was Prime Miuister of OanaaVj and now, after an interval ol more than thirty years he is still at tha head of the Government. The following reoipe for avoiding family quarrels may fairly olaim credit for good sense and originality. It was given, by an old man as invented and Etao.tised by a oonple he used to know. "You see," he said •' they agreed between themselves that whenever h.e dame home a little • contrairy ' and out of temper, he wore his hat on the book of his head, and she never said a word, and if she oame in a little oross am crooked, she threw her sha«vl over her left shoulder, and then he never said a word " II similar danger Bignala oould be pretty largely üßed, how m»ny unneoeaqary qolli. Biona would be avoided, and hqw many a long train ol evil consequences would be safely shunted tiU the line was clear again At th,e present time when the question of the touor t r affl 0 ia 8 o muoh before the public the following will' be read with interest : -The City of Ohigago, now the seoondoity in the United States, has (says the Alliance Neios) long been held up as an example of the value of the " high-license " system, as favouring temperance by reduolng the number of publio houses and the con* sumption of driuk. The faots of th£ oase, however, as shown in a striking article just published in the Chicago Lever s afford strong evidence in a contrary sense, In 188& the last year of the "low licenoe," when the charge waa 62d01., the number of liquor saloons in Ohioago was $,759 ; but aooording to information ob» toined from, the oity colleqtor's office, the number on 2§th Qotober, 1890, was 6,628 . although the liaenoe fee had been raised in the interval to no less than 800 dollars. The liquor business appears to have been concentrated by the'"hiijK lioonoe " system in the haada of the brewera and syndicates oreated by them, with the result that the liquor business has been and is now being pushed in Ohioago as it never was before. No statistics are available as to the consumption of spirituous Uouora in Ohioago, none, haying e.yer been compiled but there ia quite enough \evideaoVtnaF«^ distillers believe "high UoeD<sThK£ fa£? a beneat instead ««>B ini&rV L ffl business. As W howeyer 1 , UatisTioa. *$ »VM§Fald® show" 46 Tn 1882\tnder«1§^lSW

Between eight atad jlrl named AVn^Trok^lyeffj^h^:'^^^;^ 1 :';.: refttti of agfe,' ftnclfof ■; rt&arkabie pejnwnal'^-■ ; : ittrnotions, Buddeiajy diaiifpeared from het fidowed mother 1 ! houai in this oltjr. The most searohlnjsr eii^uiritea' were fruitlessly prosecuted by, the polib^ and by the f rleadfl )f the missing girl^wKoae mother died two pears ago in total ignorance of her daughter's fate. It now transpires that after uer abduction Anna Prokofyefl was seotelly oarried t6 Constantinople, and eventually sold to a Saloaica merchant, in whose hawm abe haa remained until tba reoent death of ■■■ her. owner. Prom intel igettoe^iiow~«wlwl here by frieada of the late Madame Prokofyeff it would appear that Arida was from the first treated with uniform kindness by the Salooioa merohant, who ai hfa death bequeathesl to his favourite slave the whole of bit property, consisting of foor faaosw in Salonioa, five trading sohoonera, and five thousand Turkish pounds. The fair legatee, now only in her twenty-fifth year, and still possessing her remarkable" youthful beauty scarcely impaired, has placed her two boya under the educational training of . the Busaian monka of Mount Atfifr j aid to th^ir abbott she has presented one of her schooners. She is now also converting om\of her Salonica houses into a Buftjo-Greeki free school. ; ■ ■-- . i^j'/i A terrible oase of juvenile depravuy came before the Chief Justice, Sir Frederiok Darley, at the criminal sessions at Broken Hill last week, when a boy of 15, named William Deakhv was oharged with the murder of a fisherman named George Tulotf at Gol Gol, near Mildura, early in January. It appeared that the boy and his younger brother visiten Tulon's camp and asked to be provided with some food.' It was given them, and as they still hung about the oamp, Tulon, fearing that they were there for no good purpose, warned them off. The elder Deakin threatened to shoot Tulon, but eventually the boys left for the purport of shooting ducks. At about 2 o'olobk in^the morning they oame back and found Ti^lon i?^ft a 2 leep ' Without more ado the elder Deakin fired his ginat the flahermafi; wh6 received the oantenta in hia, head, 1 By some means Tulon managed to get into his boat, which drifted .down the .stream. He was found and taken to' W%fci£ worth Hospital, but shortly afterward* hia depositiona were taken, Thaw was, nob the alighteat doubt as to the the murder, and the jury returned » yerdiot to that effect, recommending" the prisoner to meroy on aooouht of hia jrouta and wevlou tracing, The Judrfe sentenced O&iu to ; death, remarking that the murder " yrH one of the mosfi cruel e?er perpetrated In Nev/ South Wales. The prisoner reoeived tha seateace uumoved. The little Wilhelmina. Queeea of Holland, is the rioheat heireßi in tho world. , oho it a Bimple-miuded, intelligent child, and talka four languages fluently., Her ohielielighl when she waa fiva or Bix.waa to make mad pies, but thiii pleaeare eh'o ,w*B uol'often al< lowed to indulge in, . The Uilfe Queen ha* an enormous number of white frooki, and Bhe is dressed in nothing but white in , etuamer, and has a olean ' dreaa ; oVery day, When driviug oul; her EngUsh T goTeraeM has great ditfioultyan ' keeping t^poo? httle Queen perpetually aoknowieclginjrfih* pubho salute, -Why do tha peppla want to look at me V aaked tha littlomtte one. day. "Not, for your aak^dear.' bo& beoause you are mamma a little 'girvr wat her governesa a wise reply. ' .' • r ,

The oldest tree on earth, at least as far m anyone know, it ttw " ifoo " iq fta wotod city of Anwapoora, fiacmab. .-> &•,.*» planted, the reoord says, in tbs year 888 8.0., and is, therefore, nearly two thouHand two handred yean old, Its great ag« ia proved according to historio dooumenS. says Sit James Emerson, who adds: •• To it kings have, dedicated the. dominions in testimony of a belief 'thai $i ia ft btaaolt of the ;i identioal T fl^^ ; Mdrt a IoS J&Si reolined:at UrumeUa when, he underwent his apotheosis." Its leaves are carried away by pilgrims as relios, but aa it ia too saoredto touoh with a knife. these, leave* oaa only be gathered after they have Tailed u ?J w J I !? w i d W'Joau Fernaadw, onqa.inhabued by Alexander; Selkirk, ia uoVt'epanU by a tamer AußVrian OH W, >^ y aW$J3 foroad by ihe terrible wounds whipFß reoewedattheßatile ol Sadowa inT^B 1 ?^ leave the aimy, grew tired of the mono'ionj o( existence ln ojviliaed Buro^ a'ad rfeif mma to devote his fortune * 0 a \ MM adventure. For fifieeo yeara vm ha hM beaa hvmg on the Island of Jnan Jernande* witS a small colony ol natives and oi"BoroiJflii& deseriera from oiviliaation, and oaS S mumoating with (he world oaoea year whea he eenda his saiUug yaoht to VaiparaW for' ptovisions and suppiiea. ¥*•>*> »«S Perhaps iSngash ladies who start in , trade as milliners and dressmaker* may find » useful suggestion in an aooounl of theoJeyar. advertisement with whioh a similai basineM was opened in New y o ,k («emarka £T Daily News). The dreasmafceriSwd^ theatre, decorated it liberally witUJpalml and flowers and the inevitable uniiaxi. engaged an orchestra, and sent oat tiqkei* lor an afternoon performance. There wa* a orowded audienue, and the enterpriiioft tradeswoman oame on i Q a beoomiogteigS aud, leaning in a Juliet aytitude over ft baloopy remarked inoideucully thai theprioe of ths graceful robe she wore^as bo many dollaxa. Meantime the band played " I dreamt that? dwelt in m«ble Mils." Aaonttia airbeSr^ more martial. A real live horse was lead oo th ! stage, apd the dressmaker mounted biifc Un « weli-out habit/after dlsplayidg" wJbiS. i^h! best advantage, she dismount? a^ Mj giving the animal some on the prices of riding gtar. /f h .f^ afternoon costume, she went a)f i *j , f* audience at a counter K^iffte' o^ tempting wares from her L.ffii^' sing combinations of 3^ Bt^ lk ' d i w ? a : with the ''sales laSy^X SS" al itte HOn. (within the colony) J. B Fattar^. WWK (£tQglaad), and <)a« «t'hli ooavUitl^ ha B , ol oourse, never heard of the slopmSeni* : a a T tlDg ? opi ," in lh,t colon, that S the lives «nd souls out of thoosanda of jounff educated wonianly women. whTnot'onS cannot obtain huaoands; bu affc4nVal»S£ bread to eat by selling ik* Kq7»t J» lSr * pnoe as it can be booghi foiTSnwtak.

wJ 3 o* threshing it oSI fe wf d e .T y P l ***^ statesmen-. £* oeaalty of providing against snoh wii South and Central Amutloa; • But' do notimagine thai are yat on tho threskS even of federation, 'a large nvS-ot difficulties have yet to be overcome;™ TVmt great coloniesrlike New South. WaleavVW efface themselves -as they 1 WiU hav« to ■£ perhaps you w 9 nltt Uka Mte' a^olofflm& give him bao^ihi y^ilffl^fi^^^^^^": SThe Boston W^^W^fe TiSfc^ :;; i . tysioiana testify tot 76^eiioetffc-iiktiisfe