BREVITIES

Evening Star, Issue 11893, 22 May 1903, Page 1

BREVITIES

The Executive of the Christchurch Retailers and Traders' Association have resolved to recommend the observance by shopkeepers of a close holiday on Empire Uay (Monday next), and .the mayor has further asked the -citizens to observe a holiday. At the Wellington Supreme Court yesterday the hearing was concluded of the case Corby v. M'Carthy, a claim for £I,OOO damages for breach of covenant in connection with the rebcilding of a hotel at Newtown. The jury awarded plaintiff £156 images for the loss of the premises, and ±-344 for the loss of profits and for inconvenience. Counsel for the defendant will move to have the judgment set aside, on the ground that the amount awarded under ■the second head is against the weight of evidence.

The three Maoris who went over to Sydney by the Mokoia were released on giving a guarantee that they will leave that State within three months.

A gentleman in town posted yesterday a penny stamp to the address of a friend in Dunedin, the recesiver's name being put on the gummed side of the stamp. Much to the amusement of all concerned (especially the letter-carriers), the stamp was duly delivered next morning. Our 'cute Yankee friends, who are fond of these conceits, can hardly beat this. Spurious florins are in circulation. The Gnristchurch Retailers' -Association propose to keep Monday (Empire Day) as a close holiday. - J. P. Peterson, of Invercargill, has secured the platelayers' cottages contract on the Omihi section of the Waipawa-Cheviot Railway. The amount is £1,495. The nouse sparrow, yellowhammcr, raid greenfinch have been proclaimed injurious birds under the Birds Nuisance Act, 1902. The South Island has been divided into eight separate districts in order to ensure concerted action for the destruction of Ihe pest.

Here is a picture of Dr Kuyper, the Minister at The Hague: " His clothes were rather ill-fitting; he wore a brown flannel shirt and" a stained collar. His thin blatk hair was parted in the middle. He slipped quietly into a corner of the church apparently oblivious of the fact that every eye was bent on him. But his unconsciousness was only apparent. His black eye, glittering as dark steel, scanned his surrouoJinjs; it is the very centre of his power. I saw him in oratorical motion the next day, wh.m he swept the masses as does the storm a neld of grain." In recognition of the Marquis of Linlithgow's services to his country in Australia the people of the South of Scotland ha«e decided to present him with a full-length portrait of himself in his rooes as GovernorUeneral of the Commonwealth. The portrait is to be hung in Hopetoun House, and a replica will be placed in the County xiall •Linlithgow. '

Mr Carnegie, who recently gave £30,000 »,f «u University to provide a complete water filtration plant, which it was decided to establish after the recent typhoid epiffrt' h j? s J DOW off , ere d to W the expense I 6 s to dents who were seized with tvP iSI I " ese am ount to £12,000 • Vii B # ish Pi>stal Department uses eighty millions of envelopes vearly for telegrams alone—a quarter" of'a million per Pineapples grow so plentifully in Natal at certain seasons that it is not worth .while cartmg them to market, and they 0 the VW m consequence, .threat Britain has a longer sea coasWine than any other nation in Europe. It measures miles, Italy coming'second with fourtl * thild * aad France

M. Grobaut, professor of physiology in Pans, in describing the effect of alcohol stages of intoxication through which thev pass are gaiety, sadness, solemnity, and a supreme intoxication which ends m death infl™ a « 1 very curious when under the mfluence of liquor, and a drunken kangaroo is brutally aggressive.