BREVITIES.

Evening Star, Issue 11696, 30 September 1902, Page 1

BREVITIES.

There was huge pegging-out on the P»tersburg and Barberton goldfields last week, but no disorder occurred. Over 22,000 licenses were taken out.

The happiest results are expected from Lord Milner's tour in the Western Transvaal. The High Commissioner discussed plans for settlement with leading burghers. Cronje's sorr and Mr Van der Merve (exMining Commissioner at. JohannesburgVwere among those who waited on Lord .Milner. They expressed' great satisfaction at the arrangements for educating Boer children. The Boer funds at Cape Town total £62,788, of which £27,975 was invested for the Women's and Orphans' Committee during the war. The latter sum is not needed, as the women and children are being well cared for—presumably by the British. 'The. Times' deprecates' as ill-timed the mission to Australia of Mr Wvatt, the representative of the Nary League. Fifty-two Bulgarians, who broke through the Turkish cordon at Mbnastir, were killed, and 112 wounded at Vodina.

Mr Harris, secretary of the East Limerick branch of the Irish League, has been sentenced to three months'Tiard labor for intimidation and conspiracy; besides being ordered to find sureties for future good behaviour, or go to gaol for three months, without hard labor.'

General Viljoen says that the Boer generals were unwise, iii discarding Britain's friendship. The Boer generals go to Berlin next week, and will seek an interview with the Kaiser. Colonel Remy and Major Frater have been, placed on half-pay for their attitude at the Ratines court-martial. Friedman, a well-known money lender at Sydney, Jvas convicted of. receiving large quantities of stolen goods, and sentenced to twelve months' •'hard."

But the Judge, in passing sentence, declared that had it been within his province to have decided the case he would have acquitted Friedman, .but he had to abide by the jury's decision. The matter was brought under the notice of Attorney-General Wise, who ordered Friedman's release next day. There is a great outcry in Sydney against what is characterised as a deliberate ignoring of the jury system, and the matter is to be ventilated in Parliament. Mr William Williams, of New South Wales, a pioneer in gold reefing, is dead, aged 102 years.

Newspapers and magazines addressed to lighthouse-keepers on the New Zealand coast will in future be transmitted free of postage. At the Magistrate's Court, Westport, James Crooks, charged with being in possession of 6£lb of tobacco on which Customs duty had not been paid, was fined £6. treble the value of the goods, and costs, and had the tobacco forfeited.

The Board of Governors of Canterbury College declined to act in conjunction with the Technical Association with regard to establishing technical classes. The Mayor of Dunedin feels disposed to countenance the agitation, for a big dock at Port Chalmers, but in view of the financial largeness of the undertaking proposes to set up a special committee to study and report on the whole question. A full dress uniform for a British Cabinet Minister costs about £l5O.

Austin O'Mallcy, who at Milawa and Greta (Vic.) for many years, and lived in a miserable condition, died recently. De-ne-sit receipts found in his huKahow'ed that he was possessed, of ■ £3,700, earning interest in various bonks. He. was seventy years of age, wa"s a confirmed miser,, and worked till a few days before his de. th, onlv desisting when absolutely forced to do so bv illness. It was his practice never to lend money to. anyone, and whenever he accumulated a few pounds to visit a bank and add to his deposits there. He had no relatives in Australia.

The newly-appointed Commissioner of Police at-Bloemfontein (S.A.) is Major Herbert Darling, who is a brother, of the captain of the Australian cricket team He is only twenty-three years old, and has a. uniiuie record. At eighteen he managed a mine—and . managed it well—in Western Australia. At twenty he was captain of a Western Australian contingent in South Africa, and is now, perhaps, the youngest major in the forces of the Empire. .The most remarkable thing about him is that he looks younger than he really is. In the early days of the wax, before his cool, daring, commanding spirit became recognised, he was known among his associates as " Baby Darling." Under the ordinary usages of the British army tliis youth, who has won his way absolutely without outside influence, would sti'.l be a subaltern. For the Otago A. and P. Society's horse parade on Thursday forty-four entries have been received, being one less than lust year. Sir William Russell, the famous Mar correspondent, told a good story at the annual dinner of "the correctors for the Press." With 25,000 men, England at the outbreak of the Crimean War invaded Russia—u country then almost unknown fo us. That region was so little known to us that when we landed at Kalanxita Bay he heard one Irish soldier say to another : " What's the name of this place we've landed at?" The other answered: "Why, it's Kramtartarthe place where crame tartar comes from.'' The secretary of the Catlins Railway League has addressed a circular letter to the 01 ago members of the legislature urging united action towards securing the expenditure during the current financial year of the entire sum (£15,000) allocated to* the'Catlin R&ilway. The members are also enjoined to use their best endeavors to have the sur vey of this line as fax as Tahakopa Valley put in hand at once. "Wo cannot think,' adds Mr Ramsay, "that the Parliament of New Zealand can be aware o£ the shameful waste of wealth that h> going on down there by the destruction of so much valuable timber." .S'ir K. Satow. the British Minister at Pekin, has begun the transi'tr of the Shan-haikwan-Pekin Railway to China. It is olticially announced thai Alexandria is infected by Asiatic cholera. The body of Jellinck, who defrauded the Leander Bank, Vienna, of a large sum, has been leoovered from the Danube. The Sydney University is celebrating its jubilee with a series of el-iborate functions. The British soldier is the best-fed individual of his class in Europe. He receives for his daily rations 16oz of bread, 12oz of meat, 2oz of rice, Boz of dried vegetables, 16oz of potatoes, and once a week he receives 2oz of salt, 4oz of coffee, and 9oz of sugdr. The latest fad is learning the deaf and dumb alphabet. The smart set. are now studying it. Noises in New York are now so loud and constant that to hear one's voice on the sidewalk or in a carriage is impossible. The deaf and dumb alphabet will be found' convenient at the theatres. At Altes (France) a rudely-built chapel containing religious ornaments, . chalices, censers, and candelabra has been discovered.. The majority of these objects were in chased silver. A letter found in a missal showed that the building had been used to hear mass during the Reign of Terror in 1793.