Mr A. L. D. Froaer, M.H.R., intends taking a party of member^ of Parliament on «. trip to Napier and the Hawke's Bay district for the purpose of pointing out the scenery and resources of that part' of "The country. Two boys went into a tank at the Ulverßton (England) Paper Works with the intention of bathing. One, James Ellison, 15, sat down on a auction pipe, by which he was drawn in and drowned. So tightly was the body wedged that it required two men to get it out. In Wood street, Ponsonby, Auckland, the other night the residence of a wellknown citizen was burglariously tampered with. It appear* the female domestic, who was in the lichen, saw through a half-glass door a man with a bunch of keys trying to open the door. She gave the alarm to her master, who confronted the man ]ost as he war about to enter the honae. The would-be burglar, however, succeeded in making good hi* escape. Some tragic revelations have, eaya a Home exchange, been made about the terrible life of the button-makers in Moravia. We always thought that for sheer brutality and avarice the Hebrew sweaters in the East End of London who did the "dop-shop" work of the Metropolis were without any equals ; but it -now looks as if they will acquire a diatinoe halo of generosity by comparison with the buttonmanufacturers of that part of Austria. For instance, it has been declared that the average earnings of a whole family in this trade do not amount to more than a sum of from Is 8d to 2s 6d a week — that w, from £4 10s to £6 5s a year. Indeed, the maximum wage which a full-grown man can earn at this labor is only Is per week, and this requires almost superhuman efforts, and con seldom be accomplished for more than a week at a time, for it necessitates the poor wretch often working. right through the night as well as the day before and 1 after. No wonder these people are too poor to drink beer, coffee, or,, indeed, anything except water. The marvel is they can be got to eat or driuk at all, but that they don't prefer to «it down and fold their arms to welcome death from slow starvation in preference to this awful servitude of the Austrian .sweater.

Representative King O'Malley made an amusing speech on the Defence Bill in the Federal Parliament. He scouted the idea that Australia would be invaded. He said 5000 such men as went to South Africa would beat 200,000 of the men, of any race but our own. He was told that he had been reading the Argus again, and replied that the opinions of that paper had no more effect on him than the bite of an Australian flea on the tail of the American eagle! The biophonograph is a new machine which combines the effects of the phonograph and the kinematograph, and is not new (says the Echo de Paris),' but M. Normandin's apparatus is the most perfect realisation of it yet presented to the public. It " reproduces voice, form, and gesture with marvellous precision! v There is no hesitation, no false manoeuvre, intonation and movement being represented with exactitnde and spontaneity. The muffled, haff choking sort of sound of the ordinary .phonograph is absent, and the voice retains its true timbre. The whole thing ia indeed so realistic that one is tempted to regard the figures as living persons rather than part of a picture. A burning accident which had a fatal termination occurred at The .Hook, near Waimate, on Saturday week. Mrs Watt, aged 86 years who lived with her son-in-law, Mr A. Rattray, was seen to bed about 3 p.m., and 1 about an hour later Mrs Rattray sent one of her children to her room to. see how she was. She returned saying, that she could not see her grandmother, fond that the room was full of smoke. Mrs Watt was found lying on tne floor unconscious. Met side, arm, and face were somewhat burned,, and the floor was charred where she had been lying*. The dodtof was sent for, and every attentiongiven, but shfe- passed away on Sun^ day morning;. It is supposed that she had got put of "bed to light her pipe, as she was in the habit of smoking, and that she accidentally set' her clothing on fire.