TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Star, Issue 11278, 27 June 1900, Page 2

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

, [From Our Special .CDBnEsromosNT.] May iiWlnf/MR/CECIL RHODES LEFT HOME. -: Mr .Cecil Rhodes had sojourned hut a few days.in.London when he : departed again for South Africa wnh speed and secrecy. Various explanations have been given for his sudden return, the.'Express' averring that it was in'consequence of. the discovery of copner in Rhodesia. Mr Ricarde-Seavcr, a friend of Mr Rhodes, has explained that the latter has hurried off to make arrangements with the Australian and N«w Zealand Volunteers to settle down in Rhodesia when the war is over. Evidently he is afraid of .their being snapped up for the Free State, and is, therefore, offering them special inducements, including capitation grants' for the transport of their families to their new homes.- Most of them we have been led to believe are bachelors, but they should—with the lustre of war upon them—have no difficulty in persuading Australasian sweethearts to join them, and the families would follow in due course, in spite -of New Zealand's diminishing birth rate. • Lord Roberts, too, is inviting "applications from the colonials for district commissionerships in the Free State, so there should before long be a fine Australasian leaven in Africa. Valuable as the Australasians should prove as settlers in South Africa, it is to be hoped, however, that a large proportion will return to the colonies, where their experience of actual warfare should be invaluable in the reorganisation of the volunteer forces. AN AUSTRALIAN SETTLER ON THE MAYBRICK.CASE, Mr Samuel L. Sharrock, who has recently returned frqm Australia after a score of years' residence there, has, through the medium oi the ' Daily Chronicle,' been throwing fresh .light upon the Maybrick case. Mr Sharrpek.lived, at Aigburth, in the same districtjof Liverpool as the Maybrick family. James Maybrick, for whose murder by arsenic poisoning his wife still languishes within prison walla, was, says Mr Sharrock, " introduced- to me as the brother of ' Stephen Adams,' the composer, and, being a bit of a musician myself, I was interested in him. After we had had a dance or two ho would say ' Come out and have a smoke.' Several times I noticed that he looked particularly queer, and that there was a strange odor about him. When I asked him what was the matter he said that he was in indifferent health, and that his peculiar looks were due to drugs which he had taken. 4 unafc do you take?' I asked him. '1 take all kinds of things,' he said; 'I am one of. those. maniacs who are. always trying all kinds of medicine.' 'What do you take mostly?' I asked him one night. He,replied ' I take arsenic, for one thing.' After that 1 met Maybrick at balls at the Town Hall, Liverpool, and on the flags of the Exchange. 'Well, Maybrick,' I said to him once 1 , 'how are you this morning? Are you going on with that stuff of yours?' 'Yes,' he said, ' I can't give it up."' Mrs Maybrick was a particularly ljeautiful woman, the belle of Aigburth. She suffered, however, from blotches oh the skin, and I believe that she was advised by someone to try an arsenic wash. I could go blindfold to the shop where she purchased the fly-papers, which she soaked in water, washing herself in the liquid. My honest belief is that, knowing her husband's habits, she was afraid of it being known that she used arsenic, and that was why she adopted this course; but she had no more to do with poisoning her husband than you had." Mr Sharrbck's explanation for not making this statement sooner was that when he received the papers containing the report of the trial he was in Australia, and had the worries of his ownbusiness to look after. If he felt sure that" an innocent woman had been unjustly convicted of murder he might' at least have spared the time from his " own Worries " to write a letter stating what he knew on the subject.

THE MISSING LINK OF EMPIRE. , The "dowdy" Privy Council Chambers ■in Downing street is "the subject of the following paragraph from the ' Daily Chronj- : ~" A y om lg Australian squatter, at a dinner the other evening, heard a speaker extol the Privy Council as ' the one visible Jink of Empire.' He was so impressed that he resolved to see that link before going to b _ e d- 'Drive me to the Priw Council, the glorious link of Empire,' he said to his cabman; and the cabman drove him to Leicester square. A second shot brought him to the Law Courts. But an Australian never gives in, and on inquiry at the nearest police station he found that the inspector ' wasn't sure, but he thought it was in Downing street.' It was one in the morning, when .the Australian approached the lonely ni°-ht constable with half a crown and an "inquiry for the missing link of Empire. ' There it is, sir,' said the constable pointing. 'And what's that building opposite?' asked the seeker: . 'That's the Colonial Office—Mr Chamberlain's,' was the reply. The Australian 'Joe's pretty cute,' he said. 'He keeps the big house for himself and puts the link in an outbuilding.' Then he went to bed.". \'." u BOBS " AND AUSTRALIA.

We learned with pleasure a while ago that Lord Roberts informed two Australian visitors to Bloemfontein that he hoped to vreit Australia at the conclusion of the war Now we know the reason why. Mighty as «S v '.'. IS ' there is a m % hti er still—Lady „P, obs - She was known in India as the Jneld Marshal, and it was discreetly whispered in Service circles that young officers who wished for promotion should get into the good books of her ladyship. She has three sisters in Australia—Mrs Aspinwall (of Melbourne), Mrs Beamish (wife of Archdeacon Beamish, of Geelong), and Mrs Steevens (of Warrnambool). To the firstnamed she wrote as she left for South Africa that,* as the Cape was halfway to Australia, she hoped to continue the voyage later on, visit her Australian sisters, and bring Lord Roberts with her. The last expression is characteristic of "She who must be obeyed " —even by the Commander-in-Chief.

NEW ZEALAND TRUST AND LOAN. The report of the directors of tlie NewZealand Trust and Loan Company for 1899, to be presented to the meeting to be held in London on the 22nd iust., states that the net profit, including £3,827 brought forward and £12,756 profit on sale of securities, is £46,092. After providing for interim and preference dividends, a balance of £16,092 •remains, and the directors recommend that a further £5,000 be appropriated for payment - of a dividend on the ordinary shares of 2s 6d per share, making, with the interim dividend. 5 per cent, for the year, and that £11,092 be carried forward. The debenture debt has been reduced during the year by £238,659, and at 31st December amounted to only £120,996. At an "extraordinary general meeting to be held on the 22nd inst., after the conclusion of the business of the ordinary meeting, a resolution for the reduction of the capital of the company, by returning the preference capital in full and extinguishing the liability on the ordinary shares, will be submitted, the holders of more than threefourths of the total amount of preference, shares having already signified their consent. NEW ZEALAND JOINT STOCK AND GENERAL CORPORATION. Mr R. N. Tetley presided at an extraordinary general meeting of the New Zealand Joint Stock and General Corporation on Monday, and explained that the object of the reconstruction scheme was to extinguish the uncalled liability of 10s per share. The new company, the Austral Oceanic Syndicate, Limited, would have a capital of 200,000 shares oMOs each. Of these 10,000 would be exchanged for the 5,000 founders' shares of £1 each in the old company, while the remaining 1,90,000 would take the place of ..the present issued capital in.shares of £1 each, with 10s paid up, and leave a considerable number for fatare issue. The difficulty of dealing with the shares on the Stock Exchange M'ould be swept away. The company's affairs were in a highly satisfactory condition. Resolutions for .the voluntary liquidation of the company and the; adoption of the reconstruction scheme were carried. MR SEDDON'S. ALLEGED ILLNESS.— "0, RICHARD, OH! MY Mr Seddon's many friends were shocked on Tuesday morning by an alarming headline in the 'Daily Express' 'Paralysis Threatens New Zealand s Premier'—above the cabled news that Mr Seddon, "whose health on one or two occasions lately has

'-feuaed Ms frlemM manifested more pronoanced symvtam* rf nervous overstrain daring the hit Wtos .'?»*** Sedd<ms symptom*pointed to the Mttmmence of an attack of that his medical advisers a protracted rest from hre Realtemg the miiltiplicity of bH«*Sbifc Mr Seddon carries on his b«»ft back, hsradefatoable energy BiMWk» and o«t *Lr Anglo-New Zealaadera felt at first that even with his buriy strength the P»mier might have worked hfcn*eg to asS ronL t?V Second , tho "ghts, .however, they came to the conclusion that the new* must at least be exaggerated. The dranatian ota new halfpenny paper, desirous of making a splash, would 1 be creased by a cool cablegram that Mr Seddon was run down, and was, taking a jaunt to Raratougju .''Paralysis of NeV Zealand's Premier, with its artful alliteration, *t»H, however, immediately attract attention. Moreover, they: reasoned with themselves, Mr Seddon s vigorous, pointed speech on Federation comiflg at the preciseTpsyohblogical moment showed the Premie* 7 :m remarkably good mental form, and not as if m the treacherous clutch of paralysis. So they summed up the ' Express's' stotrttW news as a piece of sensationalism. Atthe same time they were somewhat relieved, on ' inquiry at the Agent-GeneraTs Office, to find that their surmise was correct, and that the fact was that Mr Seddon. who, with his insatiable appetite for work, and required a holiday more than anyone else, was naturally a bit jaded after bis long spell of labor, and was at last to take a cruise among the islands of the Pacific «n order to be quite fresh and fit for .the coming session. Annoyed as the Premier may be at.the prominence gives to an unfounded rumor, he can forgive it for the sake of the sympathy which it has evoked. and the long and appreciative notices of him which accompanied it in the 'Daflr Express.'" VESUVIUS ONCE MORE IN ERUPTION. The great Italian volcano Mount Vesuvine, has been once again in eruption this week. Explosions have taken place in the crater of the volcano, from which, huge rocks' and molten lava, have been thrown up to a great height. The eruptive force haß been considerable, and the enormous roeks which have been vomited -forth from the crater, many of them weighing several tone, have wrecked every house that lay in their path. The scene at night has been grand ana terrible in the extreme; the larger part of the mountain has been one mass of fire, and the sky has had the appearance of being on fire as well. On Tuesday last four Englishmen who ascended the mountain went beyond the limit indicated as dangerous by the guides and gendarmes.. They had not gone far when they were struck by a mass of incandescent stones, and received most serious injuries. They were conveyed to Naples, where tliey now lie in a critical con* dition. The huts of the guides below the crater and the topmost station of the Funicular Railway are threatened, and it is declared that the symptoms foreshadow oim of the most imposing eruptions of the century. . .