WEEKLY WHISPERS.

// there's a hole in a? your coati, I rede ve tent it; A chiePs among ye tahin' notes. And faith, he liprciit it.

—Burns

Charges and counter-charges by missionaries, settlers, commissioners, and others who have to do with the South Pacific Islands are very much in the air at present, and the Oondominion in the New Hebrides is coining in for a good deal of criti-* cism, so far a s the net ions by the French are concerned. Here is a complaint in addition to those already referred to in cable messages. The Rev. D. L. Patterson, Presbyterian missionary at Malo, writing under date, November ,29th, says:— "The natives in the north-east side aie being kept lively by the French. Their pigs are being shot and villages destroyed. One man wa s taken and kept prisoner because he defied this destruction and theft. He was taken from his home and handcuffed, and deported to Santo to await the ai rival of the s.s. Pacifique, to be ti'ken to Vila. Fortunately a Frenchwoman let him g Q during the night The man swam a distance of five miles from Santo to Malo, after hav ing been washed backward and forward by the current which sweeps through the Malo Pass. He arrived at daylight, and sought the protection of th e missionary. Theie seems to be no justice for the native; the French d 0 just what they please. We wish Australia would do something. Altogether between earthquakes and th e French we are kept busy, but at ! the same time we are longing for the day when the French shall be made toe the line."

Labour politics do not seem rto have achieved all it wants in N.S. Wales as yet, judging from the appended letter to the "Sydney Daily Telegraph" from Mr R. Maddock, writing on 16th inst. from Wangrabelle (Vic), under the h-eading "Australian Slavery": "Sir, —I am the Methodist missionary travelling eastern Victoria and southern N.S. Wales. Allow me to make a publie protest against the labour conditions prevailing on the dairy farms in ithe mother State, as I find them. Family No. 1: Six members, working from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m., milking and field work, using their own horses, and purchasing their own horse feed; average earnings £2 12s a month, which does not pay for food, while the owner lives in affluence. Family No. 2: Seven members, same hours, average a little more, because there are more cows, £4 a month. They live on dry bread and tea. Imagine a man working hard in the field on th'is. Is it not time that this should be stopped? I want to publish this that our Labour Government might know of the white slavery in Australia."

The new opera composed by Leoncavallo, "Malbrouk at the Wars," has been heard in Florence, Rome, and Naples, and reached Paris last month. - The hero, Malbrouk, is described as a sort of Captain Bombastes, who. to judge from the dresses, seems to have flourished in the spacious stagey days "of coasts of mail and chain armour. .According to the Paris correspondent of tlve London "Daily Telegraph," the work represents the first essay of the composer in opera bouffe, but its fault is thait there is not enough bouffe about it. Its main quality is the solidity and .seriousness of its snore. A. little more fun might possibly, in' a work of the sort, have pleased just as well. The composer has introduced parodies of Rossini and" Wagner for a joke into his score, but they are described as not orstremely humorous. Musically, the best role is that of Malbrouk himself, a typical comic Italian baritone ,part. Hi s tremendous furioso style, his grand warrior manner, his truculent jealousy, are good burlesque. Dramatically, th e best two parts are those of a grotesque chamberlain and an amorous duenna.

There is a good deal of sympathy with Captain Trench and Lieutenant Biandon. who have "fallen in" in crßiection with the Borkum espionage cases, and are now in Oerman fortresses.' Perhaps a few facts about th e prisoners may be of inter■es't to the general reader. Captain Bernard F. Trench, R.M.1., is an Irishman, a member of the wellknown family of that name, of which Lord Ashdown is the head. He was bora in 1880, and educated at Uppingham and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, entering the Royal Marine Light infantry in January, 1899, and attaining the rank of cap tain in January last. He is attached t n the Chatham division, and has qualified as an interpreter in German and French. Lieutenant Vivian Ronald Brandon, R.N., is attached rto the President, drill ship.of the Royal Naval Reserve, in the South-West India Docks, London, and is described in -the "Royal Navy List as "on surveying service." He is- a son of th e late Mr O. S. Brandon, of Oakbrook, Ravenscourt Park, and' Heene, Worthing, Sussex; and a b*other, Mr Jocelyn Brandon, is a jr-ember of the London County •Council.

There has been something like a "boom" in what is known as "Federation" wfieat in Australia, but a warning to .millers at least has been sounded, and it should be heeded by their Supplier s. Perhaps -Moff's farming friends who grow wheat will make a note for -their own guidance and not depend too much on quantity rather" than milling quantity. At the annual meeting of the Young (N.S. Wales*) Co-operative Flour Mill Co., the chairman said it "was important for farmers to know that though* Federation wheat may give a big yield, it did not make a big return to the miller. He added that in their own interests and in the interests of the district farmers should grow some of the stronger wheats to mix

with Federation. Nearly all of them were confining tbemselve s to Federation, and as a consequence the directors had to look to other districts for strong wheats, such as Bobs or Comeback, to mix with Federation. They were prepared to pay 2d a bushel more for the former than they would pay for Federation. Mr H. Sivell, secretary, said thait this was a serious matter, and a good deal was being said in wheat circles about the weaker wheats, and federation was incJuded amongst these. He was of opinion that the demand for these weaker wh-eaits would fall off, and the market, would be closed against them. It was no use farmers securing a yield of wheat if that wheat could *not command the market. « » * * • , Australasia is not without her code of the unwritten law, as the appended incident, recently occurring in Australia, shows. At the sitting of the Bendigo (Vic.-) Supreme Court early this month, a farmer, John Henry Nunn, of Bayan, in the Sea Lake district, was convicted of having- unlawfully wounded, by shooting, a State school teacher, William Thos. Hill, who was boarding at Nunn 's house. Particulars of the case, which showed that Hill .had Deen elandes■timely meeting Mrs Nunn, 'aroused a great deal of public feeling in the accused's .favour, and- the jury strongly recommended him to mercy. Mr Justice Hood sentenced him' to a •month's imprisonment with hard labour, but before a week of the sentence had expired the governor of the gaol received special authority from the State 'Governor that the ,prisoner should be released. Accused was, therefore, liberated.

Some of our "flash" "ringers" in New Zealand shearing sheds, may be interested in na appended Melbourne wire, and feel inclined to join, in the fray:—Daniel Cooper, of Bundoran station, South Australia, who recently won the machine-shearing championship of Australia by, shearing 316 sheep in a working. day of eight hours "has been challenged for th e championship by Harry Livingstone, of Longreach. Queensland, who claims to have shorn 300 sheep just as they came in an ordinary day's work. Livingstone has lodged £IOO- deposit as an earnest of the challenge to 'Cooper or any oilier shearer in the world to shear the most sheen in eight hours for £IOOO. If -the contest co-me s off it will De in Melbourne.

A conundrum, whose origin is attributed to prohibition enthusiasts-, is going the rounds; timely: Why i s the Waimea Road like strong drink? Because it leads to the Lunatic Asylum, th a Old People's Home, and the Hospital.

May the readers and friends of "Moff."—and his enemies and non-read-ers also—enjoy— A Happy New Yeah. MOFTJSSILITE.