BY TELEGRAPH.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 155, 30 December 1905, Page 6

BY TELEGRAPH.

GHEYMOUTH, 30tli December. " Arrived— Tutanekai (11.1& a.m.), from Westport. WESTI'ORT, 30th December. Sailed— Waipori (12.20 p.m.), for Wellington.

Miss Braddon, the novelist, enjoyed her first triumph more -than forty years ago, but at sixty-eight years of age — her birthday fell a few days ago — she is still able to weave plot 3 with the best of thorn. " Lady Audley's Secret," the most notable piece .of Get ion which she devised, was her secoiul_ long story, and she was only twenty-four when it was j produced. There is a strange story of i its origin. John Maxwell, tho publisher, had determined to start a magazine. By an unfortunate accident the serial ttory was not forthcoming. The publisher and , editor were at their wits' end. .Miss | Braddon heard of the difficulty, and went jto see the editor. There v/cre only I twenty-four hours to spare "What is' i tho latest time you could give me?" j asked tho young novelist,'* " Well," rei plied the editor, "if the manuscript of i tho opening chapters were to bo on my j breakfast table in tho morning that j would be in time.' Next morning when the editor went .down to his breakfast, ho found among his letters the first few chapteis of "Lady Audley'* Secret." The plot of it Miss liraddon had had in her mind; the writing had been done at fever heat in a few hours. In Germany, writes Mr. Sydney Low, in an article in the London Stundaid, where the apartment system has been j long established, the filling up of the towns has gone on at 'a great 'pace. The j manufacturing expansion of the country is largely based on cheap labour drawn from the agricultural districts. The peasantry, accustomed to hard living and hard work, flocked into the towns, where better wages were to be had in the mills and factories. The immigrants had to live somewhere, and they found that the land speculator and the lioilse jobber had been beforehand with them, and put up lente to an exorbitant figure. Ihe lesult has been a "house famine" in many t of the industrial towns, und an amount of overcrowding which goes beyond anything experienced in England outside of the slum areas. People are thicker on the ground in Berlin than they are in almost any part of London, and n very, large proportion of quite respectable working class families live in two rooms, or even in one room, and this is for the most part at higher rents than those which mle for similar accommodation in English great cities. In this respect, at least, tho Geiman workman is not better off than his English brother. The German municipalities are making energetic efforts to deal with the "housefamine." In recent years' they have worked out some large and comprehensive plans to meet ■ the difficulty, and they have - expended much money and more thought and sagacious calculation upon them. Neither the central nor the local authorities ever shrink from a measure because it is what might be called socialistic, and, indeed, "municipal socialism" is carried much further in some of the German towns thun in any English borough or county. The Wpllinston-Pulmnrston North telephone trunk lino is to be opened on the lut prox. All communications will be charged for at a uniform rate of Is for each threo minutes' conversation. The opening of this line wUI enable any telephone exchange subscriber in Wellington to speak to any exchange subscriber at Palmerston North, and vico vcrba. Mr. N. E. Aitken, of Charlotte-tired, i<advertising hifl latent cuterprieo in po- 1 cards— a Maud Jeffries-Julius Knight R«ri'>«, dopicting those popular artitt) in Mine oi ttair boiL-tapm £&.«!,

The Nelson Evening Mail leports that passengers by Messrs. Newman Bros.' coach from Nelson to Motueka had rather an unpleasant experience on Saturday. The coach had reached tho Central Moutere, when a flame from a roadside fire was blown across the road in front of the horses. -The leaders swerved and went over a bank, the coach capsizing. The nug bolt coining out, the horses got away with the front of the coach, but were caught and brought back. Although there were nine passengers, ' including some ladies, no injury was sustained by any of them, and neither were the horses nor the coach heriously damaged. After a delay everything was put right, and 'the journey to Molueka continued, and was completed with safety. The residents of Island Bay who were promoting a petition urging the City Council to reduce the tramway fare from and to the Bay, have decided, to let the matter drop. They are satisfied with the Mayor's assurance that the whole question of fares will bo favourably considered when opportunity offers. In the presence of an immense crowd an experiment has been conducted at Bilbao in the outer harbour. It was the official trial of an apparatus named Telekino, the invention of Seuor Torres Que j vedo, a Spanish engineer, who has made a study of wireless telegraphy as an agent for the propulsion and direction of ships and balloons from land. About a year ago the inventor submitted his project to a committee of Spanish savants, headed by Senor Echegary, who is now in office i\s .Minister of Finance. The committee believed that the ideas of Sonor Quevedo were of practical value, and recommended him to the notice of the Government, fiom whom the inventor obtained a subsidy of £8000 to enable him to continue his 'researches. The trials carried out have been entirely successful. A transmission station was fitted up un the flat roof of the Maritime Club, and from this point of vantage Senor Quovedo controlled the movements of a vessel having on board the authorities and a number of journalists. All kinds of evolutions were executed by the craft under the controlling influence of the inventor, who , at the close was enthusiastically cheered by the public, and congratulated by tho. authorities and naval officials. The discovery is believed to possess great possibilities. The; fifth annual meeting of the Wanganui Rifle Association was commenced yesUrady on Putiki Rifle Range, in dull showery weather. A large number of marksmen competed, but the shooting j was poor<, In Tne Manawtitu Match (200 and 600 yds, seven «hots each range) the principal prize-winners were: — Captain Ferguson, Huntcrville Kitles, £4, 64 ; Private Maxett, Taranaki Rifles, £2 10s, 64; Rifleman King, Opuki Rifle Club, £2, 63; Captain Barlthorp; Manchester Rifles, £1 10s, 63; Rifleman Head, Petone R.C., £1 Is, 63; Rifleman Burns, Karori 8.C., £1 Is, 62; Cooper, Palmerston North Rifles, £l Is, 6*! ; Private M'Lean, Wellington Highlanders, £1 Is, 62; Rifleman Pettigrew, Kimbollon Rifles, £1 Is, 62. Private Love (Wellington Guards), Lieut. Hollard (Hult Rifles), Rifleman Whitenun (Upper Hutt), Private M'Miilan (Wellington Highland Rifles), Rifleman Greenwood (Upper Hutt), Kiflemaa M'Calmont- (Otaki), and Rifleman Spencer (Shannon), won 10s each. In the Tarannki Match Private M'Lean (Wellington Highland Rifles) shot into second place, Lieut. Hollard (Hutt Valley Rifles) was fourth, and Rifleman J. Welch (Opaki) was &ixth. Messrs. Lovien, Shailcrabs, and Co. advertise a sulo of potatoes to bo held ut their mart on Wednesday nox.t, and household furnituro and oifects on tho promises, 20a, Martin-sqmrc, for the following Friday.