NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 212, 5 September 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

:jj-r» to a familiar '*» LBW ' a Ss not concern itseli latin niasmi, dpes ._ too Sb trifles; -but there 3 ft _ Significant to denian Leg .. lat attention of we i ent ering the Theln^G g Strangers' M.P., is no dignified and self im P° - ne subject St, impressed »h*teve of ™?J.°l'to the deliberations of t hathei ! l :fof the greatest empire the fie senators oI w? 8 _ ne Councl i iorli bas f k X Mother of Parliaments, Chamber of the Mower rf reS'of the individual W^K?lf unfettered speech; eager to ■tofAV downfMlen and. protect the uplift tne uo imngm e such an S*ff_t Visitor, immersed for the Intelligent v.s ' crowd; _ g histo rical jnoment in m cor|ten , plft . r m of the House of Commons waking _£_i L to tie present, and asking his *"•? „ ones of respect ana reverence, f ld A •?_ subject of debate at this Wh : t ; 3 it thfnew fiscal policy, the r me Laliland. India or the col- & A?d one can detect a certnm onie»« . . j.i 1p f o Ties of the M.r. fiSSS o reply truthfully th.t Parents is at ; his -,!nt trravelv considering whether a Sman?Sness, who has failed to ffnany official-uniform since hi, reS$m .military service m ■ South Africam. August, is entiled to com tnation for the wear and tear sufferX his private wardrobe while gomg tl iinds But after the InMlfcent %SS recovered from the shock of Pf-ii from Imperial interests to pnroJiUffS". Wb respect Mother 'parliaments would no doubt, stand L_er than ever. . He would reflect m m this scrupulous regard for deZ in the Public made Britain what she is, securing the highest-,-mdard of efficiency in the vVar Office, no matter whether it is engaged in chooato a new pattern of button for undress uniform or purchasing a million tons of indifferently preserved meat.

• The sport of the hour iii Pari, is tnkbiT place in a modern drawing-room The _oste93,-a well-known ■woman of letters. Invites'two scientist?. Academicians, litterateurs of .opnosod views, acquaints them with a subject for discussion, and seats them in the centre of the room. _lie,2uests crowd round at a respectful distance, and assist at the fight with many marks of encouragement. Bets are "made, although it is not easy to decide which is the victor. The whole thin? is reminiscent of the coek-fi_ht, mi.ht indeed be called an Intpllectual cock-fight, and one would think that the savant, who are called in to display the agility of their wits cannot feel very highly flattered by the invidious distinction.

' They are not without enterprise in *fcswn. A political club at. Haarlem 'oitiA to boom their candidate in an .fjjpal manner, but the chief of nolice has put his foot down on the proposal. _ balloon was to be sent up with a time fflse attached, and exploded when above tie'city. It was expected that in this fflftiaie'r'the cargo of handbills which was I-_Sht',jtoft would he distributed, and the most indifferent politician induced to rtad the contents of a bill that reached him from the skies. .

Even the many privileges expected by the;modern English or colonial domestic servant are exceeded by those enjoyed by the servants of France, who are perhaps on terms of greater familiarity with their employers than are the servants of any other country in the world. What would an English mistress think of beingkissed on both cheeks by her maid on I-turning from a holiday or of a departing. servant, not only kissing the mistress, hut offering to kiss the master? Only recently a magistrate had to deride whether a breakage of crookery hai Men place in the course of the housemaid's usual duties, in which case the damage could not be deducted from her wages, or whether it took place in her attic on one of her weekly receptions of friends. '

A c_9e of ingenious and extraordinary thrift on the part of a German woman aas recently come under notice. It seems that a wealthy woman who usually paid a hank a large sum to keep her shares and other papers in safe deposit mien she left town hit upon a scheme for having her documents safeguarded without expense to hers.lf. Placing them ■m large envelopes, she had them registered, then directed them to a fictitious address in Berlin, with her own name and address in the corners for the "Return to." After wasting days and days .J limitless search for the fictitious adwesa the Berlin officials gave up in despair, and returned the packets to Buns™»to be handed back to the sender. m as she was _b_*nt, and it is against WW! roles of the German postal depart&W ®I* re & istered ™ail to anyone m the person whose name is on the en»«>pe, e the local post office was forced to m charge of the packets until the S returned and claimed them. Hpt «tie scheme effected a considerable sayX , U and a considerable loss to St Now both the bank and the rt!l x. ryin ß to devise some means of S the **«*»>** of the woman

-_r»T U,ng Incident i 3 reported from nknvl 69, 2 omm 7> a seven-foot ele_l7l™*P Pylon»ey lon » consigned to fi-Js* ,n New Y ° rk ° n jui y- lst- ■ BoaJ as a PP r »ised at £100, but SS ""? he wouldn,t P a 7 dut 7 on Si ( ? and the Government seized ' whioh was sent the Govstr? ßtor TL e in West Twenty-sixth the olSi he Bbowed some dis l ike to Bostock «<w ° n a messa ge came to Ihe oL-_ lea9e take IT off our hands. n ?. entwill consent to you act- *&" S" Until the dis P ut <* is settook Th n my went back to B_s- ' °Wd_l a* of A PP rai sers met the Pit on T_ the valuation Boitoek T my by the c «stoms officials. I M that ? reu P° n notified the Govern*«t Ww 15? goin S to send the ele- % on V i c stores ' "! wonst Pay _„_ valuatl °n above £100," he ' S do ? ed a tiH for £75 "for St W fa _!! c t le P hant during the time ne different w rg& * Kindl y remit -" Bostock and the Chants i 'jy° * be market value of ' R'fi» _*____? Qf this amount TomHow u y consun,ed two-thirds in **mZ ,„ ng; l, lU lt take Tommy to heGOVCin '

The King of Saxony may claim the distinction of being the first German monarch who personally demanded punishment for lese majeste. His position we cannot help but regard as'undignified. The king's ire was aroused, by an article which appeared some tyne ago iv the "Dreadner Rundsehau" dealing with the petition of a poor woman to Princess Mathilde. In reply the latter sent the petitioner three shillings for her five starving children. The paper was immediately confiscated and the editor arrested. The proprietor consulted with the foremost Berlin lawyers, who assured him that the Saxon authorities had no cau3e for action. Thereupon the proprietor addressed the King personally, stating that, according to his contract with the editor, the latter wouU be dismissed if he published anything libellous. The Minister of Justice" replied that His Majesty had decided that the author of the article concerning the Princess Mathilde must be prosecuted.

Favoured by a calm atmosphere, M. Santos Dumont last month made the most successful aerial flight he has ever attempted over Paris. It was about 4.30 a.m. when he left his balloon shed in the Rue de Longchamps and in Santos Dumont No. 9, the same in which lie made a sensational arrival at the racecourse a few days before, directed his little craft towards the Etoile, followed by a la#ge number of cyclists, who had hard work to keep up with him.| At a height of about forty yards the aeronaut went through various evolutions about -the arch at the Place de l'Etoile, stopping his machine suddenly, descending quickly, then rising slowly, showing at the same time the perfect obedience of the airship and his own skill. Then came the amusing part of the performance. M. Santos Dumont lives only a few paces off the Etoile, in the Avenue dcs Champs Ely sees. He steered his airship straight down the avenue and allowed it to drop quietly to the earth just in front of his own door, whore some of his mechanics were waiting to take it in charge. Then he calmly mounted to his apartment, took a leisurely breakfast, and in half an hour appeared once more, stepped into his place on the slender framework of the airship, and in a few moments was rapidly making again for his balloon shed.

A company .prospectus is a very poor indication of what the company intends to do, as a recent case shows. Under the winding-up order made against the Finance Mines and Industries Association (Ltd.), the Loudon Official Receiver issued his report last month. . The accounts show gross liabilities £10.900, of which £.6125 are unsecured, and assets £ 7607, showing a surplus of £ 1482. The company was promoted in March, 1897, with a capital of £5000, ostensibly to acquire land in New Zealand for mining purposes, but the Official Receiver is of opinion that the real object of the company was to enable a Mr O'Flynn, an undischarged bankrupt, to carry on business as a company promoter and financial agent without personal liability. That gentleman, who held ten shares in the company, was the managing director of the company throughout, with a salary of £250 a year. The company in 1899 acquired for £250 the "United Service Gazette," which had always been carried on at a loss. A sum of £311 had been put down as the value of the company's interest in -he profits of a skating rink at the Alexandra Palace, the -title to which is- disputed, and among other works of this "New Zealand" venture was the promotion of two bills in Parliament for the construction of light railways in Norfolk and a pier at Lowestoft! New Zealand does not appear to have had any interest for the company except for prospectus purposes; at any rate, not one penny piece appears ot have been spent in the colony.

A man named Fowler, who last month stood his trial in London for bigamy, was discovered by his original, wife in a strange manner. It seems that Mrs Fowler No. 1, who found her long-lost husband while she was singing for money in the streets with one or two companions in straitened circumstances, had so charmed Mrs Fowler No. 2 that the latter gave her twopence and asked her to sing another song. The singer no-, ticed the name Fowler on the shop fascia, but did not suspect that the shop belonged to her husband. Later, however, singing in front of another shop, also in New Southgate, and seeing the name W. T. Fowler, she entered the shop and asked to see Mr Fowler. She was referred to the other shop in Stationroad, where she met and recognised William Thomas Fowler, to whom she was married at St. Stephen's Church, Canonbury, in May, 1893, when he was twenty years old. Her husband admitting that she is the Annie Kate Doris Oberdais whom he married ten years, ago, says that when they parted company later she took all the furniture. After failing in business, going abroad,: returning and starting again as a master baker in Clapham, he heard that his wife had misconducted .herself, and had ' gone through, a form of marriage at St. Church, Islington. He spent £48 15/ in trying to find her so that he could get a divorce, and, failing to find her, he went through a form of marriage with Eliza Ann Macdonal.d in September, 1899, at Holy Trinity Church, Roehampton.

A further alleviation of the sum of human suffering and another triumph of scientific research has to be recorded. Ever since the introduction of wax matches their manufacture has been a source of danger to those employed in making them, clue to the fact that no substitute for the phosphorous employed was known, and the- workmen suffered from the ravages of a disease set up by contact with it, and known as phossy jaw. Latterly the condition of affairs in the factories has been much improved, due to the fact that the workers have to wear gloves and masks, and ample facilities for cleinsing the skin are provided; but despite all precautions cases are still all too frequent. Messrs Bryant and May, after years of patient experiment and the expenditure of large sums of money, have discovered a substitute for phosphorous of a perfectly harmless nature, yet possessing all its other attributes. This will be good news- indeed not only to the matchmakers, but to all classes of. the community. Mothers will hail with delight the fact that the danger of some little toddler picking up and eating wax matches with fatal results no" longer exists, nor will adults be the victims of a childish prank, such as that recorded recently.-where the . thoughtless action of a little boy hi putting a box of matches in the tea-pot was attended with well nigh fatal results for the unfortunate people who partook of the deadly brew.