BREVITIES.

Evening Star, Issue 11674, 5 February 1902, Page 1

BREVITIES.

The United Temperance Reform Council I will hold a Convention. of Tempenocc Workers at Easter in Dunedin. The Coancil of the New Zealand Rifle Association have turned to the use of orhoptics at the forthcoming rifle meeting. The 'Pall Mall Gtantte' revive* the story of Lord Salisbury's early resignation of the Premiership, if the war is brought to a close. A £lO note was passed over the counter of a Ctofcha bank the other day endorsed: " The last of of women."— 'Orepuki Advoeate.' The Cbristchurch Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have decided tc write to station-owners in Canterbury ask ing them to abolish boundary dogs on th~.r properties. Mr Charles Schwartz, of Newtown, Sydne~ claims to have invented a steerable air-car, for which a prize of £40,000 is offered in "connection with the St. Louis Exhibition. " If I had not been brought up a dean," says Dr Hole, of R<.Chester, "there are three other vocations I should liked to have followed—Master of a pack of bounds, bead gardener in a large nursery, or a bookseller. I think the last is the best office of the three.'' At the. Wellington criminal sittings of the Supreme Court John O'Grady, chargeJ ; with indecent assault at Awahuri, w«! found guilty. The jury added a strong reI commendation to mercy on account of hi? .youth and previous good character. The prisoner was remanded for the report H the probation officer. Mr David Leech, one of the candidates for the representation of Port Chalmers on the Otago Harbor Board, having withdrawn, the returning officer (Mr A. Leek) yesterday declared Messrs' E. G. Allen, M.H.R., John Cab!:, and John Thomson duly elected to represent the Borough o: Port Chalmers for the ensuing term. A New York cabl-j states that thirty acres Lave been devastated, but it doe* not say how or by what, at Waterbury, and damage done to the extent of 4,000.000 dollars. There are two Waterburys—one n the State of Vermont and one in Connecticut—and perhaps more, in the United States. The message, therefore, is vague. The Official Assignee's experience—n unique one—is that people in Wellington will not come forward and take money thut is. due to them. It has been notified boU publicly through the Press and privately hy telephone that dividends in various esta'.c< are payable, but there are quite a number of local business firms who will not send to the office to get their cheques. Happy Wellington At the next meeting of the Education Board Mr Peattie v ill move a series ol resolutions soliciting the co-operation oi comni'ttees in making promotion according t-» meri.- and length of service, to which eno committees are to 1)2 ?.sked to give preference (ceteris paribus) to candidates who have lung borne the depressing work of outlying districts. We desire to direct attention to the utter neglect of too many English manufacturers to take the trouble to meet the wishes ol their customers. It is hopeless to expect people to make a point of asking for Eng-lish-made goods if the English manufacturei will not supply what they want, while the foreigner will. And the worst of it is that instances of this kind of neglect accumulate day by day.—' Globe.' This is not one of many inventions. The speak-J* spoke from his heart; and if ethers have said anything li!"e it he and Hxj v.tre guiltless of plagiarism. He was a trooper home fr>n the war, with a wouni which kept liim in bed in his cottoge. The lady-bo'int'.'ul of the village called on him and s.-'ked him if he loved the Bible. He had :ot read it. "But it tells ycu," the lady said, "of a City of Gold." "And did tht> British take it, , mum?" I There is no necessitr to be pessimistic, but the figures showing the number of aliens on British ships cannot be lightly dismissed by British statesmen. An effort must be made to fin i a remedy. We canrot and do not wish to prevent other nations from increasing their trade, but ther is no reason why we should allow the Em pi re to lose its place without a struggle or abandon our ships to the foreign sea man, who is fast displacing the genuine ' l-ritish tar.—English paper. A tire at Mount IT den destroyed a five- ' roomed cottage, owned and occupied by J Thomas Jame3, and gutted an adjoining ■ building, a five-roomwl house, owned by ' t William Mineher and occupied by William J. May. James was unable to save any of his furniture. The house was! insured for £l5O in the Manchester Insurance Company, and the furniture for £IOO. May's j furniture was uninsured, but some of his effects were saved. Mineher had a policy ! of £IOO on his hou.se, also in the Manj chester Office. Mr Eloff, President hanger's grandson, ' was hissed (as the cables informed ns at ' the time) by the awlience at the Folies Bergexes. Paris, beca-ise he was making himself conspicuously boisterous in a box oecu- , pied by himself, uis wife, and another I couple.' The denwistratjon was started i by Henri Turot, the newspaper man wb« i recently made a quick tour of the world, crying : " Shame, EloF! Down with dudi*h Boers!" The police, tried to quiet Turot, lrut the audience immediaterj sided with him, shouting: " countrymen are now being shot. Take off that evening suit!*' The Eloff *>»rty soon left. In a case that recently came before the Mailing (England) bench of justices, in which a man was cba»"zed with selling drink to those who were not bona fide travellers, counsel for the defence cited the custom of the late Mr Charles Dickens, who lived in the same neighborhood. Mr Ellis said that the great novelist used to stroll on Sunday mornings as far as the Leather Bottle Inn and call for liquor. He was always regarded as a bona fide traveller, and he failed to see any difference between the forty-three men now charged and the celebrated novelist. The Bench came to the conclusion that the men were not bona fide travellers, and fined the defendant £1 and costs. It was M. Dunant's terrible description of the sufferings of the wounded at Sol--ferino, where 300,000 men fought desperately for fifteen hours, which led to a convention at Geneva on February 9, 1863, and the day may be cosidered the birthday of the Red Cross, which has now become sadly too familiar on battlefields by land and sea. Fourteen Governments were represented in the Convention at which the society came into formal being, and at a 1 second coirference twelve men signed the. International Treaty which the world knows as the Geneva Convention. A man named William Wise, of Paraparauma (Manawatu Company's line), on a charge of sly grog-selling, was fined £2O with costs, in default one month'* imprisonment. The police had been watching him since February last. Accused first of all signed a confession admitting the offence, and when hi court, after having asked the police not to call witnesses so as to save accused expanse in the cost of prosecution, he pleaded not gully, and denied the whole affair. A quantity of ala and stoat were found on the premises, and also a recent invoice for spirits and ale from a Wellington firm. The Bench eacptesaed its fnU satisfaction that a sale had been «BeeiedL