HERE AND THERE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9835, 7 August 1900, Page 2

HERE AND THERE.

The Premier's statement that the scarcity of coal in the centres is due to the limited number of soal-carrying vessels will (says the Westport News) be taken with a pinch of salt by those who coutinually see vessels waiting in the river for supplies of coal. The oldest bank note in the possession of the Bank of England is dated December 19th, 1699, and is for £555. One of the provisions of the French code forbids a doctor to inherit property left him by a deceased patient. Fifteen years ago about 3000 bicycles were annually produced in England. Last year over 5C0,000 were manufactured. The fund to provide compensation for railway accidents in Victoiia inaugurated shortly after the "Windsor railway disaster in 1877, now amounts to £71,500. It is to be closed when it totals £100,000, thai sum being considered an adequate reserve. The Southland papers report that spurious half sovereigns ate in circulation in Invercargill just now, a business man having received one on Thursday in payment of an account. The imitation is almost perfect, but the fraud cau easily be detected by testing the ring, the pleasant jingle being absent. The Nelson Coknis'. states that recently Mr Beck, who has a station some distance iniand from Tuparoa, found on his property a splendid opal. The stone is* highly colored and offgood quality, and the discoverer intends making further exploration in the locality. A Spaniah soldier's usual meal consists of bread, olive oil, and garlic. Meat he rarely gets, and to this has been attributed the fact that his wounds heal so rapidly. Mr W. Smith Loekhart, a Victorian sheep farmer, recently lost a number of sheep through putting them on wheat crops in the Wagga district. The sheep exhibited symptoms of having lost power in their hindquarters, and were unable to rise. It is supposed that the cause of the trouble was eating a poisonous weed growing among the young wheat. A fatal shooting accident is reported from Camperdown (Victoria). Two boys, named Ryan.and McCarthy (who was five years of age), were playing in a room, when Ryari, the elder, picked up a yun, placed a cap on it, and fiied at his little playmate, saying, " I'll shoot you." Ryan was hotrified to see McCarthy drop, and at once told the father. Death was instantaneous, and Ryan has been placed under arrest. One of the placards displayed by the Boxer rioters serves to show the temper of the people of China. "People of Shantung," it ran, '"you are being encroached upon by the red-haired barbarians, who seek to drive you out of your labels and homes. The red-haired one claim to have made a treaty with the Emperor surrendering to them these lands. They only want a foothold in order to curse the soil, and spread their? religions and customsallover China. Let us arise and drive them into the sea." It is stated that this is the sort of placard that is constantly met with throughout the province of Shan-tung and Chi-li, and it is hardly to be wondered at that the ignorant Chinese believed that the Europeans were their enemies. An amusing result of the great heat at Home is reported from Liverpool. A drove of pigs bound for the Stanley Cattle Market became stuck in the half-melting ashphalted road. The pigs could not stir and they had to be carried into a held and washed and scrapped before they were able to walk again. The increase of prices in Paris consequent on the exhibition has given rise to no small diesatisfaction. A curious incident in this connection is reported. At a boulevard restaurant the proprietor resolved to raise his tariff, and as a result the waiters found that their tips seriously diminished. On applying to the proprietor for an increase in their wages to meet the deficiency, they met with a flat refusal, whereupon, although it was juat time to serve dejeuner, they put on their hats and left tho building in a body. j Some remarkable scenes were witnessed j on June 11, when the ajacent township of Fulwell attempt ed to assert its legal right to connect its drainage system with that of Sunderland, which strongly objects en the ground of expense. Fulwell engaged navvies to dig trenches, and as fast as they threw up earth gangs of corporation men shovelled it back again. Neither side would yield. At length Sunderland's engineer prepared to flood the tremhes, and Fulwell capitulated. Terms are now being sued for by the tovvmhip.